As in calligraphy, painting, flower arranging, and other branches of Oriental art, the tsuki-yama type, as well as hira-niwa, has been rendered in three forms of shin, gyo and so. Applied to gardening, the differentiation comes chiefly from the degree of elaboration: the shin the most elaborate, the gyo intermediary, and so the abbreviated. As may be seen from the accompanying illustrations, shin signifies the formal aspect of treatment, gyo the semi-formal, and so the informal. The first represents the garden "in the stately costume of the ballroom, the second in the easy elegance of afternoon dress, and the third in the charming deshabille of the boudoir. " By a careful comparison of the accompanying reproductions, one may see a certain abbreviation which gives the second and third forms. At the same time one may conceive an infinite number of stages of abbreviation between shin and gyo, and gyo and so. In fact, it will be utterly impossible to draw any definite line of demarkation, be it in tsuki-yama or hira-niwa types of our gardens.
[A book by Akizato Rito classified Japanese gardens, in 1828, as shin, gyo, and so (meaning 'elaborate', 'partly simplified' and 'greatly simplified'). For example Katsura is shin, Daisen-in is gyo and Ryoanji is so. The terms shin, gyo and so come from calligraphy. Although the terms are propular with authors of books on 'How to make a Japanese garden' they have been challenged by serious analysts and garden historians. TT]
