Fukagawa garden Hotta-no-Niwa

Until quite recently there existed at Fukagawa a beautiful garden belonging to Hotta, the lord of Sakura in Shimosa, and popularly called "Hotta-no-Niwa," noted for its large lake with numerous monolithic bridges, curious rocks, and fine stone lanterns, the background consisting of hills planted with clipped bushes and rare trees. This garden has unfortunately been broken up, but has been reproduced so often by the camera that some reference to it seems called for. The public garden of the Shokonsha at Kudan, laid out by the gardener Suzuki Magohachi, has a small sheet of water, and is, on a limited scale, a good example of Japanese landscape design. The grounds at Fukagawa, belonging to Baron Iwasaki, are beautifully laid out after the native method, with a large lake, islands, hills, river beds, water-fall, and other characteristics of the Hill-garden Style. The distant view opposite the mansion represents the mountain Fujisan with the river Fujikawa below running into the lake. The river, as well as the cascade, is waterless, and represented only by stones cleverly arranged. This garden is remarkable for the enormous number of its rare rocks, brought, regardless of cost, from all parts of the country. A portion of the grounds in the rear is laid out as a lovely little Tea-Garden, in imitation of a mountain dell, a dry torrent-bed running through it, shaded with trees and bushes.