Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide

Book: Landscape Gardening in Japan, 1912
Chapter: Chapter 12. Garden Composition

Roji Passage Garden with Maple-trees alone

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There is a special kind of Passage Garden in which Maple-trees alone are planted. Such a design should contain a narrow winding trench, lined with pebbles, and having water plants on the borders to suggest a rivulet,�a far-fetched hint of the maple scenery of Tatsuta, or Tsuten (see page 11; and Figure 39, page 114). When clear, running water can easily be obtained, a tiny shallow stream planted with irises, lespedezas, or kerria, may be introduced into a Passage Garden, to suggest the scenery of one of the Tamagawa landscapes. Still another garden of this class has a running stream the banks of which are planted with chrysanthemums. The rules laid down as to the artistic distribution of stepping stones are strictly followed in all Roji-niwa, a larger proportion of hewn stones and a more formal and finished arrangement being employed than in the case of Tea Gardens.