The early philosophy of Japan taught that the inanimate objects of the universe were endowed with male or female attributes, and that the beauties of the physical world were created by a mysterious blending of the sexual essences. Ideas derived from these ancient axioms were applied to the composition of landscape gardens. Obedience to laws of balance, contrast, and continuity in line, form, mass, and colour, applied to the component parts of gardens, was enforced through the medium of such precepts. Rocks, trees, stones, and even water-falls were endowed with imaginary sex, determined according to their correlative ï¾µsthetic value in artificial compositions. Strong, erect, and stately forms were classed as male in character, and paired or balanced with forms of opposite or female quality. Beliefs as to fortuity in connection with different aspects exercised considerable influence upon the laying out of grounds. The cardinal points governed and restricted the gardener, not for climatic reasons alone, but on account of particular occult virtues attributed to directions. The flow of lakes and streams through grounds, the points for their inlets and outlets, the position of gates, and the disposition of buildings, were partly controlled by rules founded on such superstitions.
