Besides the relations preserved between the garden and adjacent buildings,� namely, harmony in character and perfection of prospect,�there is to some extent observable the influence of architectural regularity upon the immediately surrounding areas. Formal and geometrical arrangements of trees, shrubs, and parterres, as common in European gardens, are indeed rarely admitted, but certain rectilineal objects, such as oblong slabs of hewn stone, straight flower-beds, and short screen-fences, are introduced near to the building. In addition, the grouping before the dwelling, of stone lanterns, water basins, and inscribed tablets, as well as the use of broad stretches of raked sand or beaten earth, adorned with formal stepping-stones leading to the verandahs, gives a conventional regularity to such areas. The more artificial ornaments of a Japanese garden are not however entirely confined to the immediate foreground. There is no perceptible division or sharp change in character between the building grounds and the landscape. Stone lanterns of different shapes, miniature pagodas and shrines, are scattered here and there throughout the compositions. Also a variety of garden bridges, rustic arbours, and tea-rooms are employed. Even peasants' cottages or farm-houses with suitable surroundings are often introduced into large grounds to impart a specially rural character to certain portions. All these architectural objects, though placed with due consideration and design, are devised so as to look as accidental and natural as the landscape itself.
