Landscape Architecture Scroll (1 results)

Scroll (305 x 3760 mm.), inner front endpaper of speckled gold, outer side covered in green silk brocade, wooden core roller. At end (in trans.): ?Passed down from Ise.? [Japan]: mid- to late Edo. ?Sansui garden? is a general term for Japanese landscape gardens that include both ?mountains and water? (? plus ? = ?sansui?), using natural elements like rocks, sand, gravel, and sometimes moss or pruned plants. Within this general term, traditional Japanese gardens can be categorized into three types: tsukiyama (hill gardens), karesansui (dry gardens), and chaniwa (tea ceremony gardens). Hill gardens were created by building artificial mounds and hills, with ponds and islands, affording the visitor many viewpoints. Inspired by Chinese mountains such as the imaginary Mount Penglai, these gardens were constructed with rules codified in the 11th century in Sakuteiki ??? by Tachibana Toshitsuna ??? (1028-94). Our scroll contains eight scenes (in black, gray, white, green, and brown inks) of hill gardens and is largely concerned with the kinds of rocks used in gardens and their proper placement. One of the illustrations depicts Mount Penglai ???, a legendary land of Chinese mythology, known in Japanese mythology as H?rai san. The nine major stone types and their roles are all illustrated: shugo-seki (commanding stone, the sovereign master of the garden), fudo-seki (an immovable stone), hai-seki (worshipping stone), shozo- or taizo-seki (the stone that keeps all other things in the garden in balance), hikaye-ishi (a confronting stone), teido-seki (a stone looking out over the whole garden), karan-seki (a stone that has a round shape like a snail), getsuin-seki (a stone placed on the furthest hill), and yugyo-seki (stones under which fish take shelter). The paintings illustrate gardens facing south and west (with their individual elements and considerations); gardens with larger ponds and rocks; gardens with multiple hills with pine and willow trees; the ?isolated? hill garden, created to give the illusion of a distant hillside with the trees impossible to distinguish individually; a ?low? hill garden consisting of mounds; an ?ocean? hill garden that is largely water with many rocks and small islands; hill gardens with bridges, footpaths, and elaborate waterfalls, etc., etc. The scroll also discusses and illustrates waterfalls, ponds, bridges, species of appropriate trees (willows, bamboo, and pines), and plants. The annotator clearly states, ?No flowers!? Very good. The paintings are slightly trimmed at the bottom.