In The News
Yesterday (2010-01-12) we read in the news that a spike in energy consumption during Melbourne's heatwave has caused widespread blackouts;
"Mass power blackouts across state", the Age newspaper, 2010-1-12.

The article continues,
    "They were all heat stress-related types of power interruption, …. "
    "about 10,000 people lost supply last night …. "
    "It was probably at its worst about 7pm as people were all getting
    home from work and turning on their air conditioners … " ¹.

Holistic Ecology and Bioclimatic Building Design
In Australia we are still a long way off fully embracing bioclimatic building design to create a holistic living environment. Indeed, all architectural design should analyse and cater for the thermal comfort of inhabitants; including the mean radiant temperature, thermal radiation, elevation, aspect, surrounding vegetation, topography, humidity, air movement, prevailing winds, draughts, thermal mass of building products and many other factors. It is the combination of these factors that can mean the difference between a building that is comfortable all year round, or a building that is like a furnace in summer and bitterly cold in winter; requiring energy-hungry cooling and heating purely to make the environment tolerable.

The vernacular houses (Machiya) of Kyoto's heritage gardens embrace many of the factors mentioned above. Kyoto summers are hotter and more humid than Sydney's and Melbourne's and Kyoto winters are much colder than ours ² ³ ⁴.

Sydney Melbourne Kyoto climate averages

Yet the designs of the Machiyas built during the Meiji (1868-1912), Taishō (1912-1926) and early Shōwa (1926-1935) periods reflect an advanced level of bioclimatic building design ⁵ ⁶. They have a holistic ecology that can cope with far greater climactic extremes without the use of air-conditioning.

uda matsuyama, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

We can learn so much from these Machiya, so hopefully as Kyoto's burgeoning metropolis grows, these wonderful vernacular houses will get the UNESCO World Heritage protection that they deserve ⁵ ⁷. These quaint architectural structures have much to teach us about the value of bioclimatic building design.

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1. Ham, L. (2010). Mass power blackouts across state. The Age. from http://www.theage.com.au/national/mass-power-blackouts-across-state-20100112-m3jx.html

2. The Weather Channel. (2009) Monthly Averages for Kyoto, Japan. http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/JAXX0047

3. Bureau of Meteorology. (2009). Climate statistics for Australian locations: Summary statistics Melbourne Regional Office. from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_086071.shtml

4. Bureau of Meteorology. (2009). Climate statistics for Australian locations: Summary statistics Sydney (Observatory Hill). from http://reg.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_066062.shtml

5. Machiya Preservation Project. (2008) A City Under Siege: Saving Kyoto's Machiya from Destruction. November 5 2008 Evening Symposium. from http://www.japansociety.org/resources/content/2/0/5/4/documents/machiyasymposium.pdf [PDF 63.8 KB]

6. Development Research Institute. (n.d.) Sugimoto Residence-Seasonal Preparations. from http://www.gyoutai.com/eng/kyoto/sugimoto/siturai.htm

7. Keane M.P. (n.d.). Turning Kyoto Into Kindling. featured in Architecture Magazine, May 2000. from http://www.mpkeane.com/writhtml/amag.html

8. 663highland. (2008). File:Uda Matsuyama03s3200.jpg. Wikimedia Commons. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uda_Matsuyama03s3200.jpg

Acquiring knowledge about historical Japanese living environments and Japanese heritage gardens is a life long endeavour where one develops a profound appreciation of the integration of the natural landscape, the garden, the architecture and the arts. Whether in Japan, Australia or anywhere in the world, the built and natural environmental elements should be either formed or borrowed so that they correspond and harmonise to constitute a holistic ecology. This aesthetic appreciation benefits every creature’s interaction with the environment or habitat in which they live. Further to studying under Kazuo Mihashi for 12 years, I have designed and created over 370 Japanese-style gardens and personally looked after more than 10 Japanese students over a period of 9 years. During and beyond that time I learned that Japanese folk beliefs, superstitions, kami (spirit realm) and the landscape environment are integral aspects of the Japanese people's culture and psyche.

Living with native Japanese students has taught me more about the culture than anything else. Having to console a delirious teenager who had come across a spider before going to bed and who then had to ring every family member to ensure they were alive and well was one of hundreds of lessons in which one learns about their highly valued folk and superstitious beliefs ¹. Throughout Japan you'd be hard pressed trying to find any hospital room with the number 4 because the Japanese word for four and death (shi 死) are homonyms ¹ ².

Like our indigenous people here in Australia, the Japanese have wonderfully colourful folk tales of places throughout Japan.

Mitsuishi jinja photo courtesy of disc00's photostream. CC license BY-NC 2.0 ³

At Mitsuishi jinja (the shrine of three rocks) Morioka, Iwate prefecture, the legend of 'Oni no tegata' 鬼の手形 tells how the devil left an imprint of his left hand in the rock and in so doing the prefecture was named Iwate (lit. rock-hand). According to the legend, local inhabitants were constantly harassed by a demon but when the inhabitants prayed for protection the Mitsuishi deities chained the demon to these three massive boulders. In early August each year the Parade of 10,000 drums (Sansa Odori) takes place to celebrate the demon's imprisonment ⁴ ⁵.

Mitsuishi jinja is one such landscape where a proto-religious expression has been applied to a landscape environment.

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1. Simon, G.H. (1952). Some Japanese Beliefs and Home Remedies. The Journal of American Folklore, 65:257 (Jul. – Sep., 1952), pp. 281-293. http://www.jstor.org/stable/537081 [esp. Spider p. 287, number 4 p. 289]

2. Japan Zone. (2008). Japanese Superstitions. http://www.japan-zone.com/omnibus/superstition.shtml

3. Mitsuishi jinja photo courtesy of disc00's photostream. CC license BY-NC 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/30614450@N07/3083468551/

4. Ito, E. (2009). Mitsuishi-jinjya. Japan Pics, Morioka City, Iwate. http://p-www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/~acro-ito/Japan_pics/Japan_MRK/imageidx.html

5. U space. (2009). Morioka, Oni bill, Shrine Tsu, [via Google Translate]. http://www.u-kuukan.net/mitsuishi.html parsed with Google Translate

From my own occidental perspective, (and quite possibly even from a native Japanese person's also,) the history of Japanese Landscape Design appears to be shrouded in mystery as there is little in the way of sound recorded evidence as to the true origins and evolutionary process of garden designs in Japan. This dearth of information has sparked an interest in me to pursue evidence regarding the origins and influences of Japanese gardens, in addition to this I shall offer up my own interpretations and discussions of other writers work.

To dive right into the thick of it; probably the most contentious issue is whether or not there was a proto-religious influence or a proto-religious expression applied during the creation of the heritage gardens of Japan (circa 1300s - 1700s).

In “The Zen of Japanese Nationalism” Robert Sharf ¹ states the;

'So called "Zen gardens," … are essentially Japanese versions of Chinese landscape gardens that were popular among the Sung aristocracy. … there is no evidence that, prior to the modern period, they were ever considered to be expressions of Zen thought or Zen enlightenment. Indeed, the earliest reference to the notion that the “dry-landscape gardens” associated with Zen temples are manifestations of Zen realization is found in an English-language guide to Kyoto gardens written in 1935 by Loraine Kuck, a one-time neighbor of D. T. Suzuki.'

One might contend that the Zen priests' aversion to documenting their practises could well have impeded their cause for having these karesansui 枯山水 gardens directly attributed to them. (this viewpoint will be investigated further in future postings)

Moreover, Sharf's text also notes that the Japanese Government ideologues efforts to promote Japan as a rational, scientific nation whilst at the same time censure religious, folk and superstitious beliefs was seen as the way forward in encouraging Japanese relations with the West (Sharf, 1993:3).

Might the damage-control undertaken by the Japanese Zen apologists have been a marketing exercise that not only sought to elevate their character but also to publicly affirms the true origins of the karesansui 枯山水 gardens?

Even from this small offering you'll begin to see the 'Zen' / karesansui dry-garden issue is a real can of worms and, as you will see in future postings, there is certainly much debate and conjecture surrounding the 'Zen-ification' of Japan's heritage gardens.

Thus, my purpose for creating Sakuteiki 作庭記 is not only to add more debate and even more conjecture to the mix, but also to share with you evidence, either for or against, the 'Zen' garden issue, and other proto-religious influences and expressions in Japanese gardens. Stay tuned for more!

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1. Sharf, R.H. (1993). The Zen of Japanese Nationalism. History of Religions, 33(1), pp.1-13, 30-44. Retrieved December 30, 2009, from http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/sharf/documents/Sharf1993,%20Zen%20Nationalism.pdf [PDF 834.9 KB]