Ritsurin Garden is a lovely place to visit in Takamatsu, Japan. I walked it today and found it to be a beautiful example of Japanese horticulture that has roots (hah!) going back hundreds of years. The craft of pruning to a look of elegance and grace is on full display here, with old Japanese pines sculpted beautifully. I understand that, for some, the look is drastic or not natural. For me, it is a form that has long enamored. I don’t mean the badly sheared hedges forming animal shapes or other such grotesqueries! True, the look is not perfectly “natural,” but to see it is to feel as if the pruning created another form of beauty out of a form already beautiful by nature.
In the photo above, the garden butts directly up to the surrounding forrested hillside. The blending is lovely. Add to it the graceful arching bridges, the architectural forms of the tea houses, the rivers and ponds, and one can find a place of peace, where contemplation may come naturally.
The gardens were one of the aspects of Japan that have long drawn me to wish to visit. But, interestingly, my most enjoyable moment was to be able to sit on the floor in the tea house sipping matcha tea. Then, as I think of it, the Japanese garden in its very large form, such as Ritsurin, or in it’s very reduced form, as in the courtyard of a Japanese home, are meant to be enjoyed in their serenity through strolling or sitting, in this case, while drinking tea. Thus, I enjoyed this afternoon in Takamatsu.
Autumn In Japan 