PLATE VI.
FUKIAGE GARDEN
Supplement to Landscape gardening by Josiah Conder.
The Kin-En, generally known as the Fukiage Garden, formed originally a part of the grounds of the old Yedo Castle. A historical description noting the various changes through which it has passed is given in “Landscape Gardening in Japan.”
At present this garden is included within the grounds of the central Palace of the Emperor, and is no longer accessible to the public. The upper illustration on Plate IV. shows a portion of the hill-garden as it existed some few years ago, the centre being occupied by a curious rockery and a cascade consisting of two falls.
The upper waterfall leaps from the hill-side into a basin formed by a rocky cliff, and the overflow from this forms the second torrent. Flanking this lower cascade may be observed the “Statue Stone,” or “Guardian Stone,” fully described in the preceding treatise upon Japanese Gardening; and on the opposite side of the view are two stone lanterns of different designs, one on the hillock, and one on the level below.
The foreground is occupied by large reciunbent rocks and a row of stepping stones leading to the rocky pathway which crosses the hills of the background past another stone standard-lantern of what is called the Kasuga shape. The lower Illustration shows a portion of the grass-covered moor, or park, of this garden, ornamented with rounded bushes, clumps of handsome trees, and an enormous stone lantern of the “Snow-scene” class.
At the side may be seen the end of the Fukiage lake, a small sheet of water, with clipped bushes and a few rocks on its banks.
THE FUKIAGE GARDEN
by Josiah Conder.
The area of these Imperial grounds is nearly eighty-five acres. Situated within the northern circuit of the Shogun’s Castle, they consisted originally of a large park of wild flowers containing a detached pavilion called Hana-batake Goten, or the Palace of the Field of Flowers. The Shogun Tsunayoshi, at the end of the seventeenth century, made extensive changes in this part of the Citadel, excavating new moats, constructing a palatial villa and garden, with arbours, tea-houses, summer- houses, and shrines, and at the same time levelling a large portion of the site to be used for equestrian sports. The garden structures bore such names as “Maple Arbour,” “Cascade-viewing Arbour,” “Country House,” “Pine-tree Tea-house,” and “Shrine of the Water-fall.”
Iyetsugu, a later Shogun, built here a small palace for his mother, together with numerous detached structures for the recreations of her Court, such as a study, painting room, observatory, dancing room, embroidery room, and dyeing establishment. Small factories for the manufacture of saké, *) cakes, and sugar, and a dispensary for herbs and drugs were also arranged. The open spaces were at this time planted with cherry trees, pine trees, maples, chestnut trees, bamboos, and autumn plants.
*) Saké,—Japanese wine distilled from rice.
At a later date the Shogun Yoshimune broke up many of the buildings, leaving intact only a few arbours and garden pavilions. Other buildings were again erected by a later Regent, the names of the principal being:— “Grove Tea-house,” “Wistaria-trellis Arbour,” “Suwa *) Tea-house,” and “Herb-field Arbour.”
*) Suwa,—a spot in Japan celebrated for its beautiful sea view.
In the Meiji Period, about the year 1868, the whole of the grounds and those portions of the constructions within the Shogun’s Castle which had escaped conflagration, became an Imperial estate, and prior to the completion of the new Palace it was occasionally permitted to a privileged few to visit what remained of the Fukiage Garden. As it stood a few years ago this was divided into three parts: that near the Fukiage gate called the New Enclosure, laid out as a grassy moor with clumps of pine trees and stone lanterns; the circular horse-ride, used for equestrian sports in the old style; and a hilly portion, containing rare rocks and a picturesque cascade and arbour.
Garden structures still intact from ancient times were: the “Cascade- viewing Arbour,” — near the water-fall,—the “Maple Arbour,” and the “Country House.” The “Cascade-viewing Arbour” afforded a fine prospect across Tokio Bay, as well as a view of the water-fall, and looked down upon a bed of irises and other flowering plants spanned by a fantastic bridge of planks.
The “Country House” was constructed in imitation of a farmer’s house, with a cattle-shed, containing the model of a sleeping ox, and was furnished with various peasants’ utensils. Few large gardens in Japan are without some such suggestion of the simplicity and picturesqueness of rural life. The portions of this garden best known are the water-fall and surrounding rockeries, which form a fine example of artificial cascade design.
Source:
- Landscape Gardening in Japan by Josiah Conder (1852-1920); Kengo Ogawa. Tokio: Kelly and Walsh, 1893.
- Supplement to Landscape gardening in Japan by Josiah Conder (1852-1920); Kengo Ogawa. Tokio: Kelly and Walsh, 1893.
