Tashiro Inaji Pamela Virgilio Translated and adapted by • THE AS Form and Spirit in the Gardens of Japan, China, and Korea GARDEN THE ARCHITECTURE AS Form and Spirit in the Gardens of Japan, China, and Korea Tashiro Inaji Translatedand adaptedby PamelaVirgilio KODANSHAINTERNATIONAL Tokyo·NewYark•London NOTE: Names are given in the traditional manner, surname preceding given name.MacronsareusedonallJapanesetermsexceptplacenames. JACKETPHOTOGRAPHS Front JAPAN-Shisendo,Kyoto. Back(above) CHINA-Geyuan,Yangzhou. Back(below) KOREA-Kyongbokkung,Seoul. OriginallypublishedasTeientojukyonoariyotomisekata,miekata:nihon,chugoku; kankoku.Tokyo:Sankaido, 1990. Distributedinthe UnitedStatesbyKodanshaAmerica, Inc., 114FifthAvenue, NewYork,NewYork10011,and intheUnitedKingdom andcontinentalEurope byKodanshaEuropeLtd.,95Aldwych,LondonWC2B4JF. PublishedbyKodanshaInternational,Ltd.,17-14Otowa1-chome,Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8652,and KodanshaAmerica,Inc. Copyright © 1998by Toshiro Inaji. English translation copyright © 1998by KodanshaInternational.Allrightsreserved.PrintedinJapan. Firstedition, 1998 9899000102 10987654321 ISBN4-7700-1712-X LibraryofCongressCIPdata available Contents Preface viii JAPAN 1 Early Prototypes and Interpretive Approaches . . ·························3 CityPlan PrototypeandInterpretation:ChanganandHeian-kyo 6 Shinden-ZukuriArchitecture: SymmetricalPrototype, Simplified Interpretations 10 The AbandonmentofSymmetry 10 ArchitecturalDesign Solutions ThatAddress SpatialConstraints 12 PrototypesandInterpretationsin Shinden-ZukuriGardens 13 The SixBasicElements ofGardenComposition 17 The Design Process:StylizedForms (Yo)andModelingAfter (Manabi) 22 GardenDesign SolutionsThatAddress SpatialConstraints 25 The GardenAsArchitecture 29 2 Shinden-Zukuri As Prototype, and Two Divergent Interpretations ···················32 FromAbbreviationto Abstraction 34 Keandthe NorthGarden 34 Hareandthe SouthGarden 38 DecorativeArrangementofthe Shotn-Zukuri[odanZashiki 49 Shotn-ZukuriGardensandKana-SchoolWall Paintings 55 The Thresholdofthe GardenAsArchitecture 58 3 Kinetic, Multifaceted Gardens and Miegakure ················61 MiegakureLinking QualitativelySimilar GardenAreas 62 Combined Shain/Sukiya/SoanStructures: MiegakureLinking Qualitatively DistinctBuildings andGardens 68 The StrollGarden: MiegakureLinking QualitativelyDifferentGardenAreas 74 CHINA 4 Coexisting «Unworldly" and «Mundane" Worlds .............................................................83 TraditionalChinese Dwellings 83 Hall and CourtyardComposition 83 Climatic Influences 90 Lifestyle: HierarchalPrivate/CommunalComposition 91 ContemporaryHousing: Single-FamilyStyle 100 Courtyards (Ting) Versus Gardens 100 5 Spatial Composition of the Unworldly·············································· ··············103 TingYuan,Prototypeofthe Yuanlin 103 Garden-RelatedTerminology 106 An Outlineofthe HistoryofChinese Gardens 106 The GardenTreatise Yuan Ye 108 Private Yuanlin:CompositionalTechniques 110 6 Ideology and Prototypes ......................................................·········································119 ConfucianThoughtandSocialStructure 119 Prototypeof TingYuanand Yuanlin-ChineseLandscapePaintingTheory 120 HierarchicalDwellingComposition 127 The "Mundane" and the "Unworldly" 127 KOREA 7 Traditional Korean Residences and Their Gardens ·······················131 Influences on the CompositionofTraditionalKoreanResidences 132 Location: Factors Basedon the GeomanticPrinciplesof P'ungsu 132 SocialStatus: Factors Basedon the TraditionalHierarchicalClassSystem 134 SocialMores: Factors BasedonConfucianPrinciples 137 Function: Factors Basedonthe OndolSystemofHeating 143 Locality:Factors Related to the Dwelling'sLocale(UrbanVersus Rural) 149 Ch'aeandMadang: CombinedInteriorandExteriorSpaces 150 ComparisonofKoreanwith ChineseandJapanese Residences 158 8 The "Uncultivated" Garden . ································160 Definingthe KoreanApproachto GardenMaking 160 BorrowedSceneryVersus Prospect 163 ProspectandBorrowedSceneryinthe CompositionofResidences 164 Twitmadang(Rear Garden)-APrivate ExteriorSpace 166 OuterGardens-TheTraditionalFormPresentedto theOutsideWorld 173 The PyolsoEnvironment 178 KoreanGardenForms 184 Notes 186 Chronologyof Historical Periods inJapan, China, and Korea 188 Glossary 189 SelectedReferences 196 Acknowledgments 199 Index 200 Preface I have been studying traditional Japanese dwellings mentaldesign,and Iwaschosen tobeincharge ofthe lec (minka) since 1962,particularly in the Kansai,Chubu, tures. One day, during the process of gathering materials and Tohoku regions, and have continued to follow the for the course, it struck me that I was unaware of any transformations in these homes with great interest over research published on the relationship between interior the years.Mymotivationwasverysimple-Iwasinterest design and exteriordesign-between, forexample, arural edin the question ofwhy these buildingshad survived in homeand itsgarden, or arowofhouses in atown and the Japan.Were minkathe onlyexampleofbuildingsthathad streetoutside, or an abbot's quarters in aZen templeand retainedtheir originalwood-frameskeletalstructurefrom the garden adjacent. I hurriedly searched through my their construction in the Edo period, through the Meiji own limited library, but the books on architecture were and Taisho eras and the turbulent Showa period into concerned solely with buildings, and the books on gar postwar, modern Japan? And if so, why? My interest dens solelywith gardens. Icould notfind asingleplan or stemmed from a fundamental doubt about modern photo depicting the nature of the relationship between methods of designing and building homes, especiallythe buildingsand gardens. methods used in multi-storiedhousingcomplexes, which With this, I decided to revisit the many residences and arenotdesigned with amechanismto allowfor later ren temples I had visited in the past. In spring, I was over ovation. whelmed by the profusion of blossoms, and in summer While conducting successivefield surveys of Japanese everything was swathed in lush green. The season when minka dwellings,I also began to look into the history of the form ofthe gardens was revealed at its most distinct housing. The methodwhich Iused, ofsearching not only wasin the depthofwinter, when iceformed on pondsand fortheunderlyingstructuralframeworkbut alsoitsorigins, the Zen temples extended an especiallywarm welcome to inevitablyled me to adopt another methodology-inves the unexpectedearlymorningvisitor.Iwent from placeto tigation ofthe historical backgroundto the design ofresi place to seehow gardens had been juxtaposedwith shain dences. It occurred to me that, by combining the results audience halls and abbot's quarters-both the rooms of these two different paths of investigation, 1might be inside and their verandas-to try to understand the rela ableto sparkan "awareness abouthousingconditions." tion between the waythe garden was seen and the wayit My design surveyinitiallyfocused on the "interactions wasdisplayed. and correlations between people, their possessions, and Perhaps it isbest to sayaword here aboutan aspect of their homes." This inevitably resulted in my conducting the Japanese design process-prototypes and their inter thorough unit surveysofhomes. The home issomething pretations-thatiscriticalto understandingthe composi thatexistson the basisofthe relationshipsbetween aper tion of Japanese gardens, so critical, in fact, that it is the son and the people around him, aswellasthe manyoth basisuponwhich Ihavestructuredmy research. ers beyond them. Thus, it goes without saying that each In general, creation is based on individual originality homeexistson the basisofitsrelationshipwith itsimme that isnot subject to external constraints. But in the his diate neighborson either sideand itsmore distant neigh torical development ofthe Japanese arts, and particularly bors on either sideofthem. in the development of garden design, the existence ofan In 1977, Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music's "ideal form" takes precedence, thus originality and indi DepartmentofDesigninstitutedanewcourse in environ- vidualitymanifestwithin apredeterminedframework. The viii 11II Preface ideal form is a "conceptual prototype" that is divorced best understood ifwe consider it as part of a whole that from areal,physicalform. alsoincludes anypaintings,pottery, flowerarrangements, The process thatleadsto the creator's "interpretation," and other crafts displayed in the room from which the or design solution, involves observing and recreating a garden isviewed.Togethertheyform aunified space.This model, regulated by site conditions and the intended is a unique characteristic without analogy anywhere else functions of the space. Over time an endless variety of inthe world. interpretationsdevelop for asingleprototype. The manypapers whichIwrote on thesetopicscameto The prototypeand correspondinginterpretationsfound form the basisforthe firstsection ofthisbook, on Japan. in the relationship between gardens and architecture also evolved with tremendous variety. Throughout most of In 1984and 1985,asamemberofagroupfrom the archi Japanesegarden history, gardens wereintendedpurelyfor tectureanddesigndepartmentsofTokyoNationalUniversity contemplation, to be viewed from a fixed vantage point ofFineArts and Music, Iparticipated in research trips to seated at floor-level inside an adjoining building. (The Chinato conductsurveysofhousingmainly inAnhuiand stroll garden, which the viewer physically enters and [iangsu provinces, and of tingyuan and yuanlin gardens moves through the space, isa relativelylate development in Iiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. I returned in 1986to inthe art.) Accordingly,the relationshipbetween the seat surveythe circular communalhousingofthe Hakka peo edviewand garden compositionareintegrallylinked, and plecenteredinFujian. changed in accordance with changes in the building's However as the saying goes,you can't sayyou've seen attributes, function and site conditions through the ages. China until you go to Beijing, and without visiting the This relationship isunparalleled in the historyofgardens siheyuanresidences which are the prototype for Chinese of other countries and perhaps the most important char housing,orthemagnificentgardensoftheImperialpalaces, acteristicin the evolutionofJapanesegardenforms. wefeltweweremissingavitalpartofoursurvey.Bycom Differing ideological, political and economic condi plete coincidence, inJune 1988,Iwasinvited to lecture at tions from period to period in Japanese history imposed the BeijingCentral Polytechnic Institute ofFineArt, and newconstraints on these interpretations,whilethe proto spent forty days in Beijing.During that period, with the type remained essentially unchanged. Functional aspects cooperation ofthe Institute, I wasableto gather material ofthe architecture and garden along with site conditions on housing and gardens in and around Beijing,Chengde and otherconstraints ofagivenperiod gaveriseto "peri andXian. od" interpretations and led to the formation of"period In the beginning, Ihad intended to studythe relation garden types." When the techniques created to express ship between Chinese gardens and buildings from the these interpretations outlived the periods in which they sameperspectiveasIhadappliedtomyearlierstudyinJapan, first appeared, they came to be termed characteristically but my simplistic expectations were quickly thwarted. I Japanesegarden-makingtechniques. discovered that, in China, the home and the garden are The Japanese garden, which.for the most part isnot a unrelated, and that the guiding rule isthat a yuanlingar place to stroll but a livingpicture to be viewedby people den isseenasaworld apart, completelyuntouchedbythe sitting inside a building, occupies a special place in the "Confucian order" and the highlyregimentedform ofthe annals of world gardens. Indeed, its true significance is home. The yuanlin,on the other hand, isaworld similar ix III Preface to the circumstances and spirit of Chinese landscape what I saw there with my many years of observing paintinginwhich eternal time and infinite spaceare con Japanese gardens, I simultaneously felt skeptical about densed.Thevariouspapers thatIwrote duringthisperiod what it means to cultivate a garden, and sorry that I had form the second sectionofthisbook, on China. not studied Korea in greater depth earlier. Though close neighbors, weremainfarapart in many ways.In the third In 1986,I began a study of traditional Korean residences section, on Korea, I outline four types of traditional and gardens. Korean gardens. At first I wasbewildered bywhat I sawin the site and floor plans ofKorean dwellings.Ithinknow thatthis was Each of the three sections mentioned above merely sets because I did not understand the unique "conditions" of out the relationship ofhomes to gardens in Japan, China, Korean architectural environments and was, therefore, and Korea,respectively.Theydo notpurporttobeacom unable to read the plans in a meaningful way. So once parativestudy. againIstartedfrom the basics-thatis,extractingthe cul Ihavetakentheviewpointthat the relationship between tural factorsthat took on architectural form-in this case Japan and China in the early period of import of ideas Korean geomantic beliefs,the hierarchical system ofpre and objects from the continent was very much one of a modern Korean society, the social customs rooted in weaker countryborrowingthe forms of a more powerful Confucianism,the functional constraintsofthe ondolsys and developed one, andadaptingthose forms to asmaller tem of floor heating, and the cross-influences between space to produce something "native." In general, Korean urban and rural customs, as well as the historical back culture seems closer to that of Japan, there being a sense groundsurroundingthesefactors. thatthe twocountries areseparatedbyonlyanarrowstrip Armed withthis understandingImade anothervisitto ofwater,whilethe cultureofChina seemsmore removed, Korea, and this time I was made powerfully aware that asifitcamefrom the farwestern reachesofthe continent. these fivebasic factors, apart from the rapidly disappear However,Istillfinditremarkablejusthow muchthe rela ing traditional classsystem and the Confucian mores of tionship betweenhomes and gardensineachofthesethree Choson society,continue to hold great meaning in many neighboring countries differs according to their separate situationstoday. customs, histories, and lifestyles. The composition of the main spaces of a traditional Koreanresidence-bothhomeand garden-isextremely The design surveys I have conducted were intended to pure and simple. Some people saythere are no real gar seek out new values and approaches to design through dens in Korea, at least not as we understand the term. direct fieldresearch,and notthroughmethodologyalone. Nevertheless, there are, and for a long time have been, Ibelievethat I alwayshad some keyantithesis at the root spaces that are structured-if vaguely-and that seek ofmydesignsurveys. somehow to unify the inside and outside of a building I carry out allmy design surveyswith design concepts with the world around it. I had been expecting to find a asthe starting point. Bygoingout into the field,Iam able strong influencefrom the Chinesetraditionofyuanlin,so to expand the horizons of my own limited experiences, it was refreshing to find something completely different. and by objectifying my thoughts, I can construct design In Korea I experienced the joy of discovery. Comparing concepts. This is my method of concept formation. I ~ x Preface approach each design survey as an "awareness activity" Iwould liketo takethisopportunitytothankthem all. that forms the basisof "creative activity" in design work. In conducting surveysand collectingresearch material This awareness comes from experience, observation, and I received invaluable assistance from many members of deliberation, and is the springboard for creativity. We the Chinese SocietyofArchitects in various regions, and sometimes have a tendency to try to turn design survey from the staffofthe BeijingCentral Polytechnic Institute results into design techniques. However, I am convinced ofFine Arts, particularly Zhang Qi-man and Qi Ai-guo, that although theformation ofconceptsthroughimproved associate professor and lecturer respectivelyat the same awarenessdoesnotalwaysleaddirectlyto creativedesign, institution,with researchand interpretation. Iam grateful the best planning and design activity springs from con to the staff of the Graduate School of Environmental ceptformationbasedon suchheightenedawareness. Studies at SeoulNational University for making available To me,designsurveysarean extremelyvaluablemeans many valuable materials, and for their kind guidance. I ofconcept development,sincetheyarethe springboardto am also indebted to the Officeof Cultural Properties for posing a question and starting to form a hypothesis. The its cooperation in my visitsto severalimportant sites.My valueofthe research described in this publication asIsee warmest thanks go out to the numerous people in China it, isto seekanswersto the questions related to high-den and Koreawho cooperatedinmyresearch. sityurban housing in the modern world and how to cre Fortheirexpertiseand invaluableadviceoverthecourse ateamorepleasant environmentforurban residents. ofpreparingthe Englishtext, Iwould liketo thank Hugh Wylieand WonyoungKohofthe RoyalOntarioMuseum, My colleagueshave givenme great support in the prepa LeeChiWoooftheKoreaCulturalServiceattheEmbassy ration of this publication. I am indebted to Professors of the Republic of Korea in Tokyo, Alain Coulon, Kim Mogiand Katayamafortheir adviceand cooperation,and Hyo Keun, Kirstin McIvor, and Edwin Whenmouth. I to the members of their respective laboratories, and the would also like to pay tribute to my editors Shigeyoshi members of my own research lab at Tokyo National Suzuki and Elizabeth Ogata at Kodansha International. University of FineArts and Music, for their assistancein AndfinallyIwould liketo expressmygratitudeto Pamela executingthe many drawings forthis publication, and for Virgilio for her painstaking work in the translation and the additional assistance of the Chinese and Korean adaption of the Japanese text for the English-speaking exchange students in my department in compiling mate reader-I trust her understanding of the material com rials-particularlyMs.KimHyonson and Ms.Shin Iulee, pletely. xi IIII