Landscapes for Small Spaces: Japanese Courtyard Gardens (Hardcover)

Over its long history the Japanese garden has evolved into a variety of forms. One of these is known as tsuboniwa, which signifies a garden enclosed by different parts of a single structure such as a house or temple, forming a relatively small space cut off from the outside world. The original meaning of tsuboniwa is not entirely clear. Nowadays the word is usually written with the Chinese characters read tsubo (a unit of spatial measurement, approximately 3.3 meters square) and niwa (garden), though formerly tsubo was written with a different character also read tsubo and meaning "pot." This book is devoted to the tsuboniwa of Kyoto, where the finest examples of the genre are to be found.

The tsuboniwa has a long history. First recorded in the imperial palace in Kyoto during the Heian period, it formed an element of the residences of members of the warrior class during the following Kamakura period, then in Muromachi times was featured chiefly in temples of the Zen sect of Buddhism. Finally, in the Momoyama and early Edo periods, it became firmly established, and evolved into a definitive form as an essential part of the machiya, the characteristic townhouse of the merchant class.

The tsuboniwa has undergone many changes during its long history, preserving a variety of styles each related to the prevailing architectural style of the age. The buildings of the imperial palace during the Nara period (710-794), which stood separately, as independent structures, provided no enclosed space for such gardens, but the Heian period (794-1185) evolved a style of architecture, shinden-zukuri, in which a central building (the shinden) was flanked to right and left and to the rear by subsidiary structures, to which it was linked by open corridors. These buildings and corridors naturally created enclosed spaces.

The Tsurezure-gusa (Essays in Idleness), a collection of prose written by the Buddhist priest Yoshida Kenko toward the end of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), gives some advice concerning residential architecture. "Since Kyoto summers are intolerably hot," he says, "dwellings should be designed chiefly with summer in mind." In fact, astonishingly well-ventilated and comfortable dwellings had already been devised in the Heian period. The shinden-zukuri just mentioned employed a technique, depending basically on a framework of vertical and horizontal timbers, that made supporting walls and the like essentially unnecessary, and when independent buildings created in this way were linked by open corridors there were plenty of spaces for inner gardens -- and plenty of points within the buildings whence they could be appreciated. A good example of such a garden is the Ryusentei of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which lies on the way between two of its structures, the Osuzumi-dokoro and!
the Chosetsu.

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon relates that the tsuboniwa of the northern wing of the Seiryoden, residence of the empress Teishi, contained trees and other plants. In the Tale of Genji, names of court ladies, such as Kiritsubo ("Paulownia Garden") and Fujitsubo ("Wisteria Garden"), eloquently suggest the elegant lives they led in residences that looked out on private spaces planted with attractive trees and plants. In the existing Kyoto Imperial Palace, there are gardens called Fujitsubo and Hagitsubo (see pages 1-5) that give some idea of the size of tsuboniwa at that time.

With the beginning of rule by the warrior class, the emphasis in Japanese architecture shifted to what is known as the shoin-zukuri style. Shoin buildings, too, had their tsuboniwa. According to chronicles of the times, there were tsuboniwa -- known, respectively, as Yomogi no Tsubo ("Mugwort Garden") and Ishi-tsubo ("Rock Garden") -- in the residences of both Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, leaders in the struggle between two powerful clans that led eventually to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Yoritomo. These were smaller in area than those of the court. During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the latter were sometimes used as places for unofficial interviews with persons of low rank who were not normally allowed into the court proper. However, despite differences in size, tsuboniwa, in imperial palace and samurai residence alike, developed in a sense as private spaces vital to the personal lives of the individuals concerned; in this respect they were quite different from the extensive gardens with ponds and running water that formed the "public" spaces fronting palace and mansion.

With the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the shoin-zukuri style of architecture was inherited by the temples of the Zen sect, and the tsuboniwa came to be designed, chiefly in the form of a "dry landscape" (kare-sansui) garden, as a spatial embodiment of enlightenment, the highest spiritual attainment of Zen. Two examples of such gardens, both officially designated as meisho, a title given to spots of outstanding scenic beauty, are those of the Shoin of the Daisen'in temple, and the Reiun'in temple.

Following its devastation in the Onin war (1467-77), the city of Kyoto was rebuilt, this time in better-planned form, by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The homes of the merchant class were progressively reordered into blocks of dwellings, each of a well-defined long, rectangular shape, sharing the same roof. The unique type of townhouse that emerged presented a narrow front to the street but extended quite far from front to back. Popularly known as an "eel's lair," it made it possible to increase the area occupied by dwellings, and provided a highly efficient type of urban house combining workplace or place of business and residence. The shop, or space for doing business, which faced the main thoroughfare, was followed to the rear by the residential section, and behind that again by the production or storage area (though this area, as we shall see, later came to have other uses too). Thanks to this, work and business became more efficient. Taxes, which were decided according to the width of the facade, were kept down, and the development of commerce and industry was further promoted. As a result, the economic clout of the Kyoto merchants increased by leaps and bounds. Some idea of their past prosperity can be gained from the present splendor of the Gion festival, which was organized throughout the years by that increasingly affluent class.

With houses of a narrow rectangular shape adjoining each other beneath a single roof, light and ventilation, sufficient at the front of the house, deteriorated progressively toward the rear. To deal with this problem, an architectural style known as omoteya-zukuri was devised. In this omoteya style, the shop, or business wing, facing the main thoroughfare, was more or less independent, linked to the residential and reception wing (omoya) at its rear by an "entrance" wing. Behind these in turn lay either -- depending on the nature of the business -- a storehouse to hold the goods in which the family dealt, or a place of work, or possibly a tea room or hanare-zashiki (separate quarters for other family members; see illustration below and photograph on page 45). The two spaces available for gardens between the sections served to let in light, provide ventilation, and keep the air moving. This arrangement served the double purpose of keeping the house cool in summer and providing the aesthetic comforts of a garden....