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澄心庭

CHŌSHINTEI

Private Residence Kamakura, Japan, 2016

A simple bamboo fence indicates a shift from the publicly visible part of the garden near the entrance gate to the more private garden areas adjacent to the residence.

Visitors to the art gallery enter through the main gate with the white garden wall ending at the gallery building on the right. They are greeted with close views of the garden on both sides and a short stepping stone path leading to the gallery door.

Filling the space on the south side of the house, between the house and the gallery building, and wrapping around the house on the west, the garden provides changing views and experiences both from within the buildings and from outside.

A FORMER CAPITAL OF JAPAN, Kamakura is a city rich with history and culture, including as a place where Zen Buddhism first took hold in Japan. Shunmyo Masuno designed the Chōshintei garden in Kamakura for a client who practices Zen Buddhism and wanted to renovate an existing garden, in part to use for meditation. The previous owner of the house and grounds was an artist, and the current owner manages a gallery of the artist’s paintings in a separate building on the site. Masuno wanted the garden to act as a connector between the two buildings, while providing many different views and ways to enjoy the nature of the garden. He also aimed to reuse as many of the existing trees and rocks as possible.

Starting with the Zen expression sankō waga kokoro o sumashimu (山光澄我心), which refers to a clarity of spirit that comes when looking at majestic mountain scenery, Masuno named both buildings as well as the garden. The main house is Sankōken, literally “mountain light eaves,” taken from the first part of the expression. Gasshin-an, or “self-spirit retreat,” is the name of the gallery building and is derived from waga kokoro. The garden, Chōshintei, means “clear spirit garden,” and Masuno’s goal was to design a place where the owner could have a dialogue with the garden and feel that clarity of spirit.

For a visitor to the gallery, the experience of the garden is very different than it is for the client or a visitor to the house. From the street, a few steps constructed of rocks in a random pattern lead up to the entrance gate, which is shifted slightly off axis from the front door of the house. A single large rock, like a bridge through a river of white shirakawa suna pea gravel, spans from the entrance gate to the stone platform just outside the front door of the house. On each side of the bridge-like rock, stepping stones move through the gravel river. To the left, they move past an area with rocks holding back a knoll with pygmy bamboo and a tōrō stone lantern flanked by a black pine and an aburachan, or abrachan tree. The weathered tōrō, existing from the original garden, composed of five stones carefully balanced one atop the other, suggests a sense of endurance yet with a certain fragility.

Interrupting the stepping stone path within the flowing stream of gravel, a large flat rock bridges the main entrance on the left and the stone platform just outside the house entry on the right.

The stepping stones continue past the tōrō toward a wooden gate to a private wood-decked side garden. A mokkoku, or Japanese ternstroemia tree, grows up through the deck, and bamboo in a raised planter lines the outside wall of the side garden. At the far end of the wood deck, the stepping stones resume and lead through an area of gravel flanked by greenery and a wood fence with a door to the rear of the property.

Just outside the entrance to the gallery building, a stone chōzubachi basin is the primary element of a richly detailed composition of plants and rocks, and welcomes visitors as a place to pause and cleanse their hands and mouths before entering the gallery.

Back near the main entry, on the opposite side of the bridge-like rock, the stepping stones lead directly to the entrance of the gallery building. Just off to the right, a few additional stepping stones move toward a chōzubachi basin in a corner garden. Part of a composition of landscape rocks amidst plants and trees, the chōzubachi provides a place to stop and rinse the hands and mouth, an act of purification before entering the gallery.

A low window in one of the gallery spaces provides an unexpected view onto a corner of the garden, reminding and reconnecting the visitor to the natural beauty just outisde the walls.

The winding stream of pea gravel narrows and broadens as it moves between the moss-covered banks of the garden, while boulders jutting into the stream create gentle ripples in the flowing “water.”

From the entrance to the gallery, the main part of the garden is hidden behind tall trees. While the interior of the gallery is very inward-focused to emphasize the art, several strategically placed windows allow views into the garden. Just inside the gallery entrance, a large opening looks back over the garden toward the house—a framed vista of layers of trees growing from a mossy mound dotted with ferns and landscape rocks. Further into the gallery, a low window, located just above floor level, gives an unexpected glimpse into the garden.

From the main house, a wood engawa, or veranda, zigzags along the perimeter of the building and mediates between the architecture and the garden. Masuno located a second chōzubachi right next to the engawa, giving the owner easy access to it. This chōzubachi serves multiple purposes. In addition to allowing for purification before entering the garden, the water running into the chōzubachi from the bamboo spout provides a calming backdrop of sound to the garden. Additionally, Masuno placed the chōzubachi atop a suikinkutsu, an unusual feature found in some gardens—an earthen jar buried in the ground that makes a pleasant tinkling sound when water drips into it. Pouring water scooped from the chōzubachi onto the rocks at its base, allows the water to run through the rocks and down into the buried ceramic jar. This produces the lovely soft chime-like tones of the suikinkutsu, creating a melodic and soothing soundscape for the garden.

From the wood engawa, or veranda, of the residence, the view looks out toward the southeastern corner with majestic mountain-like scenery enhanced by the borrowed scenery of the tall trees existing adjacent to the garden.

When seated on the tatami mat floors inside the main house, the traditional structure, with its exposed wood columns and beams, along with sliding paper-covered lattice shoji screens, creates framed views of the garden.

For night-time viewing from inside the residence during the colder months and from the engawa veranda during warmer weather, Shunmyo Masuno incorporated hidden spotlights within the garden to focus the view on specific garden elements.

From the chōzubachi, an undulating expanse of white shirakawa suna pea gravel moves through the garden, flowing under the engawa, between mossy knolls, and in raked ripples around landscape stones. Passing between the main house and the gallery, the river of gravel provides a strong sense of movement and leads the eye around the corner to hidden areas of the garden.

This part of the garden is meant to be viewed while sitting on the engawa or the tatami mat floors of the interior rooms. Masuno composed several different areas of the garden to suggest different kinds of scenery. Multiple species of tall trees and bushes juxtapose the wall of the gallery building and provide a backdrop for the mossy knoll. Another tōrō stone lantern sits under a plum tree, in a prominent position within the garden. With its late winter blossoms, lush summer foliage, and leafless winter branches, the plum tree clearly represents the changes of the season, while the lantern always remains the same.

Following the flow of the gravel river, Masuno added landscape rocks embedded in the lush moss. The rocks push out into the river, creating gently rippled waves. Masuno made use of the existing trees behind the garden as shakkei, or “borrowed scenery,” and at the far end of the garden, he composed the rocks, plants, shrubs, and trees in a richly layered composition. Creating a feeling of being deep in the mountains, with its sense of yūgen, or “mysterious profundity,” this view of the garden is calming and tranquil. Yet, it holds a mysterious tension with the depth of the thick greenery contrasting with the bright whiteness of the pea gravel river. The design of the garden produces an occasion for the viewer to smell the scent of the trees, hear the sound of the suikinkutsu amid the birdsong, and watch the light filter through the trees to create ever-changing shadows. This is the moment of coming face to face with the essential self—the moment of understanding one’s clarity of spirit for which the Chōshintei garden is named.

Water flows from a bamboo spout into the stone chōzubachi basin set atop a buried earthen jar, or suikinkutsu. Constructed to emit a soft tinkling sound when water is poured onto the stones at the base of the chōzubachi, the sound of the suikinkutsu captures the attention of the viewer.

Earthen mounds covered with moss and backed with trees and shrubs create a feeling of spacious mountain topography while providing a buffer between the residence and the gallery building.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE

BORROWED SCENERY 借景 shakkei

Utilizing scenery from outside the bounds of the garden as an element of the garden composition is the concept of shakkei. Examples from Japanese gardens include incorporating views of distant mountains or adjacent temple roofs. The use of shakkei connects the viewer to the world beyond the garden while still immersing them in the garden. The effective use of shakkei often includes a hedge or wall that separates the foreground and sets off the outside scenery.