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聴閑庭

CHŌKANTEI

Private Residence Yokohama, Japan, 2017

Flanked by the stone-paved entrance walk, the south-facing bifurcated front garden consists of one garden area along the street and a small courtyard garden separated by a wall and visible only from inside the residence.

The main garden, visible from the living-dining space on the west side and from bedrooms on the north side, sits within a very contained space, but the design of the pea gravel “stream” makes it appear to extend beyond the boundaries of the garden.

Viewed from the second-floor above, the varied shapes of the leaves of the shrubs and ground cover contrast with the textures of the landscape rocks and pea gravel in the small front courtyard garden.

Shunmyo Masuno reused stepping stones saved from the original garden. The stones connect the family to the memory of the house and garden that formerly stood on the site, while providing a physical path from the engawa, or veranda, to the tsukubai basin.

FOR A CLIENT WHO LEADS A VERY BUSY LIFE with little down time, Masuno designed the Chōkantei garden with a particular Zen expression in mind. Upon meeting the client and hearing about his hectic workday, Masuno was reminded of the proverb bōchū kanari (忙中有閑), meaning that no matter how busy one is, there is always time for a breath, and he derived the name of the garden, Chōkantei, from the Zen expression. Literally, chō means “listen,” kan is “leisure,” and tei means “garden,” so the name Chōkantei refers to quietly standing still and finding the time to listen to the sound of nature. Masuno created the garden as a place where the client could take a breath from his chaotic work life and feel restored. The garden also serves as the heart of the residence, a place where the family comes together.

Built in a contemporary style, the residence stands in a line of houses constructed close together in a residential neighborhood of Yokohama. The family home and garden originally sat on this site, so Masuno wanted to reuse as many elements from the earlier garden as possible. In addition, he faced several different challenges with this project. First, he needed to create a garden design derived from the traditional style but one that fitted with the contemporary feel of the architecture. Second, the garden space was quite small, so Masuno had to find a way to create the impression that the space was larger than its actual physical area. And third, the neighbor’s house was immediately adjacent to the main garden, so Masuno needed to block the view of their windows and laundry hanging from a second-floor balcony. The result is a garden that starts at the street front, then rises and falls as it flows throughout the property.

Designed to be viewed while seated on the tatami mat floor of the washitsu, or Japanese-style room, one section of the entry garden—a simple courtyard space—is visible only from the interior of the residence.

From the Western-style living-dining space, large sliding glass doors open up to the garden, providing a strong connection to nature in the center of the house.

Chōkantei comprises two separate areas: a small bifurcated garden, with one part adjacent to the entrance and the other part visible from a tatami-matted Japanese-style room, and the main garden outside the living room. While the small garden is designed to be viewed while sitting inside on the tatami mats, the main garden can be enjoyed both from the interior and exterior—from within the Western-style living room and outside from the engawa, a traditional narrow wood veranda-like architectural element which serves to mediate between the interior rooms and the exterior space of the garden.

The first glimpse of the garden is from the street. A bright white stone wall sits in front of the beige building, acting as an eye-catching backdrop to a narrow streetfront area of the entrance garden. At one end, a small mound showcases a single pine tree from the original garden. At the other end, a large mountain-like landscape rock, flanked by a maple tree, nestles into ground cover. Plantings with varied heights, widths, and leaf shapes contrast with the stark white surface of the wall behind. The white stone wall turns the corner toward the front door and splits into two offset walls, hinting that the garden space continues beyond. Adjacent to the corner, large stone pavers in a random pattern lead from the street, past the offset white walls, up a few stairs, and inside into the genkan entrance hall. This first interior space gives no view of either garden, and no clue as to the vistas that unfold from other rooms in the house.

Behind the white walls of the entry garden, a small courtyard garden sits outside the Japanese-style butsuma room, which houses the family’s butsudan, or Buddhist altar, used for prayers and offerings to the family’s ancestors. With the traditional tatami mats on the floor, all activities in the room take place from a seated position, including viewing the garden. Masuno wanted the courtyard garden to feel abundant and spacious despite its small size, so he used a combination of elements to create layers of space. Within a bed of tamaryū ground cover, known as mondo or monkey grass (or alternatively as dwarf lilyturf), Masuno set a single landscape rock against the white stone back wall. In the foreground, a patch of Ise sabijari (rust-colored pea gravel from the Ise area) serves as a contrasting element. Completing the composition are a variety of plants, including shida (fern), omoto, or Japanese rhodea (a plant of the lily family), and hisakaki, a species of evergreen related to sakaki (a sacred evergreen used at Shinto shrines). Each plant brings its unique characteristic to the small garden, and within the simplicity of the design gives the feeling of abundance that Masuno sought to impart.

Visible only from inside the residence, the rust-colored Ise sabijari gravel in the front courtyard garden acts as a foreground element in the image of water against the “riverbank” background of tamaryū, mondo or monkey grass ground cover.

The primary views of the main garden are from the first-floor living-dining area—the central space for the family—as well as from an adjoining Japanese-style washitsu room and one bedroom. At the level of the main floor, the L-shaped engawa allows the viewer to sit outside and enjoy the garden, while second-floor balconies also provide views down onto the garden. It is unusual to design a residential garden not only to be seen from two different seated heights—from the floor level in a tatami room and the chair level in the dining and living space—but also from above. However, in Chōkantei, Masuno achieved a design that works well from each of these three different viewpoints.

From the engawa, a layer of pea gravel moves from below the wood deck out into the garden. The flowing form of the gravel bed appears to extend beyond the physical limits of the garden and creates an undulating edge along the planted area. A thick bed of sugigoke, or hair moss, meets this undulating edge with a strongly contrasting green color and lush texture. A kutsunugi-ishi, a stone used for changing into outdoor sandals before entering the garden, and stepping stones lead from the engawa through the pea gravel and moss to a stone tsukubai water basin and tōrō stone lantern.

Masuno reused stones from the previous garden for the kutsunugi-ishi and stepping stones, and the client himself went to Kyoto to pick out the tsukubai and tōrō. The Satsuma stone tsukubai is in a natural shape and pairs well with the hexagonal lantern carved from Kitagishima granite by the father and son team of Nishimura Kinzō and Daizō. Set into the thick moss, these two elements, the tsukubai and tōrō, serve as important focal points in the garden. The stepping stones lead the eye, as well as the feet, through the gravel and moss to these hand-carved features. This is the only area that can be entered, as the garden is mainly meant to be enjoyed from seated viewing.

The view down onto the garden from the second-story balcony gives a clear image of the contrast of the white pea gravel against the green moss, expressing yohaku no bi, or beauty in emptiness.

To make the garden feel larger, Masuno designed a tsukiyama, or artificial hill, which grows in height as it moves toward the far corner of the garden. The lush moss covers the hill and is punctuated here and there with landscape rocks and plants of differing species. At the back corner of the garden, in order to block the view of the windows and laundry of the adjacent house, a row of kometsuga, northern Japanese hemlock, serves as a screening element and forever green backdrop for the garden. Aiming for an overall simple planting design, Masuno utilized azaleas and maples for their coloration, creating focal points that can be viewed and enjoyed as they change throughout the four seasons. Together, these elements create a garden that is tranquil and quiet, where the sight of trees moving slowly in the breeze and the sound of water dripping into the tsukubai lull the viewer into taking a deep breath and pausing for a moment of calm reflection.

Stepping stones lead through the lush moss to the stone tsukubai basin with its bamboo water spout, and the adjacent stone tōrō lantern, both carved by Nishimura Kinzō and his son Daizō in Kyoto.

In the main part of the garden, Shunmyo Masuno constructed a tsukiyama, or artificial hill, to give the sense of extending space. The trees and shrubs planted on the tsukiyama block the view of neighboring houses.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE

BLANKNESS OR EMPTINESS 余白 yohaku

The concept of the beauty of blankness or emptiness, or yohaku no bi (literally “beauty in extra white”), is prevalent in calligraphic paintings, where the “empty” or white space formed by the brushstrokes is as important as the calligraphy itself. In Japanese gardens, this blankness or emptiness is present as beds of raked pea gravel or background walls finished in white plaster, which serve to contrast and set off other garden elements.