Sharon Cohen
Lesson Title: Designing Gardens in Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan England
Grade Level/Content Focus: High School, Social Studies
Time Period: Three 45 minute class periods
StandardsMSDE Goal 2 Peoples Of The Nation And World
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the history, diversity, and commonality
of the peoples of the nation and world, the reality of human interdependence, and the
need for global cooperation, through a perspective that is both historical and
multicultural.
Expectation 2.1
The student will analyze the emergence and diffusion of civilizations and their
contributions to the modern world.
World History Indicator 2.1.1
The student will identify and analyze examples of cultural diffusion.
Content to achieve this indicator includes:
(b) Spread and influence of Buddhism.
(c) Achievements and influence of the Renaissance.
Objectiveso Students will be able to identify the influence of Greek/Roman culture on
Renaissance England and Chinese culture on Tokugawa Japan.
o Students will be able to analyze elements of design in English and Japanese gardens.
o Students will be able to compare the designs of English and Japanese gardens.
Vocabularyherbal -- of or related to herbs, plants that can be eaten or used for medicine
Aristotle -- 384-322 B.C.E. Greek philosopher and scientist
Shinto -- traditional religion of Japan that emphasizes that all things in the world have
divine spirits and that the Japanese islands have special divine value.
Chan/Zen Buddhism -- a branch of Buddhism that teaches how to achieve sudden
enlightenment through meditation or other disciplined activity
cosmology -- the study of the nature and origins of the universe; a way of seeing the
world
spirituality -- related to sacred matters or ways of being connected to the self
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
heraldry -- special symbols like a coat of arms given to an individual by special authority
(king or queen)
ResourcesList name(s) of teacher and student resource sheets.
Text Sources
Nuese, Josephine. The Country Garden. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970.
-- ideas for garden styles in suburban USA
Leighton, Ann. Early American Gardens”For Meate or Medicine”. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1970. -- history of garden purpose and design in Puritan New England.
Lacy, Allen. The Inviting Garden, Gardening for the Senses, Mind, and Spirit. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998. -- builds on Renaissance garden styles combined
with a late twentieth century desire for tranquility
Murphy, Wendy B. Japanese Gardens. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1979. -explanations of the Japanese styles of gardens and some of the history of garden styles in
Japan
Harada, Jiro. Japanese Gardens. London: The Studio Limited, 1956. -- photographs of
all of the major gardens in Japan by historical period with extensive notes.
Websites:
http://renaissance.dm.net/sites.html#Garden -- list of websites on Renaissance gardens
http://www.harborside.com/%7Erayj/parterre.htm -- history of Renaissance garden
design
http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Ejahb/herbs/medievalgardens.htm -- talks about water features
and influence of Greek and Roman ideas and sculptures but not about Muslim influence;
good bibliography
http://www.folger.edu/education/pdfs/Nurture2.pdf -- Folger Library site with
Elizabethan garden drawing of A Garden of Flowers by Crispian de Passe 1615.
http://www.cix.co.uk/~museumgh/history.htm -- famous 17th c. knot garden panoramic
dynamic tour available.
http://www.goldenacorn.net/garden/flowers/over.html -- history of 16th imports of plants
into England from Africa, Japan; database of plants available to 16th c. gardeners in
Europe.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2099.html -- list of links to Japan’s most famous gardens.
http://www.artvisionexhibitions.com/TheJapaneseGarden.html -- Morikami museum and
100 photographs of the six fundamental styles--the pleasure boat, the stroll,
contemplation, many pleasures, the tea and courtyard styles to coincide with Japanese
historical changes.
http://academic.csuohio.edu/makelaa/lectures/gardens/index.html -- amazing illustrated
lecture on The Japanese Garden in its Cultural Context
World Heritage sites: http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=913 -- Shrines and
Temples of Nikko
Student worksheets
Information on Gardens in Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan England
Venn Diagram for comparing garden styles
Objects -- none
Teacher Background- The elite class in Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan England used
their stylized gardens as places for spiritual renewal. Although both societies had
agricultural economies, they looked to their trade partners and sources of belief systems
for cultural influences. Thus, the garden styles developed in Tokugawa Japan and
Elizabethan England developed from garden styles mastered in China and Italy
respectively.
In this unit, students will trace the influences of China and Italy on gardens in Tokugawa
Japan and Elizabethan England. They will then compare the garden styles to find
similarities and differences in the ways that the elite classes in the two societies found
spiritual renewal in their gardens. Finally, students will design their own spiritual
gardens using elements they find pleasing in either or both Tokugawa Japan and
Elizabethan England garden styles.
Assessment- Students will use the information on and comparisons of garden styles in
Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan England to design their own garden with elements from
either or both historical types clearly explained or identified in their own design.
* Lesson Development
Motivation/Warm Up
Take a tour of your school grounds. Describe the landscape. What parts show a
planned design? Interview the people responsible for the grounds. Ask them what they
know about the purpose of the design of the plantings, seating like benches, and
sculpture/flag poles/plaques.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
Discuss your findings with your class. What elements of design are incorporated
into the landscape around your school? What culture(s) influenced those elements of
design?
Modeling
Students read about elements of garden design for both Elizabethan England and
Tokugawa Japan.
Guided Practice
Students compare those elements of design with those of the school grounds.
Independent Practice
Find an example of an Elizabethan garden and a Japanese garden from websites or books.
Identify the elements of design in those gardens.
Assessment
Design your own garden using elements from either or both Tokugawa Japan and
Elizabethan England. Use the quote below for inspiration.
“To me a garden is an area, or a series of related areas, wherein one finds reassurance
and tranquility, surprise and delight; its beauty lies in the subtle balancing of scale and
proportion, line and form, mass and texture, contrast and accord, the whole affiliated yet
full of small surprises. Such a garden imparts a benediction, enlarging the mental and
emotional habitation.” (Nuese, p. 8)
Closure/Summary
Students share their garden designs with their peers and school staff if time and space
allows.
Lesson Extension- Visit gardens in the styles of Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan
England. For Washington, D.C. students, visit the National Arboreteum that has both an
Elizabethan knot garden and Japanese gardens with bonsai.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
Student Handout #1: Elizabethan Knot Gardens
Elizabethan gardens strived to be a delight for the senses. The herbs gardens also had
classical meaning to the Renaissance elite. Aristotle’s theory of the four elements -- fire,
air, earth, and water -- and his four qualities of elements in the world -- hot, cold, dry, and
moist -- were considered when selecting herbs for medicinal purposes. The fragrant
herbs were used to make the traditional knot gardens for the Elizabethan elite.
The first English gardening book to show a design for a knot garden was A Most Briefe
and Pleasant Treatyse, Teachyng How to Dresse, Sowe, and Set a Garden, by Thomas
Hill, which was first published about 1558. The strong preference for symmetry in
Italian and French garden designs influenced English garden styles. The walled gardens
were separated by paths and divided into sections and surrounded by raised walks so as to
better see the designs in the gardens. Herbs or boxwood were used for making the knots,
partially because dwarf boxwood had been used by ancient Roman elites in their pleasure
gardens. (source: http://www.harborside.com/%7Erayj/parterre.htm)
In Renaissance Europe, gardens also included statues in the form of people (Greek or
Roman heroes, or Christian saints), mythical animals, or birds, horses, and occasional
putti (cherubim types), medusas, or heraldic beasts on the walls seem to be typical. River
gods, water nymphs, goddesses with or without fountain outlets in their bosoms, children
pouring water from jars, muses, mountain giants, were all popular as statuary and
fountains in the last part of the 16th century. Many major English gardens from the
Elizabethan period had references to Queen Elizabeth as the classical goddess Diana.
The knot gardens contained knots or pattern-work laid out in plants and/or colored stones,
usually in blocks of four -- with plants mirroring each other in regular geometric and
symmetrical patterns. The designs for knots came from popular embroidery and tapestry
styles (these textile designs were based on the geometric and flower designs in carpets
from the Muslim world); some knot gardens even included spots for the owner's heraldry.
The patterns in the garden might resemble a chessboard. Sometimes, the designs were
large enough to permit paths of stone or grass between the patterns. (source:
http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Ejahb/herbs/medievalgardens.htm)
Single plants such as herbs or boxwoods were used or plants with contrasting foliage,
colors and textures were combined. The interwoven effect of combining different herbs
was achieved by stopping one line of plants ('ribbon') while the crossing herb 'ribbon' is
continuous. The 'over' ribbon of herbs could be allowed to grow a little taller at this point
to appear to rise over the 'lower' ribbon. The designs sometimes were punctuated with
larger topiary features.
The images below show a few "ribbon" designs indicating under & over planting.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
Examples of Knot Gardens to look for in the sources:
o
o
o
The "True Lovers Knott" from Stephen Blake's Compleat Gardeners
Practice (1664)
A knot design from The Gardeners Labyrinth (1577?)
Lady Salisbury's Knot Garden Design in front of the Elizabethan
banqueting house at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
Student Handout on Japanese Gardens
Japanese garden designers during the Tokugawa era continued to base their designs on
the traditional Chinese conception of the five elementary forces: wood, fire, earth, metal,
and water. They also wanted the garden visitors to be reminded of the five Chinese
Confucian virtues: humanity, justice, politeness, wisdom, and fidelity. “From the natural
landscape they select and distill just those particular elements they want, placing them
with infinite care to symbolize and suggest, to conceal and reveal. In effect, they paint a
partial picture to which the observer makes his own contribution. Drawn into the picture,
he discovers ideas and relationships it its colors, lines and forms and from them
completes the scene in his mind’s eye, to his own satisfaction and delight.” (Murphy, p.
7)
Korean contributions were extremely important to garden design in Japan. Koreans
brought Buddhism to Japan in the sixth century along with garden designs that included a
shumisen, a miniature version of the central mountain regarded in Hindu and then
Buddhist cosmology as the hub of the universe with a bridge and steppingstones from the
shore of a pond to the island within it. (Murphy, p. 11) The island comes from Chinese
Daoist cosmology and is shaped like a tortoise in the ocean, an auspicious place inhabited
by Daoist Immortals and symbolized the desire for immortality. (Harada, p. 9) Groups of
three plants or stones suggest the Buddhist trinity with Buddha in the middle, attended by
two deities, Mercy and Wisdom. Beautiful objects or extraordinary views or the sea in
the distance were deliberately concealed and only found by accident giving an
unexpected joy to the Tokugawa garden visitor. The secrets in a Japanese garden
suggested that human’s actions should be placed in the context of the workings of the
whole universe. (Harada, p. 11) The gardens of the ruling elite were considered essential
to the spiritual well-being of the owners, so the gardens were designed as exterior rooms
or extensions to the house.
Tokugawa gardens included the three traditional Japanese landscape types: Tsukiyama
Gardens (hill gardens), Karesansui Gardens (dry gardens) and Chaniwa Gardens (tea
gardens). (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2099.html) http://www.japanguide.com/e/e2099.html. Dry landscape gardens were developed specifically for the
practice of Zen Buddhism that came from China in the 12th century. The gardens look
simple with raked gravel or sand with a few rocks placed to symbolize Buddhist ideas.
The Tokugawa Japanese garden engaged all five senses with elements of water and plants
like bamboo for sounds, pine for smell, the tea house for taste, the combination of plants,
rocks, bridges, lanterns, and unexpected and incomplete parts for sight.
With the peace imposed by the Tokugawa Shogunate (government run the shogun or
military leader), the daimyo (lords) and samurai (knights) had fewer battle duties but still
needed to maintain their training and discipline. The tea ceremony became the perfect
vehicle for discipline as rituals were followed scrupulously and innovation was
discouraged. Merchants and other men of wealth also built gardens for the tea ceremony
using the many books published in the period to plan their sanctuaries from the cares of
the world. The garden paths to the teahouse were carefully designed to calm the spirit
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
and prepare the visitor for the spiritual qualities of the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony
required self-control and yielded a sense of tranquility for the host and the guest.
Japanese elite women also visited gardens during the Tokugawa period. They carefully
selected their clothing to make the seasons and highlight the natural beauty of the garden.
Women joined the men in boating on the ponds included in the gardens. Gardens,
however, did not include places for children to play; they were designed to help ease the
heavy burdens of life for adults.
Go to: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2099.html for the list of links to Japan’s most
famous gardens.
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004
Student Handout
Comparing Garden Design in Elizabethan and Tokugawa Era Gardens
Use the Venn Diagram below to show the similarities and differences in garden design in
Elizabethan and Tokugawa Era Gardens
Comparing Gardens, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004