Style 5: Paradise Gardens

The Chinese introduced gardens to Japan in the 6th century. As a result, the earliest Japanese gardens displayed a strong Chinese influence from that country's Jodo sect of Buddhism. This religion teaches that if followers chant the Buddha Amitabha's name they are assured a place in the Pure Land -- a sort of heaven before enlightenment. The Pure Land was not an intangible idea to the Japanese, but a physical reality complete with beautiful pavilions and ponds full of lotus blossoms where immortals drifted in boats.

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Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, is modeled after an impressive two-story building that was part of one of the oldest surviving Paradise gardens in Japan, Saiho-ji.

Partly due to the civil unrest in Japan at the time, the Japanese eagerly embraced the idea of the Pure Land and tried to emulate it with paradise gardens. The aristocracy built most of these gardens, which spanned several acres, but some peasants created their own designs on a smaller scale. Since these gardens symbolize paradise, they are showier than other Japanese style gardens.

The typical paradise garden has an island in the middle of a pond to represent the future salvation and a curved bridge connecting the island to the rest of the garden to represent the path you must travel to reach that salvation. Although few original paradise gardens remain, many present-day Japanese pavilions are modeled after the buildings that once graced their grounds.

As the Jodo sect of Buddhism began to lose its appeal and was replaced by the Zen Buddhist sect, Japanese gardens became less lavish. Continue reading to learn more about these simpler gardens.