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

Standards:

MSDE 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:

Objectives:

Vocabulary:

Resources:

List 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.

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

http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=913
– World Heritage sites: Shrines and Temples of Nikko

Student worksheets:

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.

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.

Student Handout: 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.

Examples of Knot Gardens to look for in the sources:

Student Handout: 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)

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 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.

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

by, Sharon Cohen, July 9, 2004