In this brief sketch of Japanese gardens only the more salient features have been touched upon, and these only in the most general way. It would have been more proper to have included the ornamental fences, more especially the sode-gaki, in this chapter. It was deemed best, however, to include fences of all kinds under one heading; and this has been done in a previous chapter. The rustic wells, which add so much to garden effects, might with equal propriety have been incorporated here; but for similar reasons it was thought best to include with the wells the [pg 290] few brief allusions to water supply and village aqueducts,—and these subjects are therefore brought together under one heading in the chapter which is to follow.
Fig. 281.—Dwarfed pine.
In this chapter on gardens, I regret the absence of general sketches of the garden proper; but the few sketches I had made were too imperfect to hazard an attempt at their reproduction. Moreover, not the slightest justice could have been done to the thoroughly original character of the Japanese garden, with all its variety and beauty. In lieu of this, however, I have had reproduced a number of views of private gardens, from a Japanese work on the subject published in the early part of the last century,—though, so far as their general arrangement and appearance go, they might have been copied from gardens to be seen in that country to-day.
Fig. 282.—Shrubs wrapped in straw for winter.
