Leading The Eye – Paths in the Japanese garden

Two Zen Principles to follow when planning a stunning garden.

Garden paths are an important design element in Japanese gardens. They can be broad pathways, narrow, irregularly paved paths, only a trail of stomped soil, or a winding path of stepping stones.

All of them have the same intention: bringing you to a different part of the garden. But which kind of path is used will dictate how you experience the garden on your way.
One of the design secrets of Japanese gardens is to hide and show elements to the active visitor like the designer intended.

This is called miegakure (見隠).  Elements are partially hidden to create expectation, or to let the mind of the viewer complete the scenery. Another form of hiding and showing is to show an element completely, only to hide it again and then let it appear from a different angle.

The designer, however, is not actively deciding where to hide and where to show, it comes naturally by watching the garden scenery closely or by feeling the design. This miegakure is such an initial part of the design, that the designer doesn’t even have to think about using it.
Or, in other words, this principle is so much a part of the Japanese culture, that not using it in design doesn’t even come to the designer’s mind.

Taking a waterfall as example. In the traditional Japanese garden, when planning a waterfall, the gardener will automatically indicate to plant a tree right next to it – mostly commonly a Japanese maple. While in winter, the whole waterfall can be seen, in spring, fresh green leaves will start to hide it partially, making the viewer feeling the season and reveals the important aesthetic principle in Japanese culture: Yūgen.

View our eBook about Stone Setting, including waterfall settings!

Miegakure (hide and reveal) is one part of yūgen, which can be translated as „mysterious profundity, quiet beauty, or the subtle and profound“. But the original Japanese term also already found its way into the design world.

Another concept within yūgen is michiyuki (道行 “path to go”).
A path that is moving us. It’s the path that decides how we walk through a garden.

The path makes us walk slower or speed up. It leads our eyes down on the way or lets us take in the surroundings.

But how can we as garden designers, landscape architects, or home gardeners use this knowledge in our projects?

My first advice, always, is by experiencing this by oneself.
While it isn’t easy for everyone to visit a real Japanese garden in Japan or overseas (not all public Japanese gardens are maintained in a way that they are good for studies), everyone has access to pictures of Japanese gardens.
Many gardens in Japan can even be visited virtually thanks to Google Streetview.

If you start with studying pictures, collecting some scenes of different garden types with paths which are touching you. Where you think „this is it! This is beautiful“.
Now it is time to find out what exactly makes this scene so special.
Is it the material of the path? Is it winding? Is there vegetation or buildings interacting with the path? How much of a structure is revealed and how much is hidden?

A hidden path towards the teahouse

The training of a new gardener in Japan is, from one point, approached by copying. A new disciple has to copy, if available, the garden plans of the master. One piece after another to get a sense for proportions and lineworks. It is thought that through this training, the disciple will gain an understanding and feeling of a garden plan.

You can read about this in Jennys blog 90 Days in Kyoto

While no one these days want to create a simple copy of an existing work, we can use what we learned by watching other peoples works and copying the masters on paper as a first step. Try to create a garden plan what you have experienced in a garden or garden picture yourself. How would it look from bird’s eye perspective?

It is important to feel proportions in a garden. How much is revealed at a time, how much stays hidden. If you were able to take a glance on an interesting garden feature, how long can the path continue before you finally have to reveal the whole scenery? Or maybe you implement several small reveals before creating a big one?

And then, look at the materials that are used. What kind of rocks for what kind of paths?

Stepping stones are used when we want to have the visitor focus on the path. It can be used as a method to hide elements. When the path becomes safe and comfortable to walk on, it is time to reveal some scenery.
Stairs in a garden can also be designed in a way that one has to focus on them -> hide, or can be navigated without even looking on them -> reveal.
Fumiwake-ishi let the visitor pause to choose a path. You can make both paths look similar, or create one that is looking easy to navigate and one that is looking as if you have to take care walking on. Which one would you choose?

Part 2 of our Japanese Garden Path series focuses on stepping stones and similar!

Garden paths are an integral and important part of experiencing a Japanese garden. Take this into consideration when designing yours!

Just like in literature, there is nothing much new anymore we can create in gardens. What make most new gardens stunning is the skill of the designer to take pieces of great existing designs and mix them together to get something different and beautiful that appears like something new.

Have you somewhere seen a combination of plants you liked? A special stepping stone material you would like to use with the winding shape of a path in another garden?

Fine! Go for it and combine the elements you like to create something new. This is a good and valid method.

However, to give a Japanese garden the real touch, do not only let your head design the garden. Let the garden come to life inside you before constructing it. See it how it will look after construction with your inner eye. Use the topography, the elements beyond the boundaries. Create a harmony out of all to design a real Japanese garden.

Part 1 of our Japanese Garden Path series focuses on laid stone paths!

Here is a list of literature I used for this article:

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