Hakaze-an; Tea Pavilion Part 3

The building Hakaze-an is almost completed, just a very few minor details need to be finished. Originally the commission was to create the building with a small amount of landscaping around it. This has now been extended to add a large pond that will lap up close to the side of the building. The intention being that when the pond is filled with water the surface will catch a reflection of the building. The water surface will also add a air of mystery and calmness to the outlook from within the building. The pond will feature an island, which will be linked by stepping stones to the shoreline, allowing for a circular walk around the garden as a whole.

The tokonoma or alcove is for displaying a flower arrangement, a piece of pottery or a scroll painting.  The floor of the alcove is of cherry wood, and the white lime washed wall catches natural light from above. One last detail is to be added to complete the tokonoma, which will be shown in the next blog instalment.

Walls being rendered with lime plaster . The drainage gully filled with polished black pebbles has not been installed in this photograph.

Projects, be they gardens or buildings, the best of projects evolve in their own right. One can as the designer, visualise and conceive of a concept for a building or garden, but what happens in the best of circumstances is that the building or garden is recognised as having an independent life or being of it's own. This demands a leap of faith by the client, the designer and the builder, also a level of sensitivity in how to manage the 'inner' expression of the building or garden. It is ultimate a fine balance, as the work requires guidance, yet equally sufficient space to establish its own sense of being. 

The shaped roof was covered with a 150mm (6") deep layer of free draining material and then sheets of pre-grown sedum matting was laid over. The green roof absorbs and retains water, it also allows the building with its curved roof to blend elegantly into the surrounding landscape.

The roof is covered with Sedum matting, retained by a copper edging. Also visible is the window inserted to allow natural day-light to illuminate the tokonoma alcove.

                                       

                               The drainage gully can be seen, it catches water dripping from the roof.

The level of love, care and attention that has gone into the building has been a measure of developing its own identity. Respecting the qualities of the materials is also an important aspect. All material have their own 'life', and when approaching the creation of a building as a work of art, then these qualities need to be respected and incorporated into the unfolding of the finished form. The rendering of the walls is done with lime plaster, a traditional material that has been used in buildings in England for centuries. Lime plaster breathes, that is it allows the passage of water through the material. It hardens in time through a process of carbonification. Once the two coats of render have been applied and have dried  then a colour wash is applied. On the walls of Hakaze-an four coats of a neutral colour lime wash were applied to colour the walls. All the timbers have been treated with oil to bring out their colour and the detail of the grain of the timber.

All the main structural beams are held together with oak pegs.

Detail of roof supports

A hallmark of the whole ethos of the building has been to create a simple structure of fine natural materials, allowing as far as possible to allow the materials to reveal their own qualities. To enrich the eye and heart of the visitor by their presence and individual qualities. In approaching the landscape treatment of the exterior of the building it was conceived that here there would be more in the way of detail. Hence the detailed stonework of flat black and white pebbles have been set on edge to create the notion of flow. This detail actually starts within the entrance (genkan) 'flows' out to meet the path leading up to the entrance. The dry stream of pebbles then splits to the right and left; to the right it meets two large boulders set as guardian spirits, and to the left the stream flows towards the water basin arrangement, a traditional feature of the Japanese Teahouse architecture, where guests would perform a ritual ablution of hands and mouth.

The completed landscaping of the entrance to the building. The drainage gully can also be seen

Detail of the completed 'hard' landscaping immediately to the front of the building.

A water-basin arrangement to one side of the building. The basin (centre) is carved from a glaciated boulder.

 The approach to the building is calm and measured, principally laid with York stone flags of various sizes as stepping stones. The entire design of building and garden draws upon both Eastern and Western sources for inspiration. The whole is intended to find a meeting of Eastern and Western conceptions.

A stepping stone path of flagstones leads the visitor to the main entrance. Sagina subulate has been planted between the stones. The water-basin arrangement is to the right side behind the planting of dwarf rhododendrons

In the next blog post further details of the pond construction will be shown. The pond will have an island and a 3waterfall. The pond is intended to be a shallow pond, used mainly for its reflective surface, but with the inclusion of two deep areas. A specimen pine has been sourced to be planted on the island.

The pond will come quite close to the building. The island is the area where the surveyor's tripod is stood.(centre left). The concrete shelves will support stonework once the liner has been laid into the pond.

Looking out from the main space towards the pond and island being excavated. 

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Wind Stories

Arcing into light

Soft footfall at daybreak,

Pushing on the open door.

Arcing into dark

Searching for fuel for warmth,

Closing the door

The last of the crab-apple leaves

Spinning wildly on their stems -

A sudden gust of wind.

Slipping into the cave for winter

Withdrawing the roots

Withdrawing the stems

Silence lit by a single flame.

Wind crossing open space

Bending grasses

Scattering the frost –

Receiving the gift of change.

How long ago it seems

That distance was closed

Corporeal tenderness unbound

Memory’s binding blessing -

Song of the birds at first light.

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This Breathing Earth

This breathing earth

The medium by which we exist

This transient mind

The medium by which we perceive –

Dry leaves rustle underfoot.

Night falls early these days,

The sun folds its light into night

Withdrawing into the cave

Into the self of being.

A quarter moon shrouded by milky clouds,

Ahh, dreaming of wind on naked skin.

Almost bare of leaves

Stripped back to its essential frame

Black against the sky,

Shivering in its apprehension of winter

The chestnut tree patient

Roots reaching deep for spring.

How is it that words, patterns of words,

Bear within them meaning

Feelings of love and hurt,

Sense and lost-ness.

River flowing without mind

Or am I mistaken in that too?

Shifting to position and rhythm

Seeking out pauses between the notes

The silences that define

Words curving into emptiness

Echoes shape shift in return,

Day dissolving seamless into night

Autumn in to winter.

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A Work In Progress

Coming Soon!

A current project I am working on is to write an e-book on the art of arranging stones in a Japanese style gardem. I am trying to distill over 30 years of experience of being involved in the creation of this type of gardem. The selection and placement of stones is one of the most crucial aspects of creating such gardens, and the manner in which it is done is key. It is a fascinating subject, and throws a lot of light on the whole aesthetic of such gardens. The book will be a manual for anyone interested in creating a Japanese style garden, and also for any one with a passing interest in the subject. 

At present the text is still being laid out, and then will come the work of illustrating the text with photos and diagrams. So far so good, but there is some way to go yet. The book will be made available in a variety of formats. Look out here for further announcements. I will keep you posted when it becomes available.

In the meanwhile keep checking out the blog, and please enjoy a taste....

Ishigumi. 

Arranging Stones In A Japanese Style Garden

Stones are a paradox, they appear inert and unyielding, yet they are capable of expressing movement and so they can move us, and we can move with them. Their weight and mass connects powerfully with the earth, yet they seem to soar towards the heavens. They are capable of expressing distance, depth and seem to stir memory of deepest time, and make connections within own minds. A stone will occupy and dominate, even define space, become a point marked, as if punctuation mark in a sentence. A centre, and so according to Mircea Eliade, becoming something sacred, a voice with something to say. Rock arrangements suggest something primal, mysterious, yet redolent with continuance. A voice coming to us borne by the wind, even if the words are indistinct to our ears. Yet, when we learn to hear those words, what wonderful songs, what wonderful music it makes.

In Japan the skill of a garden creator has traditionally been measured by their ability in setting stones. Master the setting of stones, then the garden will master itself, that seems to be the line of thought involved with creating gardens in Japan. It is certainly a characteristic of the Japanese gardens that one notices almost immediately; the way and manner with which stones are used is very different to the way they are used in the Western garden. For one thing, stones are not used to simply create rockery features in gardens, but seem to be integral to the concept of what a garden is in Japan.  The stones arranged in the garden carry meaning as well as being compositional elements. It is often remarked that the arrangement of stones form the ‘skeleton’, the underlying infrastructure of the garden arrangement, and the planting (the more familiar aspect of a garden in Western eyes) is overlain on top of this structure. Where the planting forms the ‘flesh over the bones’. There are many garden arrangements in Japan that dispense with planting altogether, these gardens are usually found in Zen temples, where it is a characteristic of that particular aesthetic to pare down the design to its fundamentals, dispensing with anything other than the absolute essential elements. The world famous garden at Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto is an example of this approach, where in the courtyard garden it is composed of fifteen stones and raked garden, there is no planting apart from a pool of moss at the base of the stone groups. There are other even more extreme examples one could cite, where even the stones have been omitted and the garden is simply composed of raked gravel alone, Tokai-an (Myoshin-ji temple), and Ryugin-an (sub-temple of the Tofuku-ji complex), both in Kyoto are examples of this approach. In this work the intention is to examine the role of stone arrangement and see how it performs in this role of creating a basic structure from which the garden emerges in its totality. The manner and principles with which stones are arranged are common to design principles as exhibited in a number of the Japanese arts, and may also be found in painting, flower arrangement and so on.

In traditional Japanese gardens what the viewer is presented with is a composed and framed view, or a series of interlocking views. A critical aspect to the make up a garden view is the placement of stones within the garden space. The pattern of their interrelationships creates a variety of 'physiological' structures, which are presented in a logical and sequential order that in turn aids to order the view; so structuring a view, making it authentic, visually logical and so harmonious to the perception of the viewer. The garden is rarely revealed in the whole, rather it is presented in such a way as to allow the viewer to re-create the totality in his or her own imagination. A view is built up, by the play of layer upon layer of scenery, adding depth and visual complexity each time. The mind though, seems to fall into a sense of equilibrium, perceiving movement yet stillness, 'equal play'. What the mind signals is that it's perceiving is something balanced, something where all the forms are in harmony. This opens the door for the viewer, now he or she can become a part of the garden. All manner of landscapes and gardens will have a similar effect on the experiencing viewer, but the Japanese garden uses this aspect with a particularly deliberate effect. 

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Wabi; Spirit Unbound

   わび

Wabi (usually written in hirigana as above, but also sometimes written with the character  侘 ) is one of the crucial aesthetic terms in Japanese culture, and fundamental to an understanding of any of the arts, including gardens. It may be particularly applied to the world of the Tea garden, though its scope is clearly wider than being restricted to a single expression of garden art. The form of Tea ceremony developed by the master Sen no Rikyu is often referred to as 'wabi cha', the tea of wabi. It is a term that is closely associated with another term, sabi (さび). Sabi refers to the quality of been worn or well used, the 'not newness' of something, and is particularly associated with patina and the feeling of that comes from something that is well used. The term sabi will be explored in another blog post later.

Wabi may be translated as 'loneliness', 'poverty', 'subdued taste', or 'simplicity'. All of these terms offer some guide to the meaning of the concept without actually defining it absolutely. All of these tentative definitions must be understood in the spiritual or metaphysical sense.  The 'loneliness' that is referred to, is a sense of detachment from the everyday world, both in the manner of a physical separation, as well as a separation that is brought about by a conscious act of intention. It is not a detachment of unsociability, rather a conscious withdrawing from the hustle and bustle, in order to seek out a space wherein the mind and spirit may achieve a sense of peace, through a lessening of distraction. Tea is after all a social occasion that will be shared with others. Likewise the appreciation of the garden is not by definition a solitary activity, but one that may be shared and enriched by the presence of others of a like mind. There is a long tradition of the 'hermit-poet' in Japanese culture, though these were not by any means people who were driven to such a state by a feeling of malice toward their fellow men, rather people who sought out quiet places in order to sharpen their perception and thereby be capable of seeing and understanding deeper the human condition. Thus the garden may be seen to be a place that offers refuge, and the material composition of the garden a path toward that quiet space, which ultimately lies within. The poet Ryokan expresses it this way;

    "Truly, I love this life of seclusion.

     Carrying my staff, I walk toward a friend's cottage.

     The trees in his garden, soaked by the evening rain,

     reflect the cool, clear autumnal sky.

     The owners dog comes to greet me:

     Chrysanthemums bloom along the fence.

     These people have the same spirit as the ancients;

     An earthen wall marks their separation from the world.

     In the house volumes of poetry are piled on the floor.

     Abandoning worldliness, I often come to this tranquil place-

     The spirit here is the spirit of Zen."  

Likewise the 'poverty' that is spoken of is not the poverty of destitution, rather is is a deliberate turning away from the world of ostentation and glamour. It is a recognition that the generation and accumulation of wealth in this world is a temporary experience that has no depth in the metaphysical sense. To the Buddhist or Taoist, reality lies in the recognition of the non-absolute ( 'emptiness' ) as the only constant. When everything is in a state of constant change then the path toward enlightenment lies in detachment from acquisition and accumulation of material objects, as these ultimately have no true reality.  This has a bearing on the form of the garden, whereby the intention is to present the garden free of ostentation ( ego ) and glamour, the 'hands of the garden-creator' are hidden. Nature itself remains the prime source of inspiration of motif and the ultimate model for garden builders, the garden-creator is simply the facilitator, working as a medium through which the garden form will emerge.

Likewise the interpretation of wabi as 'subdued taste' or 'simplicity' may be understood in the light of what has been set out above. The materials chosen for the garden are of the simplest kind, earth, stone, plants and water, presented in a manner that resolves to express something of the spirit of the landscape, rather than being a detailed reconstruction of  landscape scenery. Naturally we see here an influence of Zen Buddhism, in particular the concept of presenting those elements that are deemed absolutely essential and avoiding all extraneous material. By this process of reduction there is an allowance made for the imagination of the garden viewer to have maximum scope for involvement in recreating within his own heart the landscape scene that is being presented. The potential for distraction from this course is thereby minimised, through the discipline of 'subdued taste' that a greater freedom of expression may be acquired.

It is in these ways that the concept of wabi may be understood to have a strong bearing on the creation and appreciation of the garden as a whole. Though wabi is associated in particular with the world of Tea, its resonance goes far beyond that particular aspect of the Japanese garden tradition. There is a poem by  that is much beloved by the Tea masters for its capacity to capture the essence of wabi. 

All around, no flowers in bloom are seen,

Nor blazing maple leaves I see,

Only a solitary fisherman's hut

On the sea beach, in the twilight of this autumn eve. 

Lord Teika  1162-1241

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Simple Beauty

Arriving to this ancient space

Where many dreams exist -

Coalescing in shadows

Gathering strength as soft breezes.

Themes of loss, gain, love and redemption.

Raising the bowl to drink

the scent of tea comes first -

the last of the white camellia flowers.

The orange peel

comes off in one piece-

the cat remains unimpressed.

A crown of flies

accompanying every step-

walking meditation.

A moment of such simple Beauty

when the bell was struck

so releasing the sound within.

I, the bell; you, the bell,

the bell neither you nor I.

Still the sound resonates unbroken

penetrating the heart

emptying the vessel even of itself.

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