Water in the Garden: Connecting, and Nourishing
From the sound of it rushing down a waterfall, to the feeling of mist dancing across your cheek, water takes many forms. It is all around and within us. We need it to survive. Water makes up more than half of our bodies. In the words of Jacques Cousteau, “We forget that the water cycle and life cycle are one.”
Water is among the three most essential elements used to create a Japanese garden: stone, the “bones” of the landscape; plants, the tapestry of the four seasons; and water, the life-giving force.
It is that force of nature that is so deeply woven into our Garden and helps us experience a sense of peace, harmony and tranquility, that feeling of being one with nature.
“Water connects spaces in the Garden, it connects humans to nature, it connects incoming visitors to the Garden experience and the lower garden to the upper garden,” said Justin Blackwell, longtime gardner.
Special features throughout the Garden draw our attention to the importance of water. Like the koto-ji lantern, with its long legs resembling a bridge of a koto, a 13-stringed flat harp. One leg is in the water, the other on land, symbolizing the interdependence of land and water.
The Strolling Pond Garden consists of an Upper and Lower Pond connected by a stream that flows beneath the Moon Bridge. The water is recirculated and connected by a babbling stream beckoning one to continue walking. At the focal point of the Lower Garden is the Heavenly Falls, so named because Garden designer, Professor Tono felt it appeared to flow down from the Milky Way, known as the “River of Stars” in Japanese.
Gravel in the Sand and Stone Garden is raked to evoke thoughts of water. Straight lines may be calm water, small waves and a gentle stream, and larger waves, fast-moving water or waves breaking. A swirl pattern may be a whirlpool and overlapping semi-circles call to mind ocean-waves or the surf breaking on a rocky coast.
Water shapes many of the features in our Cultural Crossing expansion. Cascading ponds outside the new Welcome Center will be the first feature to greet visitors before they enter through the Garden’s gates. From the edge of the water, guests will meander up the zigzag path rising through a series of terraces with low native trees and shrubs, moving towards the forested and mossy hillside.
An ephemeral water feature below our new tea café will collect rooftop runoff water during the rainy season and channel it down the hill. As guests sit to enjoy a traditionally prepared tea and small treat in the Garden’s first-ever tea café, they will see and hear the sound of water flowing beneath them.
The experiences with water allow guests to absorb the Garden in all its glory; truly cleansing the mind, body, and soul.