Design
The 5.5 acre Portland Japanese Garden is composed of five distinct garden styles. As a Japanese garden, the desired effect is to realize a sense of peace, harmony, and tranquility and to experience the feeling of being a part of nature. In a deep sense, a Japanese garden is a living reflection of the history and traditional culture of Japan. Influenced by Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies.
Three of the essential elements used to create the garden are stone, the “bones” of the landscape; water, the life-giving force; and plants, the tapestry of the four seasons. Japanese garden designers feel that good stone composition is one of the most important elements in creating a well-designed garden. Secondary elements include pagodas, stone lanterns, water basins, arbors, and bridges. Japanese gardens are asymmetrical in design and reflect nature in idealized form. Traditionally, human scale is maintained throughout so that one always feels part of the environment and not overpowered by it. As Professor Tono wanted to incorporate native trees in the Portland Japanese Garden so that it would blend naturally with its environment, some of the plantings at the Garden are on a larger scale.
Read more about this topic: Portland Japanese Garden
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“What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)