Japanese Aesthetic Garden

At Korakuen in Tokyo…

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Sam Po: It’s a promenade garden, designed to be strolled through, the winding paths revealing something new around each corner.

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Aesthetic rice harvest

Vizzie Torr: It certainly surprises. Mountains in miniature, rivers, lakes, forests, teahouse, pavilion, and at the end, a rice field.

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Sam Po: Where they actually grow rice. Aesthetics combined with pragmatics.

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Vizzie Torr: Well, I’d have to say that the rice-growing is more for show than to take to the market.

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Sam Po: But all this in the heart of Tokyo, outside the wall are hotels, schools, a baseball dome, an amusement park.

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Voice-over

Korakuen checks a lot of boxes in evaluating a Japanese aesthetic garden: miniaturization, concealment, scenery-borrowing, asymmetry. Japanese parks to be strolled through show the best of nature in a limited space.

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