Himeji Japanese Gardens, Adelaide

[Keith Kellett]

In April 1982, Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, became the ‘Sister City’ of Himeji, an ancient city in Japan, now a port and a major industrial centre, most importantly the home of the headquarters of Nissan Steel.

When Colonel William Light laid out the city of Adelaide in 1836, he said that the city centre should be encircled by parkland, upon which nobody would ever be allowed to build houses.

And, in that parkland, to commemorate the link between the two cities, they laid out a Japanese garden, which was opened in 1985 by Mrs. Wendy Chapman, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide. There are many Japanese gardens around the world … in fact, there is one only a couple of miles from where I live … but these are often interpretations by Western gardeners of what a Japanese garden looks like.

This is the real thing … designed by a Japanese gardener, and constructed with voluntary labour from employees of the Kumada Gardening Company, in Himeji.

The garden is on South Terrace; if you have Google Earth, the co-ordinates are 34°56’08.81” S 138°36’35.60” E. But, this picture gives no indication of the peace and tranquillity within, even though the busy city centre is only a few hundred metres away,

It is the kind of surrounding which commands silence, in the same way a forest or a Christian cathedral or church does. It is not, though, the enforced silence imposed by a library or a reading room. You just know this is a place where, if you talk at all, you talk quietly.

 It is called The Garden of Imagination, so I shall try to tell how I interpreted the features, aided by the excellent leaflet which a visitor to the garden can obtain free of charge from a box at the entrance.

This leaflet, besides describing the features of the garden, invites the visitor to ask himself or herself a number of questions, to better understand what the garden is about.

The main features of a Japanese garden are the evergreen trees, shrubs and plants, signifying continuity; the long life of the Black Pine, the dominant tree, suggests immortality. The Himeji Gardens are laid out in two styles … the ‘lake and mountain’ garden, represented by the lake, waterfall and mounds. The ‘dry garden’, with the open-sided tea-house on two of its sides, consists of rocks and raked sand, which is said to invoke images of islands in the sea.

But, it really can be anything you wish; oases in a desert, or hills and woods among ploughed fields.

You go in by way of a gatehouse, modelled on a temple, which, the leaflet says, ensures that the garden is entered with the appropriate reverence. Close to hand is a water bowl, so visitors may, if they wish, purify themselves by washing their hands and mouth. It is so positioned that visitors must kneel to use the bowl, thus adopting a humble attitude appropriate to the garden, which, to some people, is a holy place.

Shortly after entering, you will see a stone lantern, presented by the citizens of Himeji. I have seen lanterns of a similar kind in western gardens, usually used as a mailbox or a birdhouse, planted with flowers or just installed because it looks nice. But, as with everything else, it has a meaning … which is not explained to you; it means different things to different people, and you must work out its significance to you by yourself.

An intriguing feature is the deer scarer, which is simply a piece of hollow bamboo on a pivot, placed under a little cascade in a stream to catch the falling water.. When the weight of captured water is sufficient, the bamboo tube empties, and hits the rock underneath with a loud ‘clack’

Right in the centre of the garden is a Japanese milestone, telling us, in English and Japanese, that the city of Himeji is 8050 kilometres away.

Paths wind past all these features, to the well, from which pure water for the tea ceremony is supposed to be drawn. And, you would take your tea in the open-sided tea house, while contemplating the ‘dry garden’

Even the stones in the garden have their meaning. Some of the stones in the path are stepping stones, so placed as to slow your progress, so you have to admire the garden. Others mark places where you can appreciate the entire scene.

And, that low forested mound represents a mountain; there’s a spring flowing from it, cascading into the lake below, which you can cross by means of a simple stone bridge.

To many, it’s just a quiet, pleasant place to walk, away from the bustle of the busy city, or just eat lunchtime sandwiches.

It is really a place for contemplation. One of the questions which the leaflet invites visitors to consider is: ‘How do you think a Japanese garden differs from an Australian one’. But, they do not give the answers! You have to think about it, and work out your own answers.

However, I have a few words I wrote in my note-book at the time:

‘A garden is the world in miniature; my garden is a representation of how I would like the world to be … a Japanese garden represents the world as it is.'