5:15 PM - 7:15 PM
[HCG18-P02] Appreciation of Japanese Gardens by Russian Visitors in the XIX century
Keywords:Japanese Garden, 19th century, Russian
Russian visitors, who visited Japan in the second half of the XIX, admired the beauty of Japanese nature and highly appreciated its natural landscapes. As for the "man-made" nature, i.e. Japanese gardens, their reaction was not so enthusiastic. As we can consider a garden to be a kind of attempt to “improve nature”, to create an “ideal natural space”, differences in the perception of gardens by representatives of different cultures reveal also the differences of their image of “ideal nature”. This paper examines such cultural differences on the example of appreciation of gardens by Russians and Japanese of the XIX century.
Russian visitors in their memoirs appreciated the beauty of Japanese gardens, but at the same time they always noted the “diminutiveness” of Japanese gardens, their “originality” and “peculiarity”, compared them to a child’s toy. The size was of considerable importance to Russian travellers. However, there were, of course, other criteria for evaluation, and they can be clearly seen from the descriptions of Japanese ‘wild’ nature. First of all, the ‘quality’ of greenery (a very common characteristic - ‘luxurious vegetation’) and the variety of landscape species influenced its highest evaluation. Russian visitors appreciated large spaces, “spectacular and elegant views of nature”, wide alleys and huge trees growing ‘as they want’. The latter poit expains why Russians didn’t like trimmed pines, which are sometimes described as “ugly” and obviously unnatural. From the point of view of a 19th-century Russian traveller, only dense and natural vegetation is really good - and this is obviously at odds with the traditional Japanese views on the subject.
It is not surprising that places that are traditionally famous among the Japanese for their beauty made almost no impression on Europeans: very few people wrote about them and if they did, they did it quite restrainedly. In fact, Russian travellers are trully attracted by completely different places and landscapes - as mentioned above, the main criteria for a place to be considered beautiful are beautiful dense vegetation and a variety of landscapes.
Of course, European tastes influenced Japanese perception and, consequently, garden art. During the Meiji era an attempt was made to ‘reformat the concept of the garden’. The greatest public attention was drawn to the ‘new type’ of garden, which had to be in keeping with the spirit of the era and, of course, to meet European tastes. The most important manifestation of the new trends is the emergence in Japan of European-type parks as public spaces (such as Ueno Park). But, as can be judged from the memoirs, the parks that appeared in Japan due to European influence did not seem to be attractive to Russian travellers. From the point of view of Russian taste, these parks had only one advantage: their size, but they could offer neither the luxurious vegetation nor a sufficient variety of species: also, perhaps the impression would be better if the parks had fewer buildings and more plants.
Russian visitors mentioned in the text:
Azbelev Ivan
de Vollan Gregory
Golovnin Vasily
Goncharov Ivan
Knorring Feodor
Krasnov Alexander
Krestovsky Vsevolod
Russian visitors in their memoirs appreciated the beauty of Japanese gardens, but at the same time they always noted the “diminutiveness” of Japanese gardens, their “originality” and “peculiarity”, compared them to a child’s toy. The size was of considerable importance to Russian travellers. However, there were, of course, other criteria for evaluation, and they can be clearly seen from the descriptions of Japanese ‘wild’ nature. First of all, the ‘quality’ of greenery (a very common characteristic - ‘luxurious vegetation’) and the variety of landscape species influenced its highest evaluation. Russian visitors appreciated large spaces, “spectacular and elegant views of nature”, wide alleys and huge trees growing ‘as they want’. The latter poit expains why Russians didn’t like trimmed pines, which are sometimes described as “ugly” and obviously unnatural. From the point of view of a 19th-century Russian traveller, only dense and natural vegetation is really good - and this is obviously at odds with the traditional Japanese views on the subject.
It is not surprising that places that are traditionally famous among the Japanese for their beauty made almost no impression on Europeans: very few people wrote about them and if they did, they did it quite restrainedly. In fact, Russian travellers are trully attracted by completely different places and landscapes - as mentioned above, the main criteria for a place to be considered beautiful are beautiful dense vegetation and a variety of landscapes.
Of course, European tastes influenced Japanese perception and, consequently, garden art. During the Meiji era an attempt was made to ‘reformat the concept of the garden’. The greatest public attention was drawn to the ‘new type’ of garden, which had to be in keeping with the spirit of the era and, of course, to meet European tastes. The most important manifestation of the new trends is the emergence in Japan of European-type parks as public spaces (such as Ueno Park). But, as can be judged from the memoirs, the parks that appeared in Japan due to European influence did not seem to be attractive to Russian travellers. From the point of view of Russian taste, these parks had only one advantage: their size, but they could offer neither the luxurious vegetation nor a sufficient variety of species: also, perhaps the impression would be better if the parks had fewer buildings and more plants.
Russian visitors mentioned in the text:
Azbelev Ivan
de Vollan Gregory
Golovnin Vasily
Goncharov Ivan
Knorring Feodor
Krasnov Alexander
Krestovsky Vsevolod