Japanese garden aesthetic principles, Miniaturization

The fourth part of the "Japanese garden aesthetic principles" series of articles

It is common practice for the Japanese garden designers to symbolically represent mountains, islands or seas through miniaturization. Thus, a simple mound represents a mountain, a pond is a sea and a rock is an island...

But sometimes the miniaturization is taken to the extreme, like this truly remarkable miniature garden, photographed inside a small temple from Minato, Tokyo: an entire garden built on a rock no bigger than a chair... The trees a real bonsai, there are several stone paths and even miniature stone lanterns! Absolutely beautiful...