Japanese garden Akadama stones

The stones are a customary decoration in the Japanese gardens, regardless of the type of the garden. In the Zen rock gardens, the rocks are objects of contemplation and have clear meanings, like mountains or islands, and groups of stones can even represent various religious symbols, like cranes and turtles...

In a strolling type garden, the usage of the stones is less symbolic, they can still represent miniature mountains, but often they are just simple stepping stones or even ornaments. However, many gardens are proud to feature unusual rocks, some brought in from a great distance, like these rare red stones from the New Otani garden from Tokyo, called Akadama stones, which were brought here from the west coast near Niigata.