The streams of the Japanese gardens

The Kaiyu-shiki-teien Japanese gardens, designed for promenade, are always featuring water: one or more lakes, maybe a waterfall and sometimes even streams of water like the one in this photo, the Koraku-en Garden from Okayama.

As with all the other elements, there are strict rules for the streams from the Japanese gardens, derived from Buddhist divination principles: according to the Sakuteiki ("Records of Garden Making"), the oldest Japanese book about garden design, the stream should cross the garden from East to West - that way, the stream will carry away the evil and the garden will always attract good fortune.