Have you ever seen an authentic Japanese garden? Well, I had the opportunity to see the one in Monaco and I was also very impressed. Do you want to taste a bit of Japanese culture? Stepping on this ground is escaping from the real world to a fantasy land. Suddenly you find yourself in a typical Japanese natural environment like the ones you see in the wonderful paintings. The only thing missing is the mist. Instead, the Mediterranean sun reveals all the minute details in warm light.

With Japanese gardens, what you see isn’t everything; the surface of things is the mere reflection of the psyche of an ancient culture. One really needs to be literally “educated” in this direction to better appreciate the value of this art. (which I myself was not at the time of my visit! And it was a pity because I did not know what to look for and what to analyze better!) One can speak of a philosophy of gardening coming from ancient Japan. Japanese gardening is an art that goes beyond the arrangements of vegetation, water and stone, but is full of symbols:

* Koko – the veneration of the eternal age;

* Shizen – the avoidance of the artificial;

* Yugen, or darkness – implies the mysterious or subtle;

* Miegakure – complete expression avoidance

The perception of nature is different in Japanese culture than in Europe. Instead of seeing nature only as something to be subjugated and transformed according to the man-made ideal of beauty, the Japanese developed a close connection with nature, regarding it as sacred, an ally in putting food on the table, and an ideal. of beauty in itself. That is why Japanese gardens are the synthesis of nature in miniature instead of the correction of nature as is the case with European gardens.

Actually, the design of Japanese gardens comes from the Chinese model. The story goes back in time, around 100 BC. C. when the emperor of China, Wu Di of the Han dynasty, established a garden that contained three small islands, imitating the Islands of the Immortals, who were the main Taoist deities. An envoy from Japan saw this and brought the idea back to Japan, improving on existing Japanese practices.

The Japanese Garden in Monaco was designed at the request of Prince Rainier, thus fulfilling a wish that Princess Grace had expressed during her lifetime. The garden was designed by the landscaper Yasuo Beppu, it has 7,000 square meters, its construction took 3 years and it was inaugurated in 1994.

Specific elements

* The wall (Heï) with an intermediate bamboo fence (Takégaki) that represents fragility and simplicity.

* The main gate (Sho-mon)

* The stone lanterns (Tôrô) – each with different special characteristics;

* The lake (Ike) with big hissing goldfish.

* The Stone Fountain (Fusen-Ishi)

* The covered terrace (Kyukeïjo)

* The islands (Shima) – represent two long-lived animals – the tortoise and the crane, symbols of complementarity expressed

* The Tea House (Chatshitsu) – called the Garden of Grace (Ga-én)

* The dry landscape (Karésansui) – quintessence of the Cosmos

* The Belvedere (Azumaya) – a house on a hill that allows you to see in all four corners

* The waterfall (Taki) – symbolizes the strength of Man and Nature, contrasting with the horizontality of the lake.

* The arched red bridge (Taïkobashi) – is red, the color of happiness and is narrow to make it difficult to access the divine island.

There are olive trees, cherry trees, conifers, azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias, a varied and rich vegetation of Mediterranean, South American, Australian, African and Asian origin, pruned according to the Japanese tradition.

Strolling through the crowded Monaco, with all its stone, steel and glass, you can find in the Japanese Garden an oasis of peace and greenery where even the large number of tourists go unnoticed, wandering along the winding paths, through the thicket of the garden. .