Meditation

日本庭園

Noen ganger er det fint å ta seg tid til å gå inn i seg selv og reflektere over livet

Jeg besøkte Japan Hagen ved Arboretet

Japanhagen is a Norwegian-Japanese friendship garden which in addition to Japanese plants contains elements from the Japanese garden tradition, such as bridges, lanterns, gravel garden, moss garden and a tea pavilion. Many Japanese plants thrive in the Norwegian climate. The Japanese garden was designed by the famous Japanese landscape architect Haruto Kobayashi. He has incorporated Japanese basic elements into a Norwegian nature. It is therefore not the intention that the garden at Milde should be an imitation of a historic facility in Japan. "This will be a garden for friendship and understanding between Japan and Norway" - this is how Kobayashi has expressed himself about the garden.

This Japanese cedar building is called a pavilion because it has openings in three walls. From here there is a good view of the gravel pond and the brook gorge, and the large openings provide a harmonious framing of the visual impressions from the garden and the surrounding nature.Every month there is a  tea ceremony in the Tea Pavilion. We smell, taste and experience exclusive Japanese tea, and learn a little about botany as well.

The garden has three bridges. The largest is a large and elegant wooden bridge that angles over the swamp by Vågelva. The walkway that goes on to the small wooden bridge is called the four-season path. A stone bridge lies in the transition between the brook gill and the gravel garden. Stone lanterns are very old elements in Japanese garden art, and there are several hundred named lamp types. At Milde there is 8 lanterns in central places in the garden. They are set up as an orientation point to show the direction inwards in the area. In the pond there are several islands, where two of them will symbolize Japan and Norway. Together, the islands form the Japanese characters for the heart. 

The Yukimi lantern stands by the brook gill and is a so-called "snow-viewing" lantern. The large roof is designed to collect snow. The "quiet" snow should provide a contrast to the water that makes a sound and the lantern is therefore often placed at the edge of the water, preferably with one leg out in the water. The Yukimi lantern that is supposed to catch snow fits well in our climate and in areas of Japan where they have cold winters. The Yukimi lantern is designed specifically for Japanese gardens and is not associated with religious sites. It was used in the 17th century and is thus much younger than the Kasuga lantern.

Lanterns are important elements in Japanese gardens and their use belongs to an ancient tradition that came to Japan from China and Korea. As important navigation points, the lanterns are placed in strategic places and their location is not random, but carefully determined by tradition in Japanese garden art. in the 600s.

The Kasuga lantern is a large lantern with a powerful pillar, a so-called Tachi-street lantern or pedestal lantern. It is very old and originally associated with religious sites. In Japan, Kasuga lanterns date back to the eighth century, from the time Nara was the capital. We have two Kasuga lanterns located at the main entrance and the entrance to the north, respectively.

The Misaki-street lantern belongs to the Oki-gata group, a type of lantern without bones and with the flame house standing directly on the ground. It is often placed on rocks and beach gravel and represents a cairn as a navigation point in the garden.

 On several of the lanterns we can find symbols that are strongly

 associated with Buddhism, e.g. the lotus flower and the deer.

The stone pagoda lacks flame houses to put light in and thus differs from the other lanterns. But we find again some of the same symbols that show connection to Buddhism, e.g. the lotus flower. The pagoda shape is also clearly inspired by Buddhist temple areas, where the number of floors should always be an odd number, e.g. five as on our stone pagoda.

In winter, we try to arrange lantern walks if we get a period of cold, windless weather and preferably snow cover over the ground

It was a nice and wonderful hike to the Arboretum (University Botanical Gardens.)

 Nice to go here alone and look at these nice Pagodas and

 get some introduction to Japanese culture

I lit a candle inside one of them.It must be nice here in the winter when it snows.

The tea house was also fun  visiting

.I thought to myself that everything has  a meaning

 and nothing is randomly placed at least not in this place.