Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/264

JAPAN sometimes of colossal dimensions, providing paths for cascades or imparting mystery to the shadows of overhanging trees; and from grassy parterres massive boulders thrust strangely streaked or curiously shaped shoulders, adding notes of colour and suggestions of rude grandeur to the landscape. These rocks are free from offensive traces of artificiality. They are so skilfully disposed that they seem to have grown old in their places, and while their massive and reposeful effects are carefully preserved, all harshness of outline is relieved by nestling mosses or billowy shrubs and bushes. There is scarcely any limit to the sums expended on laying out these pleasure-grounds and on their up-keep. Huge rocks are transported from great distances,—rocks honeycombed by the beating of ocean waves; rocks smelted into quaint forms by the furnaces of volcanoes; rocks hollowed and gnarled by the teeth of torrents; petrifactions from the depths of inland seas, and richly tinted masses from mineral districts,—all these are sought for and treasured as a dilettante in Europe or America prizes the contents of his picture gallery. To produce in miniature celebrated landscapes or waterscapes, years are devoted to searching for counterparts of their components, or to training trees and shrubs in facsimile of the originals planted there by nature. In one of the celebrated parks of Tōkyō—a gem which, rough-hewed by old-time experts with resources 236