Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/276

, and a sea-beach is sketched by a mound of sand and a stunted pine. There is also a favourite style of Cha-no-yu garden which may be called a studied wilderness. Trees and shrubs are encouraged to grow in rustic confusion, so that, viewed from the veranda of the pavilion, nature is seen in her fresh and least artificial mood. Of course these austere canons are frequently departed from. Sometimes the designer of a Cha-no-yu garden follows the principle that if only he works in miniature, he may fill in all the details of the picture and make it perfectly representative. Exquisite gems of gardens on a tiny scale have thus been produced, but it need scarcely be said that the solecism is never perpetrated of associating these finished efforts of art with the essentially inornate style of Cha-no-yu edifice. Some pavilions intended for the practice of the tea ceremonial, though of dimensions restricted in careful obedience to rule, are constructed with materials of the rarest and costliest nature, and it would be absurd to lay out the grounds of such edifices in the sketchy, rude style of the classic system.

The Tea Ceremonial is a conspicuous example of the radical modification that many customs, derived from abroad, underwent in Japanese hands. Its embryo came from China, but its full-grown conventions as practised by the Japanese would not be recognised in the land of their origin. Great interest attaches to it, not 248