Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/116

70 Lilies and Maples, have also found a new home?

Pagodas, although a direct importation from China,—or, rather, one by way of Korea,—have much the same effect in a garden as have stone lanterns. It may be owing to my bias for things Japanese, as contrasted with Chinese, or it may be (and I think it is) because lanterns have their sphere of usefulness and pagodas have not, that I cannot share the Japanese enthusiasm for them. Every other thing to be found in a Japanese garden has its use—if pure ornament can be considered of economic value; but pagodas have nothing to recommend them but their quaintness. Of course, where the larger originals appear in a scene which is being reproduced in miniature, they are, perhaps, necessary according to the Japanese ideas, but I confess to rather a prejudice against them. They may be all very well for Dora’s dog, Jip, to lie in, or to exhibit the piety and riches of some big man in China; but they look foolish and futile even in that land, and much more so in Japan, where they are a deliberate imitation.

However, this is not the view taken by the Japanese themselves, so I will try to find what extenuating circumstances I can for them, according to my judgment.