Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/137

Rh performing with simple charm the work required of them.

When we come to bamboo fences, there is such a wonderful variety that one hardly knows where to begin to describe. First of all, it should be said that here, as always, the style and degree of finish must depend upon that of the garden which the fence is to surround. There are three grades of workmanship—the rough, which is often the prettiest, the medium, and the highly wrought.

Of the first degree, bamboos sliced in half, or in quarters, and tied on to upright supports of whole tubes of the same material, would give one a fair idea, while a delicately woven and plaited paling of basket-work panels might represent the more elaborate kinds. Between these run all sorts of grades and shades of difference.

The methods of tying the bamboos, the material used, and the design, if I may call it so, of the knots, immensely increase the variety. Then there are open as well as closed bamboo fences, high and low ones, simple and severe, fanciful and elaborate kinds, and combinations of all these. There are fences with ‘Moon-entering’ openings, others closed below and latticed above, or with round or square windows set in the solid part, that discover adorable twisted Plum branches, with their delicate snowflake blooms set off against the shadow of the garden behind. There are fences which