Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/54

24 humanity): or even with the open-air cafés of France and Italy, with the pathos of their vines, and their struggling plants in pots or tubs!

So, from the end of the fourteenth century for two hundred years, the ‘Tea Garden’ Style—or what might be called the ‘Classical Japanese idea’ of gardens—reigned supreme; and although the modern, more ornate, more artificial modes were adopted later (so that the extravagance and luxury in garden adornment had to be curbed by Imperial Edict near the middle of the last century), yet we see in this style a sweet and poetic interpretation of Nature whchwhich [sic] has grown into the bone and sinew of the art, and which is to this day the most persistent feature in their gardens. Just as Buddhism has grown into the very lives of the people, has mingled itself with their ancient Shinto religion,—so that, though you may be born a Shintoist, you must die a Buddhist, —so these ‘back-to-nature’ ideas in gardening have grown into the innermost hearts of the people, rich and poor, wise and simple, and have become an expression of their character.

People are born poets and artists or they are not. In Japan generally they are; and even the mercenary and ‘progressive’ (save the