Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/87

Rh “The fifth is a long curved and bent boulder of horizontal character, rising higher at one end than at the other, and somewhat resembling the trunk of a recumbent animal; it is called the Kikiaku-seki, or ‘Recumbent-ox Stone.’

“Of the above five shapes, the Statue Stone, the Low Vertical Stone, and the Arching Stone are vertical in character, or what henceforth will be termed ‘Standing Stones,’ and the Flat Stone and Recumbent-ox Stone are of horizontal character, or ‘Reclining Stones.’ They are variously arranged in combinations of two, three, and five to form groups in the different parts of gardens, assisted by trees, shrubs, grasses, water-basins, and other ornamental objects. It is not to be supposed that such shapes are by any means exact; but natural rocks are chosen which approach as nearly as possible to the character indicated.”

These form the basis of the garden’s arrangement, and are almost invariably placed so that the upright stones serve as a foil for the recumbent ones. I may add that the artistic principle of triangles in composition—the eye being carried from the plane of the two sides to the apex—is practically never forgotten in any form of Japanese art, and reigns subtly and unobtrusively, but supremely, in their rock arrangements. Their gardens always ‘compose.’ Even a person who is not an artist will sit down at the ‘best