Sakuteiki

The Sakuteiki (Japanese作 庭 记, dt about: "Garden design book" ) is a guide to garden design. It dates from the Japan of the Heian period, probably from the second half of the 11th century, making it one of the oldest works that deal with the aesthetic design of gardens.

Tradition history

The oldest version of the Sakuteiki is a signature that is found on two transverse rollers. Both are 28.5 cm high, the first 1114.2 cm long and the second 950.0 cm long. The tradition history is linked with the family Maeda, who was in possession of the roles and let make copies. The only remaining intact copy is named after the owning family Tanimura roles.

These roles still have no title. In the Kamakura period was called the work Senzai Hissho (前 栽 秘 抄, dt "secrets of the garden "). Only in the Edo period, the title Sakuteiki can be detected. In 1800, the text has been added to the source collection Gunsho Ruijū and thereby transmitted in block letters.

Author

The author is not known: while earlier Fujiwara no Yoshitsune held for the author, the recent research assumes that there Tachibana no Toshitsuna (1028-1094) was written. Toshitsuna, son of Fujiwara no Yorimichi long time in the imperial building administration, worked. It is known that he has designed several gardens and even two estate owned. An anecdote tells that he had to the Emperor Shirakawa claims his own garden was more beautiful than the Imperial.

It is also possible that it has multiple authors given and the work was compiled later in today's traditional form.

Content

The Sakuteiki deals with the design of gardens and other open spaces in shinden style in the context of aristocratic estate. Central design elements are rocks, water and trees. Thus, the work deals with 17 different types of water areas, eight types of waterfalls and 16 different plants, but according to the shinden style, it contains comparatively little about stones.

It comes in several passages to technical instructions with exact measurements and instructions. The larger part, about two-thirds of the book deals with religious and philosophical aspects of garden design.

This context, the influence of Shinto, Chinese geomancy ( Feng Shui ), and make up of Buddhism. They are reflected in particular in numerous instructions to the compass down: such as stones in relation to standing on the building or the direction in which a stream should flow through the garden.

Documents

• Jiro Takei, Marc Peter Keane: Sakuteiki or the art of the Japanese garden. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-4496-4.

• Literary work
• Literature ( 11th century )
• Literature (Japanese)
• Horticultural literature