{{Short description|11th-century Japanese text on garden-making}} {{italic title}} {{nihongo|'''''Sakuteiki'''''|作庭記||literally, ''Records of Garden Making''}} is the oldest published Japanese text on garden-making. It was most likely the work of Tachibana Toshitsuna.<ref>Tanaka, Tan. (1992). [https://books.google.com/books?id=PVZfx3Y6o5IC&dq=Sakuteiki&pg=PA79 "Early Japanese Horticultural Treatises and Pure Land Buddhist Style: ''Sakuteki'' and Its Background in Ancient Japan and China"] in ''Garden History: Issues, Approaches, Methods'' (John Dixon Hunt, ed.), p. 79.</ref>
''Sakuteiki'' is most likely the oldest garden planning text in the world. It was written in the mid-to-late 11th century.<ref>Takei, Jiro ''et al.'' (2001). [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Eunlt5YbXcC&pg=PA3 ''Sakuteiki Visions of the Japanese Garden: A Modern Translation of Japan's Gardening Classic,'' p. 3 n1].</ref> Later during the Kamakura period, it was referred to as the '''''Senzai Hisshō''''', or the ''Secret Selection on Gardens'' before it acquired the title ''Sakuteiki'' in the Edo period.
==Overview== The unillustrated ''Sakuteiki'' is the first systematic record of the styles of gardening in the Heian period, which had been the product of oral tradition for many years. It precisely defines the art of landscape gardening as an aesthetic endeavor based on poetic feeling of the designer and the site.<ref>Kuitert, Wybe. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=dVr1-YSziUIC&pg=PA30 ''Themes in the History of Japanese Garden Art,'' p. 30-52]. ([https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313236651_Themes_in_the_History_of_Japanese_Garden_Art Online as PDF])</ref> It enumerates five styles of gardening, including * 大海の様, the "Ocean Style" (''taikai no yō'')<ref name="takei162">Takei, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Eunlt5YbXcC&pg=PA162 p. 162].</ref> * 山河の様, the "Mountain Torrent Style" (''yama kawa no yō'')<ref name="takei162"/> * 大河の様, the "Broad River Style" (''taiga no yō'')<ref name="takei162"/> * 沼池の様, the "Wetland Style" (''numa ike no yō'')<ref name="takei162"/> * 蘆手の様, the "Reed Style" (''ashide no yō'')<ref name="takei162"/>
The ''Sakuteiki'' was written in a time during which the placing of stones was the most important part of gardening, and it literally defined the art of garden making, using the expression ''ishi wo tateru koto'' (石を立てること, literally, "the act of standing up stones") to mean not only stone placement but garden making itself. It advises the reader not only how to place the stones but also how to follow the "desire" of the stones.
==See also== * Japanese garden * Japanese rock garden
==Notes== {{reflist}}
== References == * Takei, Jiro and Marc P. Keane. (2001). ''Sakuteiki Visions of the Japanese Garden: A Modern Translation of Japan's Gardening Classic.'' Boston, Massachusetts: Tuttle Publishing. {{ISBN|0-8048-3294-3}} * Kuitert, Wybe, (2002) ''Themes in the History of Japanese Garden Art'', Hawaii University Press, Honolulu, ([https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313236651_Themes_in_the_History_of_Japanese_Garden_Art Online as PDF]) ({{ISBN|0-8248-2312-5}})
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Profitable Arte Of Gardening}} Category:Gardening in Japan Category:Books about gardening Category:Heian-period books
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