Nature arranged into a living painting – The culture of Japanese gardens through the eyes of Zoltán Dani

Nature arranged into a living painting

The culture of Japanese gardens through the eyes of Zoltán Dani

The video was filmed in the public Japanese Garden of Szentendre, which is a project that began in 2010. Most of the constructions was made by volunteer work, and the building is still in progress. This project was brought to life by landscape architect Zoltán Dani, fueled by his love and admiration for Japanese gardens.

Dani graduated in economics but around the age of 35 he turned to Japanese garden architecture. He loved Japanese gardens since he was a child, when around the age of 7 he was taken to one in their neighborhood in Cluj-Napoca. First he started to learn on his own, then studied at the Dharma Gate Buddhist College for three years, but he realized that the knowledge he can gain in Hungary is limited. So he went to Japan where he learned the craft for six years and now he is the only professional in the Eastern Central European region having a Japanese certificate to build authentic Japanese gardens.  So this public garden is also a teaching project or teaching field for students, who are training to be landscape architects. Those students can practice here for free, how to build authentic Japanese gardens.

There are three main gardens styles in Japan. First is the ’Paradise Garden’, a type of ’water garden’ that originates in China. This started to spread in Japan around the 860's while being changed and adapted to suite the Japanese taste. This tried to recreate the world of the gods to learn their secrets. But as humanity evolves, from searching for ways on the outside they started to turn inward. When the power shifts from the imperial court to the shogunate, the effects invoked new ways to cope with the circumstances. With the second wave of Buddhism and the introduction of Zen meditation, a new style of meditation gardens, which we also call samurai gardens. This ’Karesansui’ style is already a symbolic one; as is consists not of an Eden like scenery but of rocks and pebbles. These can have multiple meanings, just like a poem it can depend on the individual’s perception. It is said that the Ryoanji Temple’s garden in Kyoto is supposed to have 17 different interpretations. Later with the third wave of Buddhism comes also tea ceremony to Japan. For the ceremonies tea gardens will be built and with the spread of this culture the concept of democracy appears maybe for the first time in Japan. Because in the tea ceremonial space everyone is equal; they have to step inside without their swords and have to interact regardless of their ranks, which brings a whole new perspective. 

Dani calls the Japanese gardens 3 dimensional paintings, where the fourth dimension is time; the scenery changes as the people walk in it, it is like a picture book you can walk in. As time passed, the Japanese combined the different styles, which Dani and his crew are striving to follow in their garden construction to get an authentic result. Most Japanese gardens nowadays looks like this: stepping in the park one sees a Karesansui dry meditation garden, passing that being already in a meditated state one comes to the paradise (water) garden. In there is a small closed off space (50m2) for the tea garden, where only the ones participating in the ceremony can enter. Others can only look at it from outside. In Kyoto one can find the different garden styles on their own but also combined. And in newer trends event the elements of the styles get mixed (e.g. the stone lantern and water basins are brought into the Karesansui garden.
 

The public Japanese Garden in Szentendre was designed to feature all the three styles mentioned. At the moment they have the first two, as the construction of the tea garden got delayed due to the pandemic. When the situation gets under control they plan to invite Dani’s master/teacher again to lead the construction so they can finish the basic construction by adding the third style.

The Japanese can be viewed as the garden culture with the longest recorded history. Dani wanted to bring this culture back to Hungary, because he perceives it as an art like painting. With the urbanization and the price of housing constantly rising, the garden culture comes to the rescue of the mind and spirit in the urbanized space. Also it has an aesthetic aspect, refreshing the urban landscape. It is also important that people are educated on Japanese gardens, therefore we are trying to organize events and programs where people can gain more understanding of this culture.
 

In the long run, Dani deems his work successful, if there will be others following his footsteps and hopefully even surpass his knowledge. As the Japanese say: The master cannot tell you anything, but you are allowed to ’steal his craft’, i.e. you can watch what he is doing but it is your responsibility how much you could perceive and learn. The students there work for 6 years only for clothes and food and boarding. If they are doing well, they will earn a certificate to build Japanese gardens. Dani hopes to have students, who can use the knowledge of Japanese garden building and adapt this structure to the urban space, saving our environment and our cities.

His experience in Japan was very profound. He visited more than 130 gardens in Kyoto; some multiple times, during the day and the night, sitting there for 5-6 hours to study the different looks of the garden as the light changes. He realized that interpreting the different styles can be difficult even for Japanese people as there are so many symbolic layers, especially tea gardens which can be fully comprehended only in relation with the tea ceremony. Therefore, to fully enjoy this culture one needs to learn. In Japan the circle of nature and the seasons is a focal point, the gardens are structured to show a different but equally beautiful side in each season. In the Japanese Garden of Szentendre they strived to follow this structure and dedicate space for all four seasons.

Dani learned his craft in Kyoto, which is also called the capital of gardens. Youngsters from all across Japan go there to learn next to one of the prominent garden architect families. The most well-known families like Ueji go back to 8 generations; the one where Dani learned was a 4 generation garden architect family, which counts also as very prestigious. He experienced quite a culture shock stepping into the highly hierarchic system of traditional Japanese professions, where one has to start at the bottom, doing chores and work hard to earn the trust of the master and the fellow apprentices. Accepting this difference in the Japanese and European mentality, he worked hard towards his goal to learn as much as possible, and in the end he not only gained knowledge regarding Japanese gardens but also true friendships that continued even after his return to Hungary and are still strong today. These friends, who helped Dani to learn and grow in Japan have later helped his project in Szentendre, contributing to the creation of the public Japanese Garden.