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I once read an excerpt of a Portuguese priest's report about his travel to Japan in Edo period - there was a remark about how exquisitely beautiful Japanese gar
by yongjik 6y ago
I once read an excerpt of a Portuguese priest's report about his travel to Japan in Edo period - there was a remark about how exquisitely beautiful Japanese gardens are, and how much the Japanese care about them. Then he says no garden had any fruit trees, because the Japanese considered such trees utterly unworthy of their attention.
Like European lawns, apparently these gardens had to flaunt total lack of practical benefit, like peacocks' feathers.
- jolmg 6y ago> considered such trees utterly unworthy of their attention. That doesn't read like wanting to flaunt lack of practical benefit. Might it not be more about fruit trees and non-fruit trees requiring different forms of attention? Like having to clean up after possibly-sticky, rotting fruit, etc. You can't rake fruit like you would with leaves. If anything, non-fruit trees seem more practical.
- yongjik 6y agoI'm paraphrasing from memory, but the priest made it clear that the Japanese considered fruit trees unworthy of their garden, not just "requiring different maintenance." (Well, of course, I don't know how fluent the priest's Japanese was, so there might be a game of telephone occurring here ...)
- ekianjo 6y agoFruit trees would also attract all sorts of animals and you probably don't want that if you manage a garden.