eals of popular religion in these eras. Therefor, in understanding each garden style in its context, it essential to also take into account the social, historical, and theological elements as well as the main stylist differences.Japanese aristocrats from at least mid-eighth century customarily had gardens near their homes. During the Heian period a somewhat standard type of garden evolved in accordance with the Shinden type of courtier mansion (Bring and Wayembergh, p. 28-29). Characteristic of the Heian period was its extremely rigid class stratification; life for the farmers, merchants and artisans consisted of very simplified dwellings in comparison to those of members of the aristocracy. The architecture “norm” for aristocratic homes was in the Shinden-zurkuri style, “which was clearly based on the principle that the individual parts of the building should be merged as much as possible into the garden” (Yoshida, p.12). The main building, named the Shinden, represented the area reserved for the master himself, and always opened up to the south side of the garden. There were corridors, or tai-no-ya, connecting the Shinden to the rest of the buildings in the complex. There corridors created an enclosure which is where a lake would be placed and where the stroll garden was erected.Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavilion (1394), serves as an example of this Shinden type. The site in northern Kyoto was developed as a large retirement estate by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1409) beginning in 1394. The pavilion itself was sited the edge of a sprawling palace complex that no longer exists today. This was intended as proof that the warrior shogunate could contribute to the cultural and aesthetic life of the land to an extent equal to that of the imperial aristocracy. It has been recorded that the actual emperor of Japan visited Kinkakuji in 1408, the first time an emperor had ever stayed with a person th...
