en in the ensuing years. This new style of garden which came into being at the end of the 16th century as a result of the townspeople's interest in tea, was called a “tea garden”. People were actually required to walk through a tea garden and it provided a number of design pointers for the development of the “stroll garden”, which will become so popular during the Edo period. Furthermore, because the culture of tea came to occupy such a prominent position in the hearts and minds of the Japanese people, such essential elements in a tea garden were a Oribe (stone lantern), a Chozubaci (stone basin for cleansing the hands and mouth), and stepping stone paths all became symbolic of the Japanese garden. During the first half of the 17th century, garden design became far more uninhibited. Prominent in this new development was the work of Kobori Enshu, most distinguished tea master of the era. Enshu was commissioned by his brother in law Shokado Shojo to build a teahouse at Ryoko-in. Shakado was then asked bye Enshu to paint its fusuma (paper walls) because he was one of the pioneers of simplified Zen calligraphy and was also a tea master. Enshu displayed considerable talent as both a garden designer and architect, while also occupying a position of some influence in the Shogunate and being responsible for instructing the Shogun's family in the “way of tea”. Enshu developed his own design concept of “contrasting natural and man-made elements,” and proceeded to introduce geometric design elements into the Japanese garden with all its passions for the natural. Using such things as straight pieces of dressed stone to edge water and paths composed of rectangular stone elements and naturally formed ones, he opened the doors on a new world of original design. It was Enshu who employed a linear design for the lake at Sentogosho (part of the Imperial residence in Kyoto). The Edo period spanning the ...
