Murin-An garden, Kyoto, and its backdrop of mountain and sky. This garden is a recent creation, dating only from 1900, and shows how modern-day adepts of this thousand-year old art continue to practise it with perfect mastery. Photo : Claude Gagné

Although a Japanese garden is always confined to a clearly defined space, it cannot exist in isolation from its environment.

It must be in complete harmony with its surroundings.

In about the 17^th century, a new landscaping concept emerged in Japan, known as the "borrowed scenery" technique, or shakkei.

	Heian Jingu temple garden, Kyoto. Photo : Claude Gagné

The garden includes far-off scenic features in its vistas, using them like a backdrop to create greater perspective and the illusion of unlimited depth.

It may be a mountain on the horizon, the splendours of an adjacent cherry orchard, or the distant blue flash of the sea, seamlessly worked into the man-made garden to produce a combined harmony approaching the sublime.

Open Windows on Japanese Gardens 1. Opening a window onto a universe 2. A very famous Zen garden 3. Step by step on stepping stones 4. Endless maintenance 5. Key to the project: the choice of stone 6. The birth of a "Japanese" garden in Montréal 7. Wanted: Hardy species 8. The three religions of Japan 9. Three gardens, three relationships between man and Nature 10. Shakkei or borrowed scenery 11. Living symbols 12. 3, 5, 7 13. Of appearance and essence 14. Precious, colourful carp 15. Mineral strength 16. Changing scale 17. The spirit of stone 18. Islands of the Immortals 19. Plants and time 20. Discreet but essential ground covers 21. Shrubs and the art of plant sculpture 22. Trees, venerable above all 23. Water, a moving mirror of life 24. A pond and its fish 25. Islands and bridges 26.Flowing, shimmering water 27. Listen to your Heart 28. Some important dates

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