What are the water basins for?
Water plays a very important role in Japanese gardens. Basins are placed throughout the garden in special locations to allow visitors to purify themselves, both physically (by washing their hands and drinking the water) and spiritually (by symbolically washing away their cares). What is a Zen garden? The term “Zen garden” was coined in the 1950s to refer to the abstract rock and sand gardens found at Zen Buddhist temples in Japan. The correct term for this type of garden is karesansui, or dry garden. Many of these gardens are made strictly of sand or gravel beds along with an arrangement of boulders. Others may include plants. The sand in a dry garden is raked in patterns representing waves, ripples or even rice paddies. Other patterns are simply abstract and follow the flow of the garden. Are all the plants in Japanese gardens from Japan? The plants in Sansho-En were chosen because they grow well in the Chicago area, not because they are native to Japan. Some Japanese plants require a
