Japanese Gardens for today. David Engel

and the enunciation and compilation of conventional rules came in the later years of the feudal Edo period. Previous to that time there was much greater freedom and flexibility in garden making. The garden artist-builder. designed according to his own artistic judgment, without caring whether the finished product would or would not fit into any particular category. This is how it should always be. The over-conventionalization and standardization of garden design led in later years to a stultification and discouragement of originality of design. The modern garden builder, with an eye to the needs of the people who will use the garden, certainly will not want to be tied down to outworn rules and patterns. He can build his garden and achieve that wonderful unity with nature without being hemmed in by the academic restrictions of garden scholars who have done a painstaking job in classifying gardens, but have never wrestled with the problem of creating one.

      The pitfalls of blindly following standard conventional patterns and rigid classifications are unmistakable. Yet for the purpose of orientation, we may benefit by knowing what these standard conventions and classifications are.