Japanese garden at Cowden
The Japanese garden at Cowden is located near town of Dollar in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, on the grounds of the Cowden Castle estate. It was created in 1908 by Scottish traveller Ella Christie, but it was closed to the public in 1955 after an act of extensive vandalism.[1] After undergoing prolonged restoration under the supervision of Professor Masao Fukuhara of the Osaka University of Arts and with involvement of local teams and visiting students, the garden reopened in 2019.[2] The garden is the only one of its type in the world to have been designed by a Japanese woman, horticulturist Taki Handa.[3] It was tended over the years by Japanese gardener Shinzaburo Matsuo and supervised on several occasions by the Hereditary Head of the Soami School of Imperial Garden Design at Nagoya, Jijo Suzuki.[4] The Cowden Garden is now managed by the Cowden Castle SCIO charitable trust.[5]
Description
[edit]The garden, which was initially named in Japanese as Sha Raku En (the place of pleasure and delight) was later described in 1925 by Professor Jijo Suzuki as 'the most important Japanese garden in the Western World'.[6]
The garden itself is a stroll garden consisting of several acres of Japanese influenced landscape with a perimeter path around the small artificial loch.[7] There are two ornamental bridges — one zigzag (yatsuhashi) and another one arched (sorihashi) — both symbolising the human journey through life.
At the far end of the loch, there is a dry garden (karsansui), with four mossed rock islands presented as turtles and surrounded by raked pebbles. A number of different stone lanterns are placed along the path and several wooden roofed structures further decorate the landscape: the summer pavilion (azumaya), a thatched garden pavilion/tearoom (chashitsu), two roofed gates (on north and south sides each), and a main entrance gate (torii).
The site is populated with many endogenous Scottish plants, trees, herbs, shrubs, and mosses/lichens, with recent addition of some cherry trees — all of which provides a unique aesthetic fusion of Japanese culture and Scottish biomes.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ "BBC Scotland - BBC Scotland - The two trailblazing women whose vision helped create a landmark 1908 garden that remains ahead of its time today". BBC. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Scot's Japanese Tea House to rise from ashes after being destroyed by vandals". The Scotsman. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ Features, Caroline Donald published in (2022-10-01). "The Japanese Garden at Cowden: An iconic Oriental garden in the heart of Clackmannanshire". Country Life. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ CelticLife (2022-08-20). "The Japanese Garden at Cowden". Celtic Life International. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "THE JAPANESE GARDEN AT COWDEN CASTLE SCIO overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ Middleton, Catherine (2018-08-31). "The Best Japanese Garden In the West". Historic Environment Scotland Blog. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "The Japanese Garden at Cowden SCIO, Dollar – Gardens". www.visitscotland.com. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Japanese garden nestling in Ochil Hills brought 'back to life'". BBC News. 2018-09-01. Retrieved 2025-05-17.