The influence of religious and worldview factors on the landscape design in Japan and China

Abstract

The role of religious beliefs and philosophical teachings in the developmentof traditional landscape design principles and techniques is analyzed in thearticle. Examples for the analysis of this development were the traditional cultures of two countries of the Far East –Japan and China.In these cultures, animistic beliefs in the supernatural nature of the elements (sun, wind, thunder, rain, lightning), nature as such (worship of sacred trees, water, etc.) were organically combined with later Buddhist canons, which eventually led to the syncretism of religious and philosophical teachings –Buddhism,Taoism and Confucianismin China,Buddhism and Shinto –in Japan. The analysis was carried out on the material of traditional gardens most visited by tourists, which are positioned as typical examples of traditional landscape design in both countries.It is proved that the landscape design both inJapan and China developed according to principles similar to the development principles of other types of arts in these countries. In particular, Chinese landscape design was based on the harmonization and improvement of nature, aimed at creating a certain hedonistic space, on the other hand, Japanese landscape design had religious origins from the beginning and was aimed at self-improvement through the observation of nature.