The Huntington Library April 8th 2013

Visiting The Huntington Library Is Always a Treat

Visiting The Japanese Gardens (Page Three)

Page 1 - Arrival And Strolling | Page 2 - The Chinese Gardens
Page 3 - The Japanese Gardens | Page 4 - Tea And Going Home

  

At the Huntington April 2013
Tea time

At the Huntington April 2013
Good bye Chinese... Hello Japanese

At the Huntington April 2013
Blooms everywhere

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013
Down the path we go...

At the Huntington April 2013
Camellias....

Did You Know? - Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are 100?250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number.

The genus was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel, who worked in the Philippines, though he never described a camellia. This genus is famous throughout East Asia; camellias are known as ch?hu? (??) in Chinese, "tea flower", an apt designation, as tsubaki (?) in Japanese, as dongbaek-kkot (???) in Korean and as hoa tr? or hoa ch? in Vietnamese.

The most famous member is certainly the tea plant (C. sinensis). Among the ornamental species, Camellia japonica, Camellia oleifera and C. sasanqua are perhaps the most widely known, though most camellias grown for their flowers are cultivars or hybrids.

At the Huntington April 2013
Deep in the "forest" we find bright colors

At the Huntington April 2013
Time to visit and share

At the Huntington April 2013
Beautiful blossoms overhead

At the Huntington April 2013
Up close....

At the Huntington April 2013
Many different colors

At the Huntington April 2013
The ground was covered in blossom mulch....

At the Huntington April 2013
Candy cane???

At the Huntington April 2013
Bright and cheerful

At the Huntington April 2013
"Come on ladies... We don't want to miss tea"

At the Huntington April 2013
The sky sneaks a peak once in a while

At the Huntington April 2013
A forest of blossoms

At the Huntington April 2013
Greag leads the way

At the Huntington April 2013
The ladies are not far behind...

At the Huntington April 2013
Time to share....

At the Huntington April 2013
Wow.... Fire engine reds

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013
The wind is picking up

At the Huntington April 2013
"No Nancy... This way"

At the Huntington April 2013
"OK... I got it"

At the Huntington April 2013
Approaching the tea room

At the Huntington April 2013
The new Tea House had a brook running through the garden

Did You Know? - A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks.

Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill (occasionally ghyll), kill, lick, mill race, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or runnel.

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013
"Hey... My iPhone is beeping at me??"

A Visit To The Tea House

Take a peek inside the Japanese Garden?s ceremonial teahouse and learn the traditions behind its use. Informal tours are offered on the second Monday of every month during public hours.

At the Huntington April 2013

Did You Know? - In Japanese tradition a tea house can refer to a structure designed for holding Japanese tea ceremonies. This structure and specifically the room in it where the tea ceremony takes place is called chashitsu (???, literally "tea room"). The architectural space called chashitsu was created for aesthetic and intellectual fulfillment.


At the Huntington April 2013
Donated by a local group

At the Huntington April 2013
Our guide was super...
She explained the whole thing

At the Huntington April 2013
We enter the roji - The stones are laid by hand so you can enter the outer area easily

Did You Know? - Roji (???), lit. 'dewy ground', is the Japanese term used for the garden through which one passes to the chashitsu for the tea ceremony. The roji generally cultivates an air of simplicity.

At the Huntington April 2013
The roof will last forever on the machiai (waiting arbour)

Did You Know? - The roji is usually divided into an outer and inner garden, with a machiai (waiting arbour). Typical features include the tsukubai (ablution basin), t?r? (lantern), tobi ishi (stepping stones), and wicket gate. Ostentatious plantings are generally avoided in preference for moss, ferns, and evergreens, although ume and Japanese maple are found.

At the Huntington April 2013
Beautiful setting

At the Huntington April 2013
We could see for miles

At the Huntington April 2013
Features include the tsukubai (ablution basin), t?r? (lantern)

Did You Know? - A tsukubai (???) is a small basin provided in Japanese Buddhist temples for visitors to purify themselves by the ritual washing of hands and rinsing of the mouth (perform ablutions). This type of ritual cleansing is also the custom for guests attending a tea ceremony.

Tsukubai are usually of stone, and are often provided with a small scoop, laid across the top, ready for use. A supply of water is provided via a bamboo pipe called a kakei.

At the Huntington April 2013
The fountain is capped by a stone lantern

At the Huntington April 2013
The real entrance is the small sliding door

Did You Know? - In Japanese tradition a tea house can refer to a structure designed for holding Japanese tea ceremonies. This structure and specifically the room in it where the tea ceremony takes place is called chashitsu (???, literally "tea room"). The architectural space called chashitsu was created for aesthetic and intellectual fulfillment.

At the Huntington April 2013
The door was closed today due to the winds

Did You Know? - In Japan during the Edo period, the term "tea house" could also refer to a place of entertainment with geisha or as a place where couples seeking privacy could go. In this case the establishment was referred to as an ochaya (????), which literally meant "tea house".

However, these establishments did not mainly serve tea, except incidentally, and were instead dedicated to geisha entertainment or to providing discreet rooms for visitors. This usage, however, is now out of date. Contemporary Japanese go to modern tearooms called kissaten on main streets to drink black or green tea as well as coffee.

At the Huntington April 2013
Interesting fountain

Did You Know? - Roji (???), lit. 'dewy ground', is the Japanese term used for the garden through which one passes to the chashitsu for the tea ceremony. The roji generally cultivates an air of simplicity.

At the Huntington April 2013
The grounds were beautiful

At the Huntington April 2013
Amazing colors everywhere

At the Huntington April 2013
10,000 shades of green

At the Huntington April 2013
We peaked inside the tea room

Did You Know? - In Japanese tradition, architectural spaces designed to be used for tea ceremony (chanoyu) gatherings are known as chashitsu (??, literally "tea rooms").

The architectural style that developed for chashitsu is referred to as the sukiya style (sukiya-zukuri), and the term sukiya (???) may be used as a synonym for chashitsu. Related Japanese terms are chaseki (??), broadly meaning "place for tea," and implying any sort of space where people are seated to participate in tea ceremony, and chabana, "tea flowers", the style of flower arrangement associated with the tea ceremony.

Typical features of chashitsu are sh?ji windows and sliding doors made of wooden lattice covered in a translucent Japanese paper; tatami mat floors; a tokonoma alcove; and simple, subdued colours and style. The ideal floor size of a chashitsu is 4.5 tatami mats.

At the Huntington April 2013
The utility room... where plates/bowls are stored

At the Huntington April 2013
Great flowers in the garden

At the Huntington April 2013
Gives a new meaning to pink or red

At the Huntington April 2013
Tea plants in the making

At the Huntington April 2013
The backside of the tea room

At the Huntington April 2013
Ah So... Time to rest a bit

At the Huntington April 2013
Tea plant in the forefront

At the Huntington April 2013
Bamboo fences last about ten years before having to be replaced

At the Huntington April 2013
Saying goodbye to our guide

At the Huntington April 2013
A beautiful setting

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013
Last minute questions

At the Huntington April 2013
Bark on the back of the small shed....

Heading Toward The Tea Room For Our Turn At Tea (... And Champagne)

At the Huntington April 2013
Bonsai

At the Huntington April 2013
Amazing plants... Many are 100 years old

At the Huntington April 2013
This month they are green.... Wow

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013

At the Huntington April 2013
Follow the path...

At the Huntington April 2013
We took the high road

At the Huntington April 2013
The moon bridge is in the distance

At the Huntington April 2013
Wisteria

Did You Know? - Wisteria (also spelled Wistaria or Wysteria) is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the Eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Some species are popular ornamental plants, especially in China and Japan. An aquatic flowering plant with the common name wisteria or 'water wisteria' is in fact Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae.

At the Huntington April 2013
Standing tall

At the Huntington April 2013
Miniature maples

At the Huntington April 2013
Pink and green...

At the Huntington April 2013
Wisteria hanging over the pathway

Did You Know? - Wisteria vines climb by twining their stems either clockwise or counterclockwise round any available support. They can climb as high as 20 m above the ground and spread out 10 m laterally. The world's largest known Wisteria vine is in Sierra Madre, California , measuring more than 1 acre (0.40?ha) in size and weighing 250 tons, planted in 1894 of the Chinese lavender variety.

  

Page 1 - Arrival And Strolling | Page 2 - The Chinese Gardens
Page 3 - The Japanese Gardens | Page 4 - Tea And Going Home