Corrina Ellis

Thesis: Planting identity in Hiroshima: the case of Shukkei-en Garden in paintings, poetry, and prose.

Supervisor:  Dr Stephen Whiteman

Advisor:  Professor Anton Schweizer (Kyūshū University)

Funded by Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England (CHASE) with additional support from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

Established in 1620 in Hiroshima, a provincial yet historically crucial locale, Shukkei-en (The Garden of Miniaturised Views) is today primarily known as the villa estate of generations of daimyō (domain lord) of the Asano house and considered ‘representative’ of an Edo period (1603-1867) garden. However, reducing the garden to a static phenomenon of the Edo period negates its significant role thereafter, particularly, but not limited to, the garden’s changing function during Japan’s imperial exploits (1868-1945) and its reconstruction following World War II, both part of nationwide schemes to meet specific political and social needs.

Seeking to bridge the gap between the gardens of the Edo period and the ‘modern’ era, I aim to write a garden history based around significant changes to the physical and cultural formation of Shukkei-en. My project documents the garden’s shift from private daimyō residence in the Edo period to space of imperial performance beyond the Meiji Restoration (1868) and locus of collective memory upon its retrieval after World War II. Drawing comparison with various regional gardens, my project aims to expand Japanese garden studies by disclosing the multiple relationships between landscape environments and local identity rarely examined outside of major conurbations.

I take a multi-modal approach to recover the ideology of Shukkei-en’s changing patrons by gathering drawing plans and amplifying these with translations of prose and poetry garden records and readings of ink paintings, hand scrolls, woodblock prints, photography, and digital representations of the garden. Recognising the ephemerality of gardens, I supplement archival research with interviews at contemporary garden sites to create a lineage from historical figures and carry documentation of Shukkei-en and its regional counterparts into the future.

Deconstructing Shukkei-en’s 400-year history under differing ownership exposes layers of meaning and disparate garden functions resulting from continual human engagement with the landscape. Shukkei-en is an extant example of the ways in which gardens have been both stage for, and expression of, changing societal conditions throughout early modern and modern Japan.