Some 20 kilometers from the prefectural capital of Matsue, the Adachi Museum is almost better known for its landscaped garden than its impressive collection of contemporary Japanese paintings and ceramics. Kinsaku Nakane completed the five hectacres of interconnecting gardens in 1970, a monumental task that must be considered a modern masterpiece.
The grounds consist of dry landscape, gravel and black pine, moss, water and tea gardens. The different elements are skillfully woven together to form a continuous landscape. The museum’s corridors, wings, broad windows and open patios frame painterly landscapes as one proceeds through the galleries, each section of the meticulously tended grounds appearing from a different perspective. Zenko Adachi, the museum’s founder, is quoted as saying, “The garden is, so to speak, a picture scroll,” a fitting description of the horizontal panel-famed views visitors enjoy as they proceed through the building.
The award-winning garden is unusually rich in plantings of miniature trees, pines, bushes and undulating grass, which contrast with the dazzling white gravel. The most impressive of the garden’s several borrowed views is a 15-meter-high waterfall cascading down a rock face. The waterfall appears to be entirely integrated into the garden grounds but actually lies beyond its boundaries and a road that is concealed from sight. Seven permanent gardeners maintain the manicured grounds, creating a landscape that almost seems too perfect. Nakane considered this to be the most important commission he had ever undertaken.
Kinsaku Nakane skillfully co-opted background scenery into the garden, including a waterfall.
The museum’s founder, the late Zenko Adachi, described the design here by saying, ”The garden is, so to speak, a picture scroll.”
Not strictly a karesansui, the garden incorporates large numbers of pine trees, manicured bushes and sloping lawns.