Gold leaf
Gold leaf is gold, hammered into thin sheets by goldbeating and is used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of shades; the most used gold is 22-karat yellow gold. Gold leaf is a type of metal leaf, but the term is used when referring to gold leaf; the term metal leaf is used for thin sheets of metal of any color that do not contain any real gold. Pure gold is 24 karats. Real, yellow gold leaf is 91.7% pure gold. Silver-colored white gold is about 50% pure gold. Layering gold leaf over a surface is called gold gilding. Traditional water gilding is the most difficult and regarded form of gold leafing, it has remained unchanged for hundreds of years and is still done by hand. Gold leaf is sometimes used in art without a gilding process. In cultures including the European Bronze Age it was used to wrap objects such as bullae by folding it over, the Classical group of gold lunulae are so thin in the centre, that they might be classed as gold leaf, it has been used in jewellery in various periods as small pieces hanging freely.
Gold leaf has traditionally been most popular and most common in its use as gilding material for decoration of art or the picture frames that are used to hold or decorate paintings, mixed media, small objects and paper art. Gold glass is gold leaf held between two pieces of glass, was used for decorated Ancient Roman vessels, where some of the gold was scraped off to form an image, as well as tesserae gold mosaics. "Gold-ground" paintings, where the background of the figures was all in gold, was introduced in mosaics in Early Christian art, used in icons and Western panel paintings until the late Middle Ages. Gold leaf is used in Buddhist art to decorate statues and symbols. Gold leafing can be seen on domes in religious and public architecture. "Gold" frames made without leafing are available for a lower price, but traditionally some form of gold or metal leaf was preferred when possible and gold leafed moulding is still available from many of the companies that produce commercially available moulding for use as picture frames.
Gold leaf has long been an integral component of architecture to designate important structures, both for aesthetics and because gold's non-reactive nature provides a protective finish. Gold in architecture became an integral component of Byzantine and Roman churches and basilicas in 400 AD, most notably Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome; the church is one of the earliest examples of gold mosaics. The mosaics were made of stone, tile or glass backed on gold leaf walls, giving the church a beautifully intricate backdrop; the Athenian marble columns supporting the nave are older, either come from the first basilica, or from another antique Roman building. The 14th century campanile, or bell tower, is the highest in Rome, at 240 feet; the basilica's 16th-century coffered ceiling, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo, is said to be gilded with gold that Christopher Columbus presented to Ferdinand and Isabella, before being passed on to the Spanish pope, Alexander VI. The apse mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is from 1295, signed by the Franciscan friar, Jacopo Torriti.
In Ottawa, The Centre Block is the main building of the Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill, containing the House of Commons and Senate chambers, as well as the offices of a number of members of parliament and senior administration for both legislative houses. It is the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber, Confederation Hall. In the east wing of the Centre Block is the Senate chamber, in which are the thrones for the Canadian monarch and her consort, or for the federal viceroy and their consort, from which either the sovereign or the governor general gives the Speech from the Throne and grants Royal Assent to bills passed by parliament; the overall color in the Senate chamber is red, seen in the upholstery and draperies, reflecting the color scheme of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. Capping the room is a gilt ceiling with deep octagonal coffers, each filled with heraldic symbols, including maple leaves, fleur-de-lis, lions rampant, clàrsach, Welsh Dragons, lions passant.
This plane rests on six pairs and four single pilasters, each of, capped by a caryatid, between which are clerestory windows. Below the windows is a continuous architrave, broken only by baldachins at the base of each of the above pilasters. On the east and west walls of the chamber are eight murals depicting scenes from the First World War. However, the project never eventuated, the works were stored at the National Gallery of Canada until 1921, when the Parliament requested a loan for some of the collection's oil paintings to display in the Centre Block; the murals have remained in the Senate chamber since. In London, the Criterion Restaurant is an opulent building facing Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London, it was built by architect Thomas Verity in Neo-Byzantine style for the partnership Spiers and Pond who opened
Micrometre
The micrometre or micrometer commonly known by the previous name micron, is an SI derived unit of length equalling 1×10−6 metre. The micrometre is a common unit of measurement for wavelengths of infrared radiation as well as sizes of biological cells and bacteria, for grading wool by the diameter of the fibres; the width of a single human hair ranges from 10 to 200 μm. The longest human chromosome is 10 μm in length. Between 1 μm and 10 μm: 1–10 μm – length of a typical bacterium 10 μm – Size of fungal hyphae 5 μm – length of a typical human spermatozoon's head 3–8 μm – width of strand of spider web silk about 10 μm – size of a fog, mist, or cloud water droplet Between 10 μm and 100 μm about 10–12 μm – thickness of plastic wrap 10 to 55 μm – width of wool fibre 17 to 181 μm – diameter of human hair 70 to 180 μm – thickness of paper The term micron and the symbol μ were accepted for use in isolation to denote the micrometre in 1879, but revoked by the International System of Units in 1967; this became necessary because the older usage was incompatible with the official adoption of the unit prefix micro-, denoted μ, during the creation of the SI in 1960.
In the SI, the systematic name micrometre became the official name of the unit, μm became the official unit symbol. In practice, "micron" remains a used term in preference to "micrometre" in many English-speaking countries, both in academic science and in applied science and industry. Additionally, in American English, the use of "micron" helps differentiate the unit from the micrometer, a measuring device, because the unit's name in mainstream American spelling is a homograph of the device's name. In spoken English, they may be distinguished by pronunciation, as the name of the measuring device is invariably stressed on the second syllable, whereas the systematic pronunciation of the unit name, in accordance with the convention for pronouncing SI units in English, places the stress on the first syllable; the plural of micron is "microns", though "micra" was used before 1950. The official symbol for the SI prefix micro- is a Greek lowercase mu. In Unicode, there is a micro sign with the code point U+00B5, distinct from the code point U+03BC of the Greek letter lowercase mu.
According to the Unicode Consortium, the Greek letter character is preferred, but implementations must recognize the micro sign as well. Most fonts use the same glyph for the two characters. Metric prefix Metric system Orders of magnitude Wool measurement The dictionary definition of micrometre at Wiktionary
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as the Chan school of Chinese Buddhism and developed into various schools. Chán Buddhism was influenced by Taoist philosophy Neo-Daoist thought. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thiền, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen; the term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪, which traces its roots to the Indian practice of dhyāna. Zen emphasizes rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, insight into the nature of things, the personal expression of this insight in daily life for the benefit of others; as such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine and favors direct understanding through spiritual practice and interaction with an accomplished teacher. The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahayana thought Yogachara, the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras and the Huayan school, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature and the Bodhisattva-ideal.
The Prajñāpāramitā literature as well as Madhyamaka thought have been influential in the shaping of the apophatic and sometimes iconoclastic nature of Zen rhetoric. The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪, which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be translated as "absorption" or "meditative state"; the actual Chinese term for the "Zen school" is Chánzong, while "Chan" just refers to the practice of meditation itself or the study of meditation though it is used as an abbreviated form of Chánzong. The practice of dhyana or meditation sitting meditation is a central part of Zen Buddhism; the practice of Buddhist meditation first entered China through the translations of An Shigao, Kumārajīva, who both translated Dhyāna sutras, which were influential early meditation texts based on the Yogacara teachings of the Kashmiri Sarvāstivāda circa 1st-4th centuries CE. Among the most influential early Chinese meditation texts include the Anban Shouyi Jing, the Zuochan Sanmei Jing and the Damoduolo Chan Jing.
While dhyāna in a strict sense refers to the four dhyānas, in Chinese Buddhism, dhyāna may refer to various kinds of meditation techniques and their preparatory practices, which are necessary to practice dhyāna. The five main types of meditation in the Dhyāna sutras are ānāpānasmṛti. According to the modern Chan master Sheng Yen, these practices are termed the "five methods for stilling or pacifying the mind" and serve to focus and purify the mind, can lead to the dhyana absorptions. Chan shares the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness and the Three Gates of Liberation with early Buddhism and classic Mahayana. Early Chan texts teach forms of meditation that are unique to Mahayana Buddhism, for example, the Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind which depicts the teachings of the 7th-century East Mountain school teaches a visualization of a sun disk, similar to that taught in the Sutra of the Contemplation of the Buddha Amitáyus. Chinese Buddhists developed their own meditation manuals and texts, one of the most influential being the works of the Tiantai patriarch, Zhiyi.
His works seemed to have exerted some influence on the earliest meditation manuals of the Chán school proper, an early work being the imitated and influential Tso-chan-i. During sitting meditation, practitioners assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza using the dhyāna mudrā. A square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on. To regulate the mind, Zen students are directed towards counting breaths. Either both exhalations and inhalations are counted; the count can be up to ten, this process is repeated until the mind is calmed. Zen teachers like Omori Sogen teach a series of long and deep exhalations and inhalations as a way to prepare for regular breath meditation. Attention is placed on the energy center below the navel. Zen teachers promote diaphragmatic breathing, stating that the breath must come from the lower abdomen, that this part of the body should expand forward as one breathes. Over time the breathing should become smoother and slower.
When the counting becomes an encumbrance, the practice of following the natural rhythm of breathing with concentrated attention is recommended. Another common form of sitting meditation is called "Silent illumination"; this practice was traditionally promoted by the Caodong school of Chinese Chan and is associated with Hongzhi Zhengjue who wrote various works on the practice. This method derives from the Indian Buddhist practice of the union of śamatha and vipaśyanā. In Hongzhi's practice of "nondual objectless meditation" the mediator strives to be aware of the totality of phenomena instead of focusi
Ōnin War
The Ōnin War was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. Ōnin refers to the Japanese era. A dispute between Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen escalated into a nationwide war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of daimyō in many regions of Japan; the war initiated the Sengoku period, "the Warring States period". This period was a long, drawn-out struggle for domination by individual daimyō, resulting in a mass power-struggle between the various houses to dominate the whole of Japan; the Ōnin conflict began as a controversy over. In 1464, Yoshimasa had no heir, he persuaded his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, to abandon the life of a monk, named him heir. In 1465, the unanticipated birth of a son to Yoshimasa put these plans in question; the infant, caused friction between the shōgun and Hosokawa against Tomiko, the wife of Yoshimasa and mother of Yoshihisa, Yamana. Hosokawa had always worked with the shōgun's brother Ashikaga Yoshimi, supported his claim to the shogunate.
Yamana took this as an opportunity to oppose Hosokawa further, supporting the child as heir to the shogunate. War broke out in the city of Kyoto; this was regarded by the Ashikaga shōgun as an act of rebellion, thus the Ashikaga and their supporters were forced to try to stop it. The Ashikagas tried to prevent the outbreak of war over the next heir, but the situation escalated into a war that designated the leader of the victorious party as the next shōgun. In 1467 the uncertainty had caused a split amongst the warrior clans, the succession dispute became a pretext for a struggle for military supremacy. In the end, there was no clear-cut winner; the complex array of factional armies fought themselves into exhaustion. Hosokawa's Eastern Army of about 85,000 and Yamana's Western Army of about 80,000 were evenly matched when mobilized near Kyoto; the fighting started in March. In May 1467, a Yamana mansion was attacked. In July, according to Sansom, Yoshimasa appointed Hosokawa commanding general in an attempt to "chastise the rebel" Yamana.
Sansom states "heavy fighting continued throughout July" and "several hundred large buildings were destroyed, destruction continued day after day". Hosokawa was soon cornered in the northeast portion of Kyoto around his mansion, while Yamana controlled the south and west. Yamana received 20,000 reinforcements under Ōuchi Masahiro in September. However, Sansom states Hosokawa was able to bring the "sovereign and the abdicated Emperor" to the Bakufu from the Emperor's Palace, before it was seized by Yamana with 50,000 men. Hosokawa received Akamatsu troops as reinforcements. On 1 November, Yamana was able to capture the Shōkoku-ji after bribing a monk. Sansom states "The chronicles of the time paint a dreadful picture of the carnage", "the two adversaries faced one another without action for the rest of the year". Hosokawa attempted an attack on New Years Day, again in April, but for the most part "the two armies now remained glaring at one another month after month". A central trench ten feet deep and twenty feet wide separated the two armies.
Several monasteries were burned, including the Tenryū-ji. Yoshimi went to the side of Yamana, forcing the shōgun to name his son Yoshihisa as his heir in 1469. In a strange switch of allegiances, the war became one of brother against brother; the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado declared him a rebel. Both Yamana Sōzen and Hosokawa Katsumoto died in 1473, then, the war continued on, neither side figuring out how to end the war; however the Yamana clan lost heart as the label of "rebel" was at last having some effect. Ōuchi Masahiro, one of the Yamana generals burnt down his section of Kyoto and left the area on 17 December 1477. By 1477, ten years after the fighting had begun, Kyoto was nothing more than a place for mobs to loot and move in to take what was left. Neither the Yamana clan nor the Hosokawa clan had achieved its aims, other than to whittle down the numbers of the opposing clan. During this ordeal, the shōgun was not instrumental in alleviating the situation. While Kyoto was burning, Ashikaga Yoshimasa spent his time in poetry readings and other cultural activities, in planning Ginkaku-ji, a Silver Pavilion to rival Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion that his grandfather, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, had built.
The Ōnin War, the shōgun's complacent attitude towards it, "sanctioned" private wars and skirmishes between the other daimyō. No part of Japan escaped the violence. Although the battles in Kyoto had been abandoned, the war had spread to the rest of Japan. In Yamashiro Province, the Hatakeyama clan had split into two parts that fought each other to a standstill; this stalemate was to have serious consequences. In 1485, the peasantry and jizamurai had had enough, revolted. Setting up their own army, they forced the clan armies to leave the province; the Ikki became a powerful force, much more than an armed mob. By 1486 they had set up a provisional government for Yamashiro province; the Ikki would form and appear throughout other parts of Japan, such as Kaga Province, where a sect of the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists, the Ikkō, started their own revolt during the Ōnin War after being enlisted by one of Kaga's most prominent warlords, Togashi Masachika. The Ikkō, who had a complex relationship with the Jōdo Shinshō leader Rennyo, appealed to the common peasants in their region, formed the Ikkō-ikki.
By 1488 the Ikkō-ikki of Kaga Province took control of the province. After this
Shōkoku-ji
Shōkoku-ji, formally identified as Mannen-zan Shōkoku Shōten Zenji, is a Buddhist temple in northern Kyoto, founded in 1382 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Shōkoku-ji was founded in the middle Muromachi period. Initial construction of the central temple structures was begun in 1383, the entire temple complex was dedicated in 1392. In the eighth month of the third year of Meitoku, Yoshimitsu organized a great banquet attended by all the great officers of the Imperial court and the military leaders of that time; the pomp and ceremony of the affair was said to have equaled an Imperial event. In 1383, the Zen master Shun’oku Myōha was designated by Yoshimitsu as founding abbot, however, Myōha insisted that the official honor be posthumously accorded to his own teacher, Musō Soseki; the formal decision to grant this posthumous honor was proclaimed in 1385. The entire temple complex was destroyed by fire in 1394; the temple complex has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, notably during the Onin War.
After the Muromachi period, Shōkoku-ji was supported by several national leaders such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, his son Toyotomi Hideyori, Tokugawa Ieyasu, all of whom helped finance the temple’s various reconstruction projects. Hideyori financed the 1605 reconstruction of the Hattō. Ieyasu donated the Sanmon in 1609. Emperor Go-Mizunoo donated an imperial palace building to serve as the Kaisando. Other buildings were reconstructed during this period, with the notable exception of the 17th century hatto, the temple complex was devastated during the conflagration of 1788; the Hattō hall has on its domed ceiling a large painting of a dragon. The painting was done by Kanō Mitsunobu; the dragon symbolises the rain of Buddhist teachings. When clapping the hands together, the sound reverberates between the domed ceiling and the paved stone floor, echoing throughout the hall as if it was the thunder of the dragon; the main hall of Kennin-ji in Kyoto has a large dragon on its ceiling. Shōkoku-ji is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto".
It was ranked the second of the Kyoto during the medieval period. For a short time in 1392, Shōkoku-ji was considered first amongst the Gozan. Shōkoku-ji is one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. Today the temple is headquarters for the Shōkoku-ji branch of Rinzai Zen, with over ninety affiliated temples, including the famous Golden Pavilion and the Silver Pavilion temples in Kyoto; the Jotenkaku Museum is located in the premises of the temple. List of National Treasures of Japan List of National Treasures of Japan Itō Jakuchū Hōkō-ji, today a sub-temple List of Buddhist temples in Kyoto For an explanation of terms concerning Japanese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhist art, Japanese Buddhist temple architecture, see the Glossary of Japanese Buddhism. Baroni, Helen Josephine.. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. New York: Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8239-2240-6. Zen Buddhism: a History. Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon..
Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869. Kyoto: The Ponsonby Memorial Society. Titsingh, Isaac, ed.. Nipon o daï itsi ran. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Snyder, Gary.. Earth House Hold: Technical Notes & Queries to Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries. New York:New Directions Publishing. ISBN 978-0-811-20195-7.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the 3rd shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, in power from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō. Yoshimitsu was appointed shōgun, a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten. In 1379, Yoshimitsu reorganized the institutional framework of the Gozan Zen 五山禅 establishment before, two years becoming the first person of the warrior class to host a reigning emperor at his private residence. In 1392, he negotiated the end of the Nanboku-chō imperial schism that had plagued politics for over half a century. Two years he became Grand Chancellor of State, the highest-ranking member of the imperial court. Retiring from that and all public offices in 1395, Yoshimitsu took the tonsure and moved into his Kitayama-dono retirement villa which, among other things, boasted a pavilion two-thirds covered in gold leaf. There, he received envoys from the Ming and Joseon courts on at least six occasions and forged the terms of a Sino-Japanese trade agreement that endured for over a century.
In recognition for his diplomatic efforts, the Chinese sovereign pronounced Yoshimitsu "King of Japan". In 1407, he set into motion a plan to become "Dajō tenno", a title customarily applied to a retired emperor. Although unrealized due to his sudden death the following year, this last venture was audacious because Yoshimitsu never sat on the Japanese throne. Late in his career, it appears Yoshimitsu sought to legitimize his transcendent authority through the idiom of Buddhist kingship, deploying ritual and monumentalism to cast him as a universal monarch or dharma king, not unlike his counterparts in Southeast Asia, his posthumous name was Rokuon'in. Significant events shape the period during which Yoshimitsu was shōgun: 1368 – Yoshimitsu appointed shōgun. 1369 – Kusunoki Masanori defects to Ashikaga. 1370 – Imagawa Sadayo sent to subdue Kyushu. 1371 – Attempts to arrange truce. 1373–1406 – Embassies between China and Japan. 1374 – En'yū ascends northern throne. 1378 – Yoshimitsu builds the Muromachi palace in Kyoto's elite district of Kamigyo, on the site of the former residence of the nobleman Saionji Sanekane.
1379 – Shiba Yoshimasa becomes Kanrei. 1380 – Kusunoki Masanori rejoins Kameyama. 1382 – Go-Komatsu ascends northern throne. 1383 – Yoshimitsu's honors. 1385 – Southern army defeated at Koga. 1387–1389 – Dissension in Toki family in Mino. 1389 – Yoshimitsu pacifies Kyūshū and distributes lands. 1390 – Kusunoki defeated. 1391 – Yamana Ujikyo attacks Kyoto – Meitoku War. 1392 – Northern and Southern courts reconciled under Go-Komatsu. 1394 – Yoshimitsu cedes his position to his son. 1396 – Imagawa Sadayo dismissed. 1397 – Uprising in Kyūshū suppressed. 1398 – Muromachi administration organized. 1399 – Ōuchi Yoshihiro and Ashikaga Mitsukane rebel – Ōei War. 1402 – Uprising in Mutsu suppressed. 1404 – Yoshimitsu is recognized as Nippon Koku-Ō by Yongle Emperor. 1408 – Yoshimitsu dies. Yoshimitsu constructed his residential headquarters along Muromachi Road in the northern part of Kyoto in 1378; as a result, in Japanese, the Ashikaga shogunate and the corresponding time period are referred to as the Muromachi shogunate and Muromachi period.
Yoshimitsu resolved the rift between the Northern and Southern Courts in 1392, when he persuaded Go-Kameyama of the Southern Court to hand over the Imperial Regalia to Emperor Go-Komatsu of the Northern Court. Yoshimitsu's greatest political achievement was that he managed to bring about the end to Nanboku-chō fighting; this event had the effect of establishing the authority of the Muromachi shogunate and suppressing the power of the regional age daimyōs who might challenge that central authority. Concordant with increased communication between the Muromachi Shogunate and the Ming Dynasty in modern day China, during this period Japan received a significant influx of Ming influence to its economic system, architecture and religion, writing. Although Yoshimitsu retired in 1394 and his son was confirmed as the fourth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the old shōgun did not abandon any of his powers. Yoshimitsu continued to maintain authority over the shogunate until his death. Yoshimitsu played a major role in the genesis of Noh theatre, as the patron of Zeami Motokiyo, the actor considered to be Noh's founder.
Yoshimitsu died in 1408 at age 50. After his death, his retirement villa became Rokuon-ji, which today is famous for its three-storied, gold-leaf covered reliquary known as "Kinkaku". So famous is this single structure, in fact, that the entire temple itself is identified as the Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. A statue of Yoshimitsu is found there today. Father: Ashikaga Yoshiakira Mother: Kino Yoshiko Wife: Hino Nariko Concubines: Ichijo no Tsubone Hino Yasuko Fujiwara no Yoshiko Kaga no Tsubone Kasuga no Tsubone Nefu'in Fujiwara no Kyoko Fujiwara no Tomoko Keijun'in Takahashi-dono Ikegami-dono Children: a daughter by Nariko Ashikaga Yoshimochi by Yoshiko Ashikaga Yoshinori by Yoshiko Ashikaga Yoshitsugu
Borrowed scenery
Borrowed scenery is the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden" found in traditional East Asian garden design. The term borrowing of scenery is Chinese in origin, appears in the 17th century garden treatise Yuanye. A garden that borrows scenery is viewed from a building and designed as a composition with four design essentials: 1) The garden should be within the premises of the building. Humble Administrator's Garden, Suzhou Summer Palace, Beijing Master of the Nets Garden, Suzhou Murin-an garden, Kyoto Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, Kyoto Isuien Garden, Nara Ritsurin Garden, Takamatsu Genkyu-en, Hikone Castle Adachi Museum of Art, Yasugi Sengan-en, Kagoshima Joju-in garden, Kyoto Borrowing scenery, as a technique of design was conceptualized in modernist architectural theory in the 1960s; this understanding was made explicit among Japanese architects, for whom it was the utmost effort to design continuity of interior and exterior space, a major topic in modernist architecture.
Architects from the International Style in modern architecture acclaimed things like simplicity and space in Japanese architecture. Seen from the perspective of architecture theory borrowing scenery was seen as a fixed three-dimensional plasticity, whence shakkei is translated as "borrowed" scenery. According to the 1635 CE Chinese garden manual Yuanye, there are four categories of borrowed scenery, namely: yuanjie, linjie and fujie; the Yuanye has a last chapter titled "Jiejing", "Borrowed Scenery". This chapter makes clear that borrowing scenery is not a single design idea but the essence of landscape design philosophy in its entirety; the ever-changing moods and appearances of landscape in full action are an independent function that becomes an agent for garden making. To be able to make a garden, the garden maker needs to meld with the landscape on the site, it is including man that moves design. This extended meaning of borrowing scenery jiejing is getting attention in landscape architecture theory in China.
The term borrowed scenery is not mentioned in the oldest extant Japanese garden manual, the Sakuteiki. However, this text, attributed to Tachibana Toshitsuna, a son of the Byodoin's designer Fujiwara no Yorimichi, records as one of the first principles of garden making: According to the lay of the land, depending upon the aspect of the water landscape, you should design each part of the garden tastefully, recalling your memories of how nature presented itself for each feature. Three principle tenets guiding Japanese garden organization are, shōtoku no sansui intending to create in the likeness of nature kohan ni shitagau planning in accordance with the site topography fuzei capturing and presenting the ambianceShakkei, which attempts to capture nature alive rather than create a less spectacular version, can be taken as to allude to the first of these categories; the origins of an interest in the landscape outside the Heian period gardens, Shinden-zukuri gardens, lie in the increased local travel of the Japanese elite, a layered endeavor involving the bolstering of a national identity separate from China and the display of personal wealth.
When they returned from their travels they would want to physically manifest these travels at home in a more ostentatious way than could be accomplished with art, weapons, or ceramics. Thus, borrowed scenery was introduced to incorporate the foreign landscapes seen in northern Japan into the southern cities of Nara and Kyoto. Japanese gardens Chinese garden Wybe Kuitert Borrowing scenery and the landscape that lends - the final chapter of Yuanye, Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2015, 10:2, 32-43, Wybe. "Borrowing scenery and the landscape that lends—the final chapter ofYuanye". Journal of Landscape Architecture. 10: 32–43. Doi:10.1080/18626033.2015.1058570. ISSN 1862-6033. Slawson, David A. Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens. New York: Kodansha International Ltd. 1987 Takei and Mark Peter Keane. The Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2001. Tsu, Frances Ya-sing. Landscape Design in Chinese Gardens. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988.
Shakkei 借景, Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System Examples of borrowed scenery in Tsubo-en and some other Japanese gardens
Geographic data related to Kinkaku-ji at OpenStreetMap
Geographic data related to 
