The roots of the modern Japanese garden lie in the 6th century, when Japan was privy to an influx of Chinese cultural ideas by way of Korea. Japan's culture and history quickly molded the garden into something quite unique, however. The gardens that are most known today for their delicacy almost faced extinction in the 12th century when Japan's aristocracy lost power to the warrior caste. With the introduction of Zen Buddhism from China in the 13th century, though, the gardens experienced renewed popularity. A new dimension of religious symbolism gave the garden even more depth and established it as a place of escape, peace and meditation.
Nature is an overwhelming theme of the Japanese garden.
The garden itself is planned as a representation of nature in the space allotted. Each object in the garden symbolizes an element of nature. Mountains, forests and rivers all have a place in even the smallest Japanese garden, some of which can be found in a small pot on the windowsill of some Japanese homes. After entering through a main gate styled after the famous Ichida estate in Kyoto, Japan, visitors to the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden come across a koi pond, a home to fish that date back to the garden's creation in the early 1960s. These koi lurk beneath large rocks imported from Japan, as were many of the important symbolic artifacts in the garden.