Horaisan

"Horaisan" ( _ja. 蓬莱山), or "horaijima" ( _ja. 蓬莱島), are terms used to refer to an inaccessible island that generally is part of a Japanese garden, and are often translated as 'Treasure Mountain' or 'Treasure Island', respectively. The name comes from Horai, a Chinese island important in Japanese mythology.

Japanese gardens typically include a body of water, several islands, bridges, meditation spots, a few human structures and many types of plans. The "horaisan" remains unnconnected to any other part of the garden: it has no bridges nor does it have any paths or structures. This combination of inaccessibility with the island's beauty symbolizes the realm of happiness not available to mortals. [cite web|url=http://www.japanesegarden.ucla.edu/html/symbolism.html|title=Japanese garden symbolism]

In contrast to "horaisan", "nakajima" refer to those islands which people may visit. They are connected to each other, and to the mainland, by bridges. [cite web|url=http://www.thejapanesegarden.com/Garden/Pages/ethetics.html|title=Symbolism and Ethics in the traditional Japanese garden ]

References

External links

* [http://www.japanesegarden.ucla.edu/html/symbolism.html Site of the University of California, Los Angeles]
* [http://www.csulb.edu/~jgarden/extrahistory.html Site of California State University, Long Beach]