Abstract
Aritomo Yamagata (1838-1922), a military leader, statesman and the Prime Minister of Japan, created private gardens wherever he built his residences. In design of Chinzan-so (1878) he made the best use of the existing landscape including natural springs and wild plants. Later, when Yamagata designed Murin-an (1894) and Koki-an (1907), he took a different approach. He intended to prepare natural settings on the basis of his concepts even by constructing large-scale irrigation canals from remote water source areas. Clearly influenced by the landscape of his surroundings, Yamagata set out to create his own version of Nature in the gardens he created.
