The View of Gardens and Plants of the Author Shiki MASAOKA and Reproduction of Plan for Shiki-an Garden (1894~1902) in Negishi, Tokyo

Abstract

Shiki-an Garden (Negishi, Taito Ward in Tokyo) is a garden inside the residence where Shiki MASAOKA (a superior haiku poet in the Meiji era) had lived for about 9 years from 1894 (the year 27 in the Meiji era) before he passed away by the vertebra caries of disease in 1902 (the year 35 in the Meiji era). In this research, it emerged the garden's sort, form, position and terms of plants and facilities in the garden, from some analyses about 398 articles of Shiki's essays, poems (haiku, tanka, and new-style poetry), pictures, letters, reminiscence notes of his pupils, old garden photos and pictures. In addition, I made 9 ground plans year by year which are re-creating garden scenes in his life. As a result, this garden was classified into three kinds of era, and had each of different garden scenes. It also could be inferred that a progress of garden scenes considerably concerns with a growth of his disease and a change in his view.