The development of municipal parks in Japan commenced in 1873, when the Decree of DajOkan (the Central Government) for establishing parks as recreational place was published. It can be easily imaged that the new government was terribly rushed with a great many difficulties both in domestic and diplomatic fields and could not afford to be deeply concerned in such a “trivial” matter as recreaton for people. Consequently, it is natural to recognize some alien influences, direct or indirect, upon the preparation of the said Decree.
The Decree called forth echoes all over the country and numerous parks were born in a mere ten years. Most of them, however, were based on traditional recreation places having scenic deauty and on grounds of shrines and temples or changed from castle sites. And there were some cases that could not obtain wide favor among people owing to being far from the urban area.

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1. Introduction
The Koto-in is an annex-temple of the Daitokuji temple which was founded by Shoso Gyokuho in 1601. Its garden is located in front of the head master's room, with maples on the southern part and kesa-shaped plantation on the western. Here I intend to study on the conceptional relation between this garden and Zen Buddhism.
2. The points of gardening The third head master of this temple Soi Seigan regarded the subject of this gardening as “the world of Nirvana” after the Hekigan-roku and the Daitokokushi-goroku, and further the name of this annex “Koto, ” or “transcending the ordinary world.”
The conception ofgardening means “the supremacy of the whole universe” (cf. the 27th koan of the Hekigan-roku); the formation is based on “daily practice of the way” (cf. “Going to the lecture hall on the morning of July” of the Daito-kokushi-goroku)
3. The subject of gardening The words “the world of Nirvana” are based on the 27th koan of the Hekigan-roku: “One day a monk came to yün-mên and said, What is the world when all the leaves of the tree have fallen down?” yün-mên re-plied, 'It is very much like the clear sky where the autumnal wind is blowing.!
The instruction of this koan is: a Zen master must be kind enough to give ten answers to a monk who asks a single question; to free a hawk at the sight of a hare or blow a fire thinking of the wind; to teach others the Law liberally. But apart from all this, what if an excellent trainee should enter the cave of a tiger (Zen master)? I'll try to expound it. Look
The remark of this koan is: we shall be able to realize yün-mên's koan if we have grasped it as our own matter. If not, we shall remain blind and deat to it. Did yün-mên answer his trainee like this or only make himself agreeable to the latter? If we regard the former case as true, we have mistakenly permitted the fixed star (= conception). Ifwe regard the latter as true, we have nothing to do with Truth. What is it after all? If we have freelyrealized if, we shall find ourselves in enlightenment. If not, we shall still stay in delusion.
“In leading trainees, a Zen master should dare to. fall a prey, if necessary, to a tiger. If not, he will be unable to lead histrainees correctly. Severe, never ordinary, was the question of this monk;” for it had something supreme from the viewpoint of enlightenment. He said, “What isthe world where the leaves of the tree have all fallendown?” Among his eighteen questions this was the one which asked beyond subject and object. Quite in accordance with his question yün-mên replied, “It is very much like the clear sky where the autumnal windis blowing.” There is no gap in supremacy and clearsight between the two.
“An ancient person said, Those who want to realize Truth completely must ask no question.” A single word to an enlightened person isenough. If we understand yün-mên's answer literally, we shall lose sight of its true meaning. His words often lead us to literal realization. If we stay in this realization, we shall lose the successors to the Way. Particularly, yün-mên answered his trainee, taking advantage of his question just as we run after a robberriding on his horse. When a monk said, ‘ What is theworld of absolute thinking?’ yün-mên answered: ‘Itis beyond our thinking.’ This is also the ease with theabove-mentioned answer. This answer is beyond conceptional grasp, such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘enlightened’.

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1. In defining an urban area, we can take it as “a space occupied by artificial surfaces in a natural ecosystem which has originally existed but has been paitially destroyed by artificial structures resulting from human activities.”
Therefore, from the standpoint of physical planning, each urban area may be uniformly grasped as “an entity comprising two elements-natural surfaces and artificial surfaces.” In other words, the form and shape of artificial surfaces occupying a certain space (i. e., unit area) and the percentile ratio of the area occupied by artificial surfaces to the area of that space can be used as a planning index for that particular space.
2. Using Natural Surface-Artificial Surface (N-A) Formation Factor as a planning index, we have studied at this time to determine the limiting value of natural surfaces that are desirable in a unit area (or our daily life zone) measuring 90, 000 sq. meters.
This N-A formation factor may be expressed as follows: N-A Formation Factor (%) Area Occupied by Artificial Surfaces within Unit Area/Unit Area (300m×300m) ×100
Natural Surface Rate (%) =100-(N-A Formation Factor)
3. The study was made in the following manners: (1) The total area (11, 727 hectares) of Takasaki City in Gunma Prefecture was divided into 1, 303 meshes each measuring 90, 000 sq.
meters. Aerial photographs were taken for respective meshes and an N-A formation factor for each mesh was read by guess from such aerophotos. In this case, artificial surfaces comprised buildings, roads and the like.
(2) N-A formation factors thus obtained (which ranged from 0 to 100%) were divided into 10 sections by an increment of 10% (i. e., 0-10%, 11-20%, 21-30%, ...91-100%).
Then, a survey was made at administrative areas within each of these sections to find out inhabitants' consciousness of satisfaction with natural environment (or their surrounding greens).The survey was conducted by the use of a questionnaire which contained the following questions:
I. Please reply to each of the following questions concerning your surrounding greens by selecting one of the following five answers: (i) Very-much.(ii) Comparatively less.(iii) Neither more nor less.(iv) Comparatively less.(v) Very little.
A. How do you feel about your house or garden green?
Ans.(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)
B. How do you feel about your neighbor's green?
Ans.(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)
C. How do you feel about your town (or village) green?
Ans.(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)
D. How do you feel about your citygreen?
Ans.(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)
II. In the overall analysis of your living environment, how do you rate your living environment?
E. Ans.(i) Excellent.(ii) Good.(iii) Fairly good.(iv) Bad.
The above questionnaire was addressed to 1250 households randomly selected as subjects of the survey, 79.2% of which responded to the questionnaire. An analysis of those who replied to the questionnaire by age and sex has revealed that more than 85% of those who responded were of ages ranging from 30 to 69 and that the ratio of male respondents was 5: 4.
(3) Correlation charts for each of the above questions (as shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7) were prepared for analysis by combining N-A formation factors with inhabitants' responses to the consciousness of satisfaction with surrounding greens. For the purpose of this analysis, the following plus and minusvalues were given to respective answers to Question I: (i)+2, (ii)+1, (iii) 0, (iv)-1, and (v)-2.
4. The results of the study have indicated an cxtremely high correlation between N-A formation factors and inhabitants' responses to the consciousness of satisfaction with surrounding greens. For example, in Fig. 7 which is suggestive of a certain standard of our living environment, significant difference exists at a level of 0.1%, while Spearman's correlation coefficient shows-0.95.

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1) Growth of sample trees (Ginko biloba L. and Camellia japonica L. var. hortensis Makino f. otome Makino) Planted in highly solid ground is unsatisfactory as far as the parts above ground is concerned, and as years go by this becomes more remarkable, while the contrary is observed among trees planted in less solid ground.
2) As for the parts nnderground, though growth is not satisfactory, in highly solid ground, roots are seen growing more extensively than one expects. Also, the rate of underground development underground parts/whole (except flowers and leaves) is great. In the meantime those planted in less solid ground extend their roots well, but the rate of underground development is small.
4) In case of Ginkgo biloba L. those planted in highly solid ground shed their leaves early, while those planted in less solid ground shed theirs late. In case of Camellia japonica L., var. hortensis Makino f. otome Makino those planted in highly solid ground put out ower buds fairly well while they are yound, and those planted in less solid ground put them out quite well.
4) As to the moisture in soil, in highly solid ground soil easily dries. Even after rain, it contains a big amount of water only for a short while and quickly dries up. Soil in less solid ground holds water fairly well.

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