Tsubo-niwa

  • A tsubo-niwa is meant to be seen from indoors. Note sliding glass doors.
    A tsubo-niwa is meant to be seen from indoors. Note sliding glass doors.
  • Straight-on view of the same garden. Note shitaji or renji windows, water basins, lanterns, and shade-loving plantings, including ferns, Soleirolia soleirolii, and a moss lawn.
    Straight-on view of the same garden. Note shitaji or renji windows, water basins, lanterns, and shade-loving plantings, including ferns, Soleirolia soleirolii, and a moss lawn.
The courtyard garden of a former geisha house (okiya) in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. The trees are covered with straw to protect them from the snow.

A tsubo-niwa (坪庭/壷庭/つぼにわ) is a type of very small garden in Japan.[1] Tsubo-niwa have been described as "quasi-indoor gardens", and are a key feature of some traditional Japanese homes, such as the machiya (lit. 'townhouse').[2] They are valued for their beauty and for bringing nature into the building.

Some tsubo-niwa are also impluviums that collect rainwater; others contain groundwater wells. They are traditional locations for temizu (handwashing). They also provide light and ventilation.

As the floorboards in a traditional Japanese building are usually raised above the ground, a niwa is an area without the wooden flooring; the floorboards surrounding a garden may form a veranda called an engawa.

  1. ^ Keane, Marc P. (18 April 2016). "Japanese Courtyard Gardens". Kyoto Journal.
  2. ^ Arimoto, Y.; Homma, Y.; Furuune, H.; Tanaka, K.; Yokota, J.; Hara, K. (March 1995). "Indoor gardens using the Himawari sunlight collection and transmission device". Acta Horticulturae (391): 103–110. doi:10.17660/ActaHortic.1995.391.8.