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Garden of Fine Art, Kyoto

Tadao Ando's Garden of Fine Art is an interesting case of a Japanese garden, although certainly not a prototype or anything near an archetype. Ando's design is a composite of simple yet complex ideas and symbolism regarding the Japanese ideals and consequently formal and materialistic qualities. He uses the concrete as a simple yet elegant solution to permit "softness, light, wind, and stillness" all at the same time. This is unaffectedly done with a kind of mysterious emptiness that occupies this water garden-pavilion. The presence of light, water, simplicity, and the certain geometric discipline is just a few of the things that unify the traditional Japanese gardens with the Garden of Fine Art in Kyoto. The use of vertical leveling and layering of surfaces is also strikingly similar to that found in the building complexes found often in Japanese gardens or other architecture (such as religious, Shinto)

At the same time, there are irreconcilable differences, such as the physical presence of water in the Garden of Fine Art in contrast to symbolic presence of water (among other things) denoted by the gravel in many of the rock gardens such as Tofukuji Stone Gardens.