The Japanese garden like all gardens is more than mere nature; it is nature crafted by man. It needs the hands of the designer to give it meaning. The Japanese garden belongs to the realm of architecture; at its best it is nature as art. The phases of its history document the constant redefinition of mans position within & towards nature. Its changing forms respond both to socio-economic developments & to religious & philosophical trends & thereby reflect the spiritual climate in which its architecture was conceived. At the same time as detailing the characteristics distinguishing & differentiating each of the five major epochs in the history of the Japanese garden the author identifies the common motif which underlies them all: the recurrent attempt to unite beauty as natural accident & beauty as human-perfected type to achieve an aesthetic symbiosis between the seeming randomness of natural form & the strict geometry of the right angle.