The history of the Japanese Garden dates all the way back to the seventh century. A large garden was created for the empress of Japan at her royal palace. The garden was influenced by a garden of similar magnitude in China. The garden theme was greatly dominated by the use of ponds and islands.

From that point on Japanese merchants would travel to and from China, and would get new ideas for the garden. However, as power changed hands in the Japanese empire, trade would be cut off, reestablished, cut off again, etc. During the periods where trade was cut off the Japanese began developing their own ideas about what the landscape should look like.

Eventually, the Japanese Garden became a style all its own.