When was the last time you sat in a garden and simply let your gaze wander? Observation gardens are built especially for this purpose, but can also fulfil other functions, such as providing aid for meditation.

Now, an international team of researchers has investigated what it is about these gardens that makes us feel more relaxed when we sit down to observe them. To do so, they assessed the impact of Kyoto’s famous Murin-an garden and compared it to a less vigorously maintained garden. The results were published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

“Well-designed Japanese gardens have evocative and abstract sceneries designed in great detail. These sceneries encourage the viewer to observe longer to understand the composition and meaning of the scenery, while the gaze wanders more and faster,” said first author Prof Seiko Goto, a researcher at Nagasaki University who specializes in landscape architecture.

“We found a correlation of rapid gaze shifts and a reduction in heart rate and improved mood. The reduction in stress experienced by viewers of a well-crafted Japanese garden is largely due to the design features that lead the viewer to engage in frequent, rapid horizontal shifts in gaze,” added senior author Prof Karl Herrup, a neurobiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.

Garden gazing

During a day of maintenance in early 2023, the researchers were able to get undisturbed access to the Murin-an garden. Similarly, the garden located at Kyoto University was visited little during the time they conducted the experiment there. A total of 16 students observed both gardens for seven minutes. The team recorded eye movements, heart rates before and during the observation, and mood before and after viewing the gardens.

Unlike in the university garden, in the Murin-an garden, viewers’ fixation points were spread more widely, covering the entirety of the field of view. “To induce such close attention of the viewer, not only quality of design but also quality of the maintenance is important,” Goto explained. “Viewers’ gaze keeps moving to seek more fascination on the well pruned trees and speckless ground.”

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In addition, all participants indicated that they felt more relaxed, liked, and wanted to revisit the Murin-an garden more than the university garden. The Murin-an garden also produced a calming effect on heart rate and improved mood. The researchers said their findings could have some analogies to other therapies that utilize eye movement to reduce stress.

Havens for health

Other gardens could have a similar effect on onlookers, the researchers said, but the positioning of design elements is crucial. While both gardens incorporated water features, stones, trees, and a bridge, in the Murin-an garden, the viewer’s gaze is guided through horizontally arranged elements. In the university garden, however, the objects of greatest interest are in the center of the visual field.

“The Murin-an garden was designed as a viewing garden that should be appreciated from a specific vantage point relative to the design elements,” said Herrup. “It is this attention to detail that coaxes the eyes into the patterns that relieve stress.”

The researchers said their results may have been impacted by the limited time during which they could access the gardens and the fact that all participants were students. Their other work, however, has shown that the positive effects of gardens transcend factors such as age, ethnic background, and cognitive status.

The researchers said their work might help people affected by neurodegenerative diseases. “Gardens are generally seen as a hobby for the wealthy, but if appreciating Japanese gardens can induce a relaxing effect, which intuitively everyone feels, it could be used as a form of therapy in hospitals and welfare facilities,” Goto concluded. “I think it would be good if Japanese gardens are built not just as a luxury but as a means of mental care in our aging society.”

IMAGE CREDIT: Matteo Milan.