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One traditional Japanese garden style is known as an “observation garden.” Unlike most gardens where a visitor is expected to move through its space and appreciate its elements from many different visual perspectives, an observation garden is designed to be viewed while seated at a single vantage point. Indeed, the location of this vantage point is a critical design feature that is carefully chosen to maximize the impact of the visual scene. One reason for imposing this level of control on the viewer is that observation gardens were meant to be more than merely esthetically pleasing. For example, they were favored within Zen temples as aids for meditation and thus performed an important function for the temple residents. Today, in addition to their original functions, many observation gardens have become tourist attractions. While their esthetic beauty is part of their appeal, it is likely that another important draw is their documented history of providing a calming effect on the viewer. The centuries of garden designers who perfected the design of the observation garden no doubt honed their skills by trial and error. Yet from a modern perspective the consistent impact of their creations on a visitor raises questions as to what might be the underlying physiological and neurobiological mechanisms that these architects tapped into.

The effect of a natural environment on human physiology has been noted both anecdotally and in formal research studies. Ulrich was one of the first modern practitioners of the latter approach (Ulrich, 1984). His idea was that “most natural views apparently elicit positive feelings, reduce fear in stressed participants, hold interest, and may block or reduce stressful thoughts; they might also foster restoration from anxiety or stress.” Soon after this work was published, Kaplan & Kaplan in Attention Restoration Theory (ART), proposed that unconscious mild esthetic experiences in nature can have a psychological healing effect (Kaplan, 1994; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989). Other sensory stimulations have also been found to have positive health effects (Abraha et al., 2017; Blackburn and Bradshaw, 2014; Goris et al., 2016; Matthews, 2015; Moyle et al., 2014; Ohman et al., 2014; Vink et al., 2013). Works such as these open a critical window into the impact of the sensory environment on a person’s physiological state, yet most lack a strong neurobiological explanation. As the field progressed, and imaging technology became more widely used, we now appreciate that receiving stimulation from a visual field such as a garden is routinely associated with activation of specific regions of the brain.

Though the data is less extensive, there are increasing numbers of studies reporting on eye-movement activity during a visual stimulation involving a natural scene such as a garden (Qiu et al., 2023; Xu et al., 2024; Mohamed et al., 2019). Our own work has focused on studies such as these. What we have repeatedly observed is that when an individual views a structured natural space, created using the design principles of a Japanese garden, they tend to take in the scene presented with more visual fixation points and longer fixation times, than when viewing other types of green spaces (Sun and Fujii, 2018). As one example, the average duration of a fixation was 50% greater when viewing a Japanese style garden than when viewing a similar green space (Goto et al., 2018). The parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with relaxation, was also found to become dominant when the participants’ eyes move back and forth across a Japanese garden (Liu et al., 2020).

Based on these results, we initiated the current study to test the concept that while the quality of the garden does indeed help shape its effectiveness in reducing stress in the viewer, it is the eye movements during a viewing period—the number of gaze points, and the speed with which the viewer shifts from point to point—that are important influences governing the magnitude of the response. We thus chose to assess the impact of a world-class Japanese garden, Murin-an, designed by one of the leading landscape architects of his time on a viewer’s level of stress. The Murin-an garden (Figure 1A) is located in the heart of Kyoto, Japan and has been designated as a historic site and place of scenic beauty by the Japanese government. It was originally built in 1894 as a villa for Yamagata Aritomo, the former prime minister of Japan. It was designed as an observation garden to be viewed from the center of the main room of the villa. The view takes advantage of a technique known as “borrowing scenery” by incorporating the nearby Mt. Higashi into the design (Supplementary Figure 1). The garden is meant to represent a river flowing from a distant mountain, with a shallow pond and zig-zag stream surrounded by lush vegetation. This peaceful atmosphere has earned the garden a reputation as being one of the most relaxing in the region. It has maintained this status due in large part to the fact that its maintenance is impeccable. This applies not just to the cleanliness of the various features but also to the rigorous attention to maintaining the shapes and spatial balance among the various trees and other plantings. We wished to ask how a viewer’s response to a world-class observation garden such as this would compare with their response to a Japanese style garden that was less rigorously maintained.

For this second type of garden, we chose one on the main campus of Kyoto University (Figure 1B). The garden is in the courtyard behind the civil engineering department building. The precise year of the garden’s construction and its designers are unknown. The garden features a stream at its center, with pine trees, shrubs, rocks, and a bridge carefully arranged around it. The garden also has a Himalayan cedar tree located at the edge of the stream, which was planted in 1912 by Sakuro Tanabe, a former dean of the school to commemorate the visit of Albert Einstein. At the end of the stream, a gazebo with a bench offers visitors a place to observe the garden. The most significant difference between the two gardens is that the space in Murin-an is enclosed by trees, whereas the garden at Kyoto University is enclosed by the university buildings. Our analysis of the response of subjects to these two gardens reveals that rather than one visual element driving the relaxation effect, it is the overall design features that work together to encourage a more holistic viewing strategy that is the key. We discuss the implications of this conclusion on the therapeutic value of other types of sensory stimuli.

Our experiments took advantage of a rare opportunity to have subjects view the two gardens with no distraction caused by the presence of other people during the observation period. We were particularly fortunate because the Murin-an garden is designated as a cultural property and had never been used for research purposes. It is a very popular tourist garden; between 2016 and 2018 there were more than 3,000 visitors per month. The garden is open to the public year-round, except for administrative and weather-related closures. This presented a challenge to us as it was almost impossible to schedule a large enough block of time to complete our experiments without the potential distractions of the normal crowd of tourists. We were fortunate to be able to negotiate with the Kyoto city government to find a mutually acceptable time. We then coordinated with the garden’s caretakers and staff to identify a single day in January when the garden was closed for its annual maintenance when we could perform our observations. While we had unfettered access to the facility, the lack of heat in the viewing room was an environmental factor over which we had no control. The second garden was located on the campus of Kyoto University. Here too we were fortunate in our experimental design in that during the same week that Murin-an was closed for maintenance, it was exam week at the University, which meant that the area surrounding the Japanese garden was virtually empty, with little or no pedestrian traffic to distract our subjects.

From a visual point of view, the most significant difference between the two gardens is that whereas the plants in Murin-an are carefully adjusted in size to maintain the balance of the overall landscape, in the garden at Kyoto University, the Himalayan cedar has been allowed to grow naturally without pruning. In Murin-an, the garden is meticulously cleaned, and the size of the plants are carefully adjusted to maintain the one point perspective-like view. The branches of the foreground trees are thinned out, allowing viewers to see the middle and distant scenery through the branches. The central part of the garden is open, and the stream of water runs diagonally. In contrast, the maintenance of the garden at Kyoto University has been lackluster. The overall landscape lacks balance, and the view behind the cedar is entirely blocked by its dense foliage. There are visible weeds and scattered litter throughout the space. The central part of the garden is filled with shrubs, and the stream of water runs straight from the viewer’s perspective in the direction of the cedar tree.

The observations were conducted over a three-day period in January during which time all 16 participants viewed both the Murin-an and Kyoto University gardens from the same location in either the Murin-an viewing room (red dot, Figure 1C) or from a comparable position in front of the Kyoto University garden (red dot, Figure 1D). A typical view from behind the subject during a viewing session is shown for Murin-an in Figure 1E and for the Kyoto University Garden in Figure 1F. The two gardens are both Japanese-style gardens centered around a stream, with spaces composed of the same visual elements: plants, rocks, lanterns, and steppingstones. The primary plantings in both gardens are pine, maple, and azalea, and the plants in both are shaped using traditional Japanese pruning methods.

Our findings provide several important advances in our ongoing studies of Japanese gardens and their effect on the viewer. Our early work in this area focused on elderly participants, including those with advanced dementia (Goto and Fritsch, 2011; Goto et al., 2014; Goto et al., 2013). These studies revealed that there were features in the elements and design of a Japanese style garden that were unique in their ability to engage participants and lower both their qualitative sense of tension and its physiological manifestation in heart rate. Perhaps most intriguing was how viewing the garden cut through the fog of dementia and produced effects, even in participants whose MMSE (Mini-mental status exam) scores were below 15 (Goto et al., 2013). The robust nature of the effect led us to explore its neurobiological underpinnings, which in turn led us to an interest in tracking eye movements (Liu et al., 2020; Goto et al., 2020; Goto et al., 2017). Our hypothesis was that, by correlating the object of a participant’s attention with the momentary change in their heart rate, we could identify those features of the garden—a stone lantern, a water element, a specific type of plant—that were most responsible for eliciting the calming effect we had documented. The results, however, did not support this idea. Rather, the data suggest that it was the overall pattern of eye movements that differed most significantly when participants viewed a Japanese style garden (Goto et al., 2020).

The current study offers a possible explanation as to why our initial hypothesis was incorrect, and ironically, it may have been the uncomfortable nature of the viewing environment that was the key to this insight. We chose to measure the effect of the Murin-an garden because it is a classic and highly regarded design that we hoped would maximize the signal we were seeking (a more detailed description of its history and design principles can be found in the Supplementary Figure 1). Unfortunately, it is also a popular tourist attraction and because of this, our access for the purpose of experimentation was restricted to a single day in January. Kyoto winters are cold and the villa from which the garden was viewed was not heated. The KUG viewing spot was completely outdoors and the viewing sessions were held during the same January days. We provided blankets for warmth at both locations, but most participants remarked about the conditions. The wintertime viewing schedule also meant that both gardens were devoid of any flowering plants and their deciduous trees were bare. The subdued colors meant that the participants were influenced primarily by the design features of the two gardens.

The pulse rate measurements show the effects of this minimalist stimulation. In previous work, in comfortable conditions, even a less than professional Japanese style garden was sufficient to induce a perceived and physiologically detectable calming effect (Goto et al., 2013). In this study, despite the cold winter weather, all 16 participants experienced significant physiological relaxation while observing the Murin-an garden. Although only some Kyoto Art University students reported appreciating the scenery of Murin-an in the questionnaire, the results from the heart rate and POMS2 evaluation revealed that the Kyoto University students, who had less knowledge of Japanese gardens than the Kyoto Art students, nonetheless experienced greater physiological relaxation and mood improvement in Murin-an. This suggests that the relaxation effect of Murin-an is not only much greater than that of a typical Japanese garden but also more effective for first-time viewers. This is consistent with the idea that a certain pattern of eye movements can induce a relaxing effect regardless of the subject’s background.

Yet viewing the KUG led to no significant drop in heart rate, although the POMS2 revealed that most measures of mood improved. Despite the cold, however, the Murin-an garden was highly effective and produced a calming effect on both heart rate and mood. Both groups of students experienced an increase in their heart rate during the first minute in Murin-an after which the policy/city planning students showed a steeper decline in heart rate while the art students heart rate decreased more slowly. In other words, viewing Murin-an had a greater calming effect on the participants who had less knowledge of Japanese gardens. This suggests that the relaxation effect of Murin-an is much higher than that of a typical Japanese garden and also more effective for first-time viewers.

One caveat that should be considered in evaluating the data is that we did not collect a detailed medical history of the students or ask whether they were taking any medications. As all the subjects were students, their daily activities were likely similar, but the possibility exists that our subjects had intrinsic differences in baseline stress that might have influenced their individual responses. That said, the POMS2 is a detailed questionnaire designed to measure mood and stress that we administered before and after the viewing sessions. We found no evidence that any of our subjects had unusual scores on the first test. Also, the distribution of the heart rates was fairly narrow (e.g., Figures 1, 4, 7), and there were no examples of erratic heart activity during any of our monitoring sessions. While not definitive, data such as these suggest that intrinsic health differences were not an important factor in evaluating our data.

The eye-tracking data add an important dimension to the analysis. We found a substantial difference in the gaze movements during the viewing sessions of the two gardens. To some extent, a participant viewing a garden they had never seen before led them to take in a wider range of views. While this may have been a factor for some participants, this effect was minor compared to our observation that the range of fixation points in all three planes, the distance traveled by the eyes, and the speed with which they moved were all significantly greater in Murin-an than in the KUG. As we observed previously (Goto et al., 2020), the participants’ gaze in both gardens tended to concentrate in the center of the visual field. Nonetheless, the distribution of points was far broader in Murin-an, extending to the edge of the visual field especially in the horizontal direction. In the KUG, the regular geometry of the windows in the building at the right edge of the visual field did not draw the participants’ attention and may have served to “repel” gaze and thus help to keep it centered in the visual field. Compounding this effect, the vertical lines of the cedar tree and other large plants would discourage the viewer from moving their gaze in the center of the field. Whatever the actual causes, the result was that in Murin-an, but not in the KUG, the participants’ gaze shifted in the horizontal direction more often and more rapidly.

We note the analogies between our findings and the principles used in a technique known as eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro who is credited with first noting the association between eye movement and mood (Shapiro, 1989; Shapiro et al., 1994). The theory of the method is to reduce stress by providing bilateral stimulation through the manipulation of eye movement during the recollection of a specific memory. After its initial discovery other sensory domains such as sound and touch have been added (Shapiro, 1999). The technique is widely used, especially to treat the persistent stress associated with traumatic events (e.g., PTSD), but its neurological basis is not understood (Pierce et al., 2023; Valiente-Gomez et al., 2017; Zarghi et al., 2013). The success of the technique has been suggested to be due in part to the strong bilateral nature of the visual stimuli used and some authors have noted its relationship to the REM phase of sleep (Stickgold, 2002). Although the exact neuroanatomical pathways that underlie the phenomenon are still under study (Vereecken and Corso, 2024), work in mice has drawn attention to the superior colliculus as important in the reduction of fear by bilateral stimulation (Baek et al., 2019). Pathways to the adrenal gland from motor areas of cortex and the eye-movement regions of cerebellum may also play a role (Dum et al., 2019; Seese et al., 2023).

Caution is needed in adopting this analogy. The EMDR technique specifically pairs bilateral stimulation with recall of a traumatic memory. No such pairing is evident in our experiment. Similarly, an individual viewing a garden from a single vantage point with no outside instruction about how they should focus their view is different from a session of EMDR where the stimulation is highly controlled by the person administering the therapy. Despite these differences, the work in EMDR and our own observations align in ways that offer suggestions for future exploration. The strong effect of bilateral visual stimulation that is achieved during EMDR suggests that it is the wider eye movement patterns that are elicited in a well-designed garden such as Murin-an that are the reason for the physiological and psychological effects that we observe. Thus, our search for a specific item in the garden that acts as the source of relaxation was always going to fail. Instead, it suggests it is the totality of the design, and the rapid and broad eye movements evoked, that are the key ingredients. The later EMDR work of Shapiro and others showing the effectiveness of other sensory modalities urges more consideration of the sonic and even olfactory environment of a garden in eliciting the full stress reduction effects that we observe.

Our study adds depth to our understanding of how garden viewing, a simple, non-pharmacological intervention, can reduce both physiological and psychological evidence of stress. The strengths of the work include, first and foremost, our ability to negotiate access to a world-class Japanese garden to test the effects of its design principles on a viewer. A second important strength is the multi-dimensional nature of the analysis—the combination of eye tracking, pulse rate measurements, and the POMS instrument to monitor subject responses. The results both confirm and extend our previous work in the area and the analogies with EMDR offer important new avenues for future exploration. There are weaknesses in the work, however, that should also be acknowledged. The small sample size, while unavoidable, limits the statistical power of our results. The mostly homogeneous nature of our subjects (young students of similar ethnic backgrounds) means that additional work is required to assure the generalizability of our findings. In designing these studies it will also be of interest to test the persistence of the stress reduction after a person leaves the garden. Despite these caveats, our findings make it clear that the relaxation effect of the Murin-an garden is not only much greater than that of a typical Japanese garden but also more effective for first-time viewers. This is consistent with the idea that a certain pattern of eye movements can induce a relaxing effect regardless of the subject’s background.