An important aspect of traditional design in the relationship of the house to its specific environment, particularly the garden; the two are continuous. The Japanese do not see the exterior and interior as two separate entities; In other words, there is no definite point at which exterior ends and interior begins. The lack of barriers in Japanese designs has already been discussed. The Japanese veranda (engawa) is a concrete expression of this concept, serving as a transition space from inside to outside. Its function is further expressed by the materials used in its construction. Whereas the floors of the interior of the house are covered with tatami mats and the exterior is made of earth and rock. The engawa is made of unfinished wood planks, belonging neither to the soft and accommodating interior nor to harsher and more primitive materials on the outside.

Gardens of Japan have become one of the best parts of Japanese art and culture. A traditional house along with a garden gives a wonderful view. Japan has taken the beauty of gardens at higher level. Japanese gardens possess a unique beauty derived from the combination and synthesis of various elements. There is a compositional beauty derived from a blending of natural paintings, sand, water, and rock, made unique by the natural beauty of Japan’s landscape, seasonal change, and a symbolic beauty arising from the expression of Shinto beliefs and Buddhist intellectual conventions. It has been that the use of groupings of rocks is a distinguishing feature of the Japanese garden and provides its basic framework. The ancestors of the modern Japanese referred to places surrounded by natural rocks as a “heavenly barrier” or “heavenly seat,” believing that gods lived there.  The first gardens amidst the mountains of Yamato imitated ocean scenes with large ponds rimmed by wild “seashores” and dotted with islands.