The word Garden (정원/庭園) in Hanja is a combination of "Jeong(庭)", meaning yard, and "Won(園)", meaning hill. The radical for "Jeong(庭)" is "Um(广)", which signifies a building with one open side, and the radical for "Won(園)" is "Wi(囗)", indicating an enclosed boundary like a wall. Thus, a garden is a space where openness and enclosure coexist. The Hanja "Wi(囗)" has a similar shape to the mouth “Gu(口)", but there is no obvious etymological connection. However, when I first learned Hanja, I understood it as a large mouth. Is that why a garden feels like a mouth to me?
There are many similarities between a mouth and a garden. A garden is a space that extends the boundaries of a house while simultaneously seperating the outside from the yard. Our perspective on a garden reflects the way we bring nature into human space, that is, how we deal with the ‘other’. The mouth is always wet with water. Through the mouth, we invite, inhale, and exhale other bodies. Sounds reverberate from the opening.