Japanese gardens are designed with a purpose, every detail has meaning and every element symbolizes something. Gardens were usually built for wealthy aristocrats or powerful people. Early Japanese garden designs consisted of major religious influences and gave meaning to natural objects as in Shinto, Buddhism, and Taoist beliefs. In Shinto beliefs, gardens were designed as a cleansed and purified space for the arrival of the kami. Kami are the sacred spirits of Shinto and the large rocks carefully arranged in the design, lakes, ponds, ancient trees and other elements of nature would represent the influence of Shinto in Japanese gardens. These places that showed Shinto influence were called “niwa,” which meant a pure place in terms of a garden. The designers were often called "niwa shi", meaning masters of the garden. Early Japanese gardens also incorporated Buddhist beliefs into their designs. Mythical mountains, islands and seas were used as a form of symbolization in the design. In another sense, Daoism used these same mythical beliefs but used them as an island of the immortals. These interpretations were represented in the form of groupings of stones and each stone was intentionally positioned as having meaning for the scenario. This often played a role in the 14th century. The beliefs of Buddhism and Taoism were brought from Korea and China. There were temporary periods when these countries opened their doors to share culture and religious beliefs, fine arts, food spices, etc. Therefore, it is firmly believed that the first gardens in Japan evolved from Korean or Chinese models. Kinkaku-Ji Garden is in a Zen Buddhist style reflecting Chinese influence. The ideas were borrowed from the philosophy of Taoism. Zen Buddhism emerged from the center of the paper to the shogun. The placement of the stones served as islands to imitate real nature. Nowadays the placement of stones is very important in Japanese gardens. It must be placed by Japanese masters of garden design. (Figure 7) Waterfalls The waterfall in kinkaku-ji is located north of the pavilion and consists of a combination of the waterfall element and carp element. The carp serves as a metaphor that if it successfully travels to the upper part of the river it will transform into a dragon attaining enlightenment in mythology, as the Japanese and Chinese believe. There is a splash stone and it is located at the bottom of the garden waterfall. This does not necessarily have to be read symbolically. In Japanese gardens, waterfalls are usually the source of water intake. They can also serve as dry waterfalls called kare taki and involve falling water. (Figure 8)