General Shape at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

THIS INFLUENCES design considerably. Few plots are symmetrical, but that really does not matter. An L-shape or a triangle can even offer more design potential than a rectangle. Perhaps the most difficult shape of all is a square, particularly when it is too small to subdivide as in many yards in front. A design for an awkward shape needs to be carefully thought out. A long thin area, for example, can be divided into contrasting sections with barriers across its width, but by leaving a narrow view running through from one end to the other you create an additional sight line. Furthermore, by placing an ornamental feature like a statue or seat at the far end, you gain the full benefit from the site's length while the screens minimize the disadvantages of its shape.

Each individual figure is composed of completely diverse elements. And compared to one another, the figures also obey mutually contradictory principles. On the other hand, they are united by a general shape geometrical principle which superimposes its own laws on to the natural proportions, and they merge almost completely with the background, which is full of similar rugged cleavages. There are no distinctions of light and darkness that might lend shape to the women's bodies, and together with the combination of several perspectives, this contributes to a general shape impression of disorientation in space.

The shape of the geoid is defined by its departure from a "reference ellipsoid" which fits most closely to the shape of the earth; in this case, the average level of the land and sea is taken as the norm. Mountains are then higher and sea-floors lower than the surface of this ellipsoid. (An ellipsoid is the regular geometric shape obtained by revolving an ellipse round one of its axes.)