Sakuteiki (作庭記, lit.Treatise on Garden Making) is the oldest and most revered Japanese text on garden design in 11th century, in fact, the oldest book on gardening in the world.It was probably complied by Tachibana Toshitsuna (橘俊綱,AD.1028-94). As son of Fujiwara Yorimichi (藤原頼通,AD.990-1074), the builder of the Byoudouin(平等院) in Kyoto.
Auther Toshitsuna was acquainted with both the practice and theory of shinden style garden shinden-zukuri teien(寝殿造庭園) and joudo teien (浄土庭園). The two dominant types of Heian period gardens. Toshitsuna's unillustrated work is the product of a oral tradition passed down among generations of gardeners.
The Sakuteiki contains the first systematic record of this new gardening style-with both technical advice on gardening-building (much of which is still followed in today's Japanese gardens) and an examination of the four central threads of allegorical meaning which were integral features of Heian-era garden design.
A supplementary volume was published in 1289, and the subsequent two-volume work called ZENSAI HISHOU was secretly transmitted through the Muromachi period. In the Edo period it acquired the title SAKUTEIKI and was excerpted in a number of other works on garden design. It is translated into English a few times.