Although we could look at many web pages, we can do the job very well with just this one: The Japanese Garden — created by Clifton C. Olds, Professor of Art History Emeritus at Bowdoin College in Maine.  

I encourage you to look through the whole thing, but in class we will focus on two gardens:

Daisen-in

and 

Ryoan-ji 

(OK, I lied, for Ryoan-ji also see this and this and this.)

Japan: Zen Painting

Metropolitan Museum of Art article on Muromachi Period

Sesshu Toyo example & article at the British Museum 

Sesshu Toyo entry at Wikipedia 

More Sesshu 

Entry on Zen at Wikipedia

Metropolitan Museum of Art article on Zen  

"Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on simplicity and the importance of the natural world generated a distinctive aesthetic, which is expressed by the terms wabi and sabi. These two amorphous concepts are used to express a sense of rusticity, melancholy, loneliness, naturalness, and age, so that a misshapen, worn peasant’s jar is considered more beautiful than a pristine, carefully crafted dish. While the latter pleases the senses, the former stimulates the mind and emotions to contemplate the essence of reality. This artistic sensibility has had an enormous impact on Japanese culture up to modern times."