Abstract:In Japanese traditional gardens,“Penglai”is an important landscape element, which has been highly valued. There are more than 30“Penglai-style gardens”in existence in Japan. However, at present, the research on Penglai landscape element in Japanese classical gardens still stays in the gardening techniques and landscape forms. There is no research on the origin of Penglai landscape element in gardens and research for reference to its historical development from China. This article takes the historical Japanese classical gardens equipped with“Penglai”landscape element as the research object. It mainly uses research methods such as literature surveys and field investigations to sort out the history of Penflai landscape element in Japanese classical gardens with an emphasis on its expression in different gardens at each historical stage in Japan, to fill the research gap in this field.