![Daisen-in2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Daisen-in2.jpg)
The or Japanese rock garden, often called a zen garden, is a distinctive style of
Japanese garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...
. It creates a miniature
stylized
In the visual arts, style is a "...distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories" or "...any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed a ...
landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water. Zen gardens are commonly found at temples or monasteries. A zen garden is usually relatively small, surrounded by a wall or buildings, and is usually meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint outside the garden, such as the porch of the ''hojo'', the residence of the chief monk of the temple or monastery. Many, with gravel rather than grass, are only stepped into for maintenance. Classical zen gardens were created at temples of
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
during the
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
. They were intended to imitate the essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid for meditation.
History
Early Japanese rock gardens
Stone gardens existed in Japan at least since the
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...
(794–1185). These early gardens were described in the first manual of Japanese gardens, ''
Sakuteiki
is the oldest published Japanese text on garden-making. It was most likely the work of Tachibana Toshitsuna.
''Sakuteiki'' is most likely the oldest garden planning text in the world. It was written in the mid-to-late 11th century. Later during ...
'' ("Records of Garden Keeping"), written at the end of the 11th century by Tachibana no Toshitsuna (1028–1094). They adapted the Chinese garden philosophy of the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
(960–1279), where groups of rocks symbolized
Mount Penglai
Penglai () is a legendary land of Chinese mythology. It is known in Japanese mythology as Hōrai.McCullough, Helen. ''Classical Japanese Prose'', p. 570. Stanford Univ. Press, 1990. .
Location
According to the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas' ...
, the legendary mountain-island home of the
Eight Immortals
The Eight Immortals () are a group of legendary ''xian'' ("immortals") in Chinese mythology. Each immortal's power can be transferred to a vessel () that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight vessels are called the "Covert Eight ...
in
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.
Much of t ...
, known in Japanese as
Horai. The ''Sakuteiki'' described exactly how rocks should be placed. In one passage, he wrote:
"In a place where there is neither a lake or a stream, one can put in place what is called a ''kare-sansui,'' or dry landscape". This kind of garden featured either rocks placed upright like mountains, or laid out in a miniature landscape of hills and ravines, with few plants. He described several other styles of rock garden, which usually included a stream or pond, including the great river style, the mountain river style, and the marsh style. The ocean style featured rocks that appeared to have been eroded by waves, surrounded by a bank of white sand, like a beach.
White sand and gravel had long been a feature of Japanese gardens. In the
Shinto religion
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoists ...
, it was used to symbolize purity, and was used around shrines, temples, and palaces. In zen gardens, it represents water, or, like the white space in Japanese paintings, emptiness and distance. They are places of meditation.
Zen Buddhism and the Muromachi period (1336–1573)
The Muromachi period in Japan, which took place at roughly the same time as the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
in Europe, was characterized by political rivalries which frequently led to wars, but also by an extraordinary flourishing of Japanese culture. It saw the beginning of ''
Noh
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
'' theater, the
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...
, the ''
shoin
is a type of audience hall in Japanese architecture that was developed during the Muromachi period. The term originally meant a study and a place for lectures on the sūtra within a temple, but later it came to mean just a drawing room or stu ...
'' style of Japanese architecture, and the zen garden.
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
was introduced into Japan at the end of the 12th century, and quickly achieved a wide following, particularly among the
Samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
class and war lords, who admired its doctrine of self-discipline. The gardens of the early zen temples in Japan resembled Chinese gardens of the time, with lakes and islands. But in Kyoto in the 14th and 15th century, a new kind of garden appeared at the important zen temples. These zen gardens were designed to stimulate meditation. "Nature, if you made it expressive by reducing it to its abstract forms, could transmit the most profound thoughts by its simple presence", Michel Baridon wrote. "The compositions of stone, already common in China, became in Japan, veritable petrified landscapes, which seemed suspended in time, as in certain moments of Noh theater, which dates to the same period."
The first garden to begin the transition to the new style is considered by many experts to be
Saihō-ji, "The Temple of the Perfumes of the West", popularly known as
Koke-dera, the Moss Temple, in the western part of Kyoto. The Buddhist monk and zen master
Musō Kokushi transformed a Buddhist temple into a zen monastery in 1334, and built the gardens. The lower garden of Saihō-ji is in the traditional Heian period style; a pond with several rock compositions representing islands. The upper garden is a dry rock garden which features three rock "islands". The first, called ''Kameshima'', the island of the turtle, resembles a turtle swimming in a "lake" of moss. The second, ''Zazen-seki'', is a flat "meditation rock," which is believed to radiate calm and silence; and the third is the ''kare-taki'', a dry "waterfall" composed of a stairway of flat granite rocks. The moss which now surrounds the rocks and represents water, was not part of the original garden plan; it grew several centuries later when the garden was left untended, but now is the most famous feature of the garden.
[Nitschke, ''le jardin japonais'', pp. 68–73.]
Muso Kokushi built another temple garden at
Tenryū-ji
, formally known as , is the head temple of the Tenryū-ji branch of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism, located in Susukinobaba-chō, Ukyō Ward, Kyoto, Japan. The temple was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddh ...
, the "Temple of the Celestial Dragon". This garden appears to have been strongly influenced by Chinese landscape painting of the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
, which feature mountains rising in the mist, and a suggestion of great depth and height. The garden at Tenryū-ji has a real pond with water and a dry waterfall of rocks looking like a Chinese landscape. Saihō-ji and Tenryū-ji show the transition from the Heian style garden toward a more abstract and stylized view of nature.
The gardens of
Ginkaku-ji __NOTOC__
, officially named , is a Zen temple in the Sakyo ward of Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the constructions that represents the Higashiyama Culture of the Muromachi period.
History
Ashikaga Yoshimasa initiated plans for creating a retirem ...
, also known as the Silver Pavilion, are also attributed to Muso Kokushi. This temple garden included a traditional pond garden, but it had a new feature for a Japanese garden; an area of raked white gravel with a perfectly shaped mountain of white gravel, resembling
Mount Fuji
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...
, in the center. The scene was called ''ginshanada'', literally "sand of silver and open sea". This garden feature became known as ''kogetsudai'', or small mountain facing the moon, and similar small Mount Fuji made of sand or earth covered with grass appeared in Japanese gardens for centuries afterwards.
The most famous of all zen gardens in Kyoto is
Ryōan-ji
Ryōan-ji ( ja, 竜安寺, label=Shinjitai, ja, 龍安寺, label=Kyūjitai, ''The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'') is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The ...
, built in the late 15th century where for the first time the zen garden became purely abstract. The garden is a rectangle of 340 square meters. Placed within it are fifteen stones of different sizes, carefully composed in five groups; one group of five stones, two groups of three, and two groups of two stones. The stones are surrounded by white gravel, which is carefully raked each day by the monks. The only vegetation in the garden is some moss around the stones. The garden is meant to be viewed from a seated position on the veranda of the ''hōjō'', the residence of the abbot of the monastery.
The garden at
Daisen-in
The is a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen in Buddhism, one of the five most important Zen temples of Kyoto. The name means "The Academy of the Great Immortals." Daisen-in was founded by the Zen priest , and was bui ...
(1509–1513) took a more literary approach than Ryōan-ji. There a "river" of white gravel represents a metaphorical journey through life; beginning with a dry waterfall in the mountains, passing through rapids and rocks, and ending in a tranquil sea of white gravel, with two gravel mountains.
The invention of the zen garden was closely connected with developments in Japanese ink landscape paintings. Japanese painters such as
Sesshū Tōyō
(c. 1420 – 26 August 1506) has been regarded as one of the greatest painters in Japanese history. Sesshū was a Zen-Shu priest painter of the Muromachi period in Japan, prominently recognised for his art of sumi-e (black ink painting). Initi ...
(1420–1506) and
Soami (died 1525) greatly simplified their views of nature, showing only the most essential aspects of nature, leaving great areas of white around the black and gray drawings. Soami is said to have been personally involved in the design of two of the most famous zen gardens in Kyoto,
Ryōan-ji
Ryōan-ji ( ja, 竜安寺, label=Shinjitai, ja, 龍安寺, label=Kyūjitai, ''The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'') is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The ...
and
Daisen-in
The is a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen in Buddhism, one of the five most important Zen temples of Kyoto. The name means "The Academy of the Great Immortals." Daisen-in was founded by the Zen priest , and was bui ...
, though his involvement has never been documented with certainty.
Michel Baridon wrote, "The famous zen gardens of the
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
showed that Japan had carried the art of gardens to the highest degree of intellectual refinement that it was possible to attain."
File:Saihouji-kokedera01.jpg, Saihō-ji The Moss Garden, an early zen garden from the mid-14th century. The moss arrived much later, when the garden was not tended.
File:Ginkakuji-M1953.jpg, The garden of Ginkaku-ji features a replica of Mount Fuji made of gravel, in a gravel sea. it was the model for similar miniature mountains in Japanese gardens for centuries.
Image:RyoanJi-Dry garden.jpg, Part of the garden at Ryōan-ji
Ryōan-ji ( ja, 竜安寺, label=Shinjitai, ja, 龍安寺, label=Kyūjitai, ''The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'') is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The ...
(late 15th century), the most abstract of all Japanese zen gardens
File:Ryoanji rock garden close up.jpg, Classic triad rock composition at Ryōan-ji.
File:Daisen-in3.jpg, The white gravel "ocean" of the garden of Daisen-ji, to which the gravel river flows.
File:Daitokuji-Zuihoin-Zuihotei-M1827.jpg, The Garden of the Blissful Mountain at Zuiho-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji.
File:Daitokuji-Zuihoin-M1836.jpg, In Zuiho-in garden – some of the rocks are said to form a cross. The garden was built by the daimyō Ōtomo Sōrin
, also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige (藤原 義鎮) and Ōtomo Yoshishige (大友 義鎮), was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Roman Catholicism (Christianity). The eldest son of , he ...
, who was a convert to Christianity.
File:Korakuen Okayama26s3872.jpg
File:Zuihou-in2.JPG
File:Toufuku-ji hojyo5.JPG
File:Harima-ankokuji-sekitei01.jpg
Later rock gardens
During the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
, the large promenade garden became the dominant style of Japanese garden, but zen gardens continued to exist at zen temples. A few small new rock gardens were built, usually as part of a garden where a real stream or pond was not practical.
In 1880, the buildings of
Tōfuku-ji
is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto, Japan. Tōfuku-ji takes its name from two temples in Nara, Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji.Japan ReferenceTōfuku-ji/ref> It is one of the Kyoto ''Gozan'' or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto". Its ...
temple in Kyoto, one of the oldest temples in the city, were destroyed by a fire. In 1940, the temple commissioned the landscape historian and architect Shigemori Mirei to recreate the gardens. He created four different gardens, one for each face of the main temple building. He made one garden with five artificial hills covered with grass, symbolizing the five great ancient temples of Kyoto; a modern rock garden, with vertical rocks, symbolizing Mount
Horai; a large "sea" of white gravel raked in a checkboard pattern; and an intimate garden with swirling sand patterns.
In the last century, zen gardens have appeared in many countries outside Japan.
File:TofukujiGarden1.jpg, The garden of Tōfuku-ji (1940). The five hills symbolize the five great zen temples of Kyoto.
File:Toufuku-ji hojyo3.JPG, The modern zen garden at Tōfuku-ji (1940).
File:Toufuku-ji kaizandou3.JPG, A zen garden in a checkboard pattern, at Tōfuku-ji (1940).
File:TofukujiReiunin1.jpg, A courtyard zen garden at Tōfuku-ji (1940).
File:Toufuku-ji hojyo4.JPG, Part of the modern zen garden at Tōfuku-ji (1940). The "islands" of the immortals.
File:ReiunIn GaunNoNiwa.jpg, Part of the modern zen garden at Tōfuku-ji (1940).
File:Shitennoj honbo garden06s3200.jpg, Shitennō-ji
Shitennō-ji ( ja, 四天王寺, ''Temple of the Four Heavenly Kings'') is a Buddhist temple in Ōsaka, Japan. It is also known as Arahaka-ji, Nanba-ji, or Mitsu-ji. The temple is sometimes regarded as the first Buddhist and oldest officially-ad ...
Honbō garden
File:Japanese Tea Garden (San Francisco, California).jpg, A small garden in the Japanese Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco
File:Portland Japanese gardens zen garden.jpg, Sand and stone garden located in the Portland Japanese Garden
The Portland Japanese Garden is a traditional Japanese garden occupying 12 acres, located within Washington Park in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is operated as a private non-profit organization, which leased the site f ...
s.
File:Anyoin02 1024.jpg, An'yō-in Garden of Taisan-ji in Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
, Hyogo, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
File:RosanjiTeien.jpg, Rosan-ji garden
File:Adachi Museum of Art04st3200.jpg, Adachi Museum of Art
File:MyoshinjiTaizoin2.jpg, Taizō-in is the oldest sub-temple () of the Myōshin-ji Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple, situated in the northwest of Kyoto, Japan. It was founded by Zen priest Muinsoin in 1404. The original temple buildings were burned during the Ōnin War (1467-1477), and w ...
, Myōshin-ji
is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The Myōshin-ji school is by far the largest school in Rinzai Zen, approximately as big as the other thirteen branches combined: it contains with ...
, in Kyoto
File:Komyozenji Stone garden 1.JPG, Kōmyōzen-ji
File:Jissoin-Temple-Stone-Garden.JPG, Jissō-in, in Kyoto (Iwakura)
File:Japanese Garden at Hamilton Gardens, Waikato, New Zealand..jpg, Japanese Garden at Hamilton Gardens, Waikato, New Zealand
File:Japanese Rock Garden Chandigarh 1.jpg, Japanese Rock Garden (Phase 1), Chandigarh (India)
File:Japanese Rock Garden Chandigarh 2.jpg, Japanese Rock Garden (Phase 2), Chandigarh (India)
Selection and arrangement of rocks
Stone arrangements and other miniature elements are used to represent mountains and natural water elements and scenes, islands, rivers and waterfalls. Stone and shaped shrubs (''karikomi'', ''hako-zukuri'' topiary) are used interchangeably. In most gardens moss is used as a ground cover to create "land" covered by forest.
The selection and placement of rocks is the most important part of making a Japanese rock garden. In the first known manual of Japanese gardening, the ''
Sakuteiki
is the oldest published Japanese text on garden-making. It was most likely the work of Tachibana Toshitsuna.
''Sakuteiki'' is most likely the oldest garden planning text in the world. It was written in the mid-to-late 11th century. Later during ...
'' ("Records of Garden Making"), is expressed as "setting stones", ''ishi wo tateru koto''; literally, the "act of setting stones upright." It laid out very specific rules for choice and the placement of stones, and warned that if the rules were not followed the owner of the garden would suffer misfortune. In Japanese gardening, rocks are classified as either tall vertical, low vertical, arching, reclining, or flat.
[Young and Young, ''The Art of the Japanese Garden''. p. 22.]
For creating "mountains", usually
igneous
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...
volcanic rocks, rugged mountain rocks with sharp edges, are used. Smooth, rounded
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...
rocks are used for the borders of gravel "rivers" or "seashores."
In Chinese gardens of the Song dynasty, individual rocks which looked like animals or had other unusual features were often the star attraction of the garden. In Japanese gardens, individual rocks rarely play the starring role; the emphasis is upon the harmony of the composition.
For arranging rocks, there are many rules in the ''Sakuteiki'', for example:
Make sure that all the stones, right down to the front of the arrangement, are placed with their best sides showing. If a stone has an ugly-looking top you should place it so as to give prominence to its side. Even if this means it has to lean at a considerable angle, no one will notice. There should always be more horizontal than vertical stones. If there are "running away" stones there must be "chasing" stones. If there are "leaning" stones, there must be "supporting" stones.
Rocks are rarely if ever placed in straight lines or in symmetrical patterns. The most common arrangement is one or more groups of three rocks. One common triad arrangement has a tall vertical rock flanked by two smaller rocks, representing Buddha and his two attendants. Other basic combinations are a tall vertical rock with a reclining rock; a short vertical rock and a flat rock; and a triad of a tall vertical rock, a reclining rock and a flat rock. Other important principles are to choose rocks which vary in color, shape and size, to avoid rocks with bright colors which might distract the viewer, and make certain that the grains of rocks run in the same direction.
At the end of the Edo period, a new principle was invented: the use of ''suteishi'', "discarded" or "nameless" rocks, placed in seemingly random places to add spontaneity to the garden.
Other important principles of rock arrangement include balancing the number of vertical and horizontal rocks.
Gravel
Gravel is usually used in zen gardens, rather than sand, because it is less disturbed by rain and wind. The act of raking the gravel into a pattern recalling waves or rippling water, known as or , has an aesthetic function. Zen priests practice this raking also to help their concentration. Achieving perfection of lines is not easy. Rakes are according to the patterns of ridges as desired and limited to some of the stone objects situated within the gravel area. Nonetheless, often the patterns are not static. Developing variations in patterns is a creative and inspiring challenge. There are typically four raking patterns, line, wave, scroll, and check.
The gravel used in Japanese gardens is known as "suna" (sand) despite the individual particles being much bigger than those of what is regarded as normal sand. These vary from 2 mm to up to even 30 to 50 mm in size.
Gardens in Kyoto have historically used "Shirakawa-suna", (白川砂利, "Shirakawa-sand") which is known for its rather muted colour palette.
[ This type of muted black-speckled granite is a mix of three main minerals, white feldspar, grey quartz, and black mica which matches the aesthetic for most zen gardens. Shirakawa-suna also has an eroded texture that alternates between jagged and smooth and is prized for its ability to hold raked grooves, with patterns that last weeks unless weather, animals or humans intervene.
As of 2018 in Kyoto alone there are 341 areas spread over 166 temples covering a surface area of over 29,000 m2 which have used "Shirakawa-suna".][ Gravel is used in the entrance, main garden, and corridor area and takes four forms, spread gravel, gravel terrace, gravel pile, and garden path. Typically in areas covering less than 100 m2, the gravel is 20 to 50 mm deep and has a particle size of 9 mm.
Among the gardens which used Shirakawa-suna have been Ryōan-ji and Daitoku-ji.]
"Shirakawa-suna" was sourced from the upper reaches of the Shirakawa River
The is a river in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The river originates in the foothills of Mount Hiei on the outskirts of Kyoto, through the Geisha district of Gion and eventually ends up in the Kamo River.
Its name, which means "white river" in Japane ...
. However, since the late 1950s the river has been a protected waterway and extraction of gravel from the river has been illegal.[
Over time the gravel becomes weather-beaten and becomes finer, forcing gardeners to occasionally replenish it in order for the gravel to retain the patterns made in them.][
Since the banning of extraction from the Shirakawa River the gravel used for both maintenance of existing gardens and the creation of new ones is sourced from quarried mountain granite of similar composition that is crushed and sieved.][ However the process of manufacturing creates rounded particles of the same size, lacking the pattern holding characteristics of true "Shirakawa-suna", which have corners and are not uniform in size.][ For instance the ]Portland Japanese Garden
The Portland Japanese Garden is a traditional Japanese garden occupying 12 acres, located within Washington Park in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is operated as a private non-profit organization, which leased the site f ...
experimented with granite chips sourced from Canadian quarries to compensate for the loss of access to Shirakawa-suna.
Maintenance of the gravel in Japan is typically undertaken two to three times per month.[
]
Symbolism
In the Japanese rock garden, rocks sometimes symbolize mountains (particularly Horai, the legendary home of the Eight Immortals
The Eight Immortals () are a group of legendary ''xian'' ("immortals") in Chinese mythology. Each immortal's power can be transferred to a vessel () that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight vessels are called the "Covert Eight ...
in Taoist mythology); or they can be boats or a living creature (usually a turtle, or a carp). In a group, they might be a waterfall or a crane in flight.
In the earliest rock gardens of the Heian period, the rocks in a garden sometimes had a political message. As the Sakutei-ki wrote:
Sometimes, when mountains are weak, they are without fail destroyed by water. It is, in other words, as if subjects had attacked their emperor. A mountain is weak if it does not have stones for support. An emperor is weak if he does not have counselors. That is why it is said that it is because of stones that a mountain is sure, and thanks to his subjects that an emperor is secure. It is for this reason that, when you construct a landscape, you must at all cost place rocks around the mountain.
Some classical zen gardens, like Daisen-in
The is a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen in Buddhism, one of the five most important Zen temples of Kyoto. The name means "The Academy of the Great Immortals." Daisen-in was founded by the Zen priest , and was bui ...
, have symbolism that can be easily read; it is a metaphorical journey on the river of life. Others, like Ryōan-ji
Ryōan-ji ( ja, 竜安寺, label=Shinjitai, ja, 龍安寺, label=Kyūjitai, ''The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'') is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The ...
, resist easy interpretation. Many different theories have been put forward about what the garden is supposed to represent, from islands in a stream to swimming baby tigers to the peaks of mountains rising above the clouds to theories about secrets of geometry or of the rules of equilibrium of odd numbers. Garden historian Gunter Nitschke wrote: "The garden at Ryōan-ji does not symbolize anything, or more precisely, to avoid any misunderstanding, the garden of Ryōan-ji does not symbolize, nor does it have the value of reproducing a natural beauty that one can find in the real or mythical world. I consider it to be an abstract composition of "natural" objects in space, a composition whose function is to incite meditation."
A recent suggestion by Gert van Tonder of Kyoto University
, mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture
, established =
, type = National university, Public (National)
, endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD)
, faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff)
, administrative_staff ...
and Michael Lyons of Ritsumeikan University
is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, that traces its origin to 1869. With the Kinugasa Campus (KIC) in Kyoto, and Kyoto Prefecture, the university also has a satellite called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) and Osaka-Ibaraki Campus (OIC).
Tod ...
is that the rocks of Ryōan-ji
Ryōan-ji ( ja, 竜安寺, label=Shinjitai, ja, 龍安寺, label=Kyūjitai, ''The Temple of the Dragon at Peace'') is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The ...
form the subliminal
Subliminal may refer to:
* Subliminal stimuli, sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception
* Subliminal channel, in cryptography, a covert channel that can be used over an insecure channel
* Subliminal (rapper) (born ...
image of a tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
. The researchers claim the subconscious
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness.
Scholarly use of the term
The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...
mind is sensitive to a subtle association between the rocks. They suggest this may be responsible for the calming effect of the garden.
Landscape painting and the Zen garden critique
Chinese landscape painting was one of the many Chinese arts that came to Japan with Zen Buddhism in the fourteenth century. That the Buddhism of Zen influenced garden design was first suggested not in Japan, but in the West by a Hawaiian garden journalist Loraine Kuck in the 1930s and disputed as such by a scholar of Japanese garden history, Wybe Kuitert in 1988. This was well before scholars jumped on the bandwagon in the 1990s to deconstruct the promotion and reception of Zen. The critique comes down to the fact that Buddhist priests were not trying to express Zen in gardens. A review of the quotes of Buddhist priests that are taken to "prove" Zen for the garden are actually phrases copied from Chinese treatises on landscape painting. Secondary writers on the Japanese garden like Keane and Nitschke, who were associating with Kuitert when he was working on his research at the Kyoto University joined the Zen garden critique, like Kendall H. Brown, who took a similar distance from the Zen garden. In Japan the critique was taken over by Yamada Shouji who took a critical stance to the understanding of all Japanese culture, including gardens, under the nominator of Zen. Christian Tagsold summarized the discussion by placing perceptions of the Japanese garden in the context of an interdisciplinary comparison of cultures of Japan and the West.
Zen priests quote from Chinese treatises on landscape painting indicating that the Japanese rock garden, and its karesansui garden scenery was and still is inspired by or based on first Chinese and later also Japanese landscape painting. Landscape painting and landscape gardening were closely related and practiced by intellectuals, the literati inspired by Chinese culture. A primary design principle was the creation of a landscape based on, or at least greatly influenced by, the three-dimensional monochrome ink (''sumi'') landscape painting, ''sumi-e'' or ''suiboku-ga''. In Japan the garden has the same status as a work of art. Though each garden is different in its composition, they mostly use rock groupings and shrubs to represent a classic scene of mountains, valleys and waterfalls taken from Chinese landscape painting. In some cases it might be as abstract as just a few islands in a sea. Any Japanese garden may also incorporates existing scenery outside its confinement, e.g. the hills behind, as "borrowed scenery
Borrowed scenery (; Japanese: ; Chinese: ) is the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden" found in traditional East Asian garden design. The term borrowing of scenery ("shakkei") is Chinese in origin, an ...
" (using a technique called ''Shakkei'').
List of shrines and temples with rock gardens
In Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
:
* Daitokuji
* Daisen-in
The is a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen in Buddhism, one of the five most important Zen temples of Kyoto. The name means "The Academy of the Great Immortals." Daisen-in was founded by the Zen priest , and was bui ...
* Jishoji
* Jisso-in
* Myoshinji
* Rozan-ji
Rozan-ji (, or Rozan Tendaikoji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto and the head temple (''honzan'') of the Enjo (圓浄) sect. The ''sangō'' (literally, mountain name) of Rozan-ji is Mount Lu, or Lushan, pronounced ''rozan'' i ...
* Ryoanji
* Tofukuji
Outside Kyoto:
* An'yō-in (Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
)
* Bingo-Ankokuji ( Fukuyama)
* Harima Ankokuji ( Kato, Hyogo)
* Jōmyō-ji (Kamakura
is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939.
Kamak ...
)
* Kinbyōzan Zuisenji
is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect in Nikaidō's in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura, Japan.Kamiya (2008:98-102) During the Muromachi period it was the bodaiji, family temple of the Ashikaga rulers of Kamakura (the ''K ...
(Kamakura
is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939.
Kamak ...
)
* Komyozenji (Fukuoka
is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...
)
* Shitennoji (Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
)
See also
* Adelaide Himeji Garden - Sea of Sand
* Japanese garden
are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...
* List of garden types
A wide range of garden types exist. Below is a list of examples.
By country of origin
*Chinese garden
** Cantonese garden
** Sichuanese garden
*Dutch garden
* Egyptian garden
*English garden
**English landscape garden
*French garde ...
* Higashiyama Bunka
The Higashiyama culture (東山文化 ''Higashiyama bunka'') is a segment of Japanese culture that includes innovations in architecture, the visual arts and theatre during the late Muromachi period. It originated and was promoted in the 15th ce ...
in Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
* Rock garden
A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...
* Wabi-sabi
In traditional Japanese aesthetics, is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature. I ...
References
Bibliography
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* , Éditions Robert Lafont, Paris, ()
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Note
*The Sakuteiki is a garden book with notes on garden making that dates back to the late seventeenth century. Its oldest title is Senzai Hishõ, "Secret Extracts on Gardens", and was written nearly 1000 years ago, making it the oldest work on Japanese gardening. It is assumed that this was written in the 11th century by a noble man named Tachibana no Tichitsuna. In this text lies the first mention of the karesansui in literature. Only recently we saw an English modern translation of this gardening classic.
External links
Photo Gallery of Japanese Zen Gardens
Virtual tour of the Zen Gardens in and around Kyoto
*
''Tsubo-en''
– A virtual tour of the karesansui garden in The Netherlands
– ''karesansui gardens of Traditional Samurai Residences''
(Requires subscription)
*
(Mirror)
- in ''Japanese Garden Journal''
{{Authority control
Buddhism in the Muromachi period
Types of garden
Rock garden
A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...
Rock art in Asia
Rock gardens
Zen art and culture
Zen gardens