THE GIST OF THIS ARTICLE

• This page Introduction, the meaning of Japanese gardens, Karesausui of pre-Muromachi era, and Karesansui of post-Muromachi era
• Page 2  The reasons for the development

The following is the contents of this article.

Introduction

The rock garden of Ryoanji temple is often called “Zen garden” though it sounds strange to Japanese people. We never call it Zen garden at all. It is a Karesansui (garden).

In this post, we learn what Karesansui is overviewing a short history of it. 合掌

What do Japanese traditional gardens mean?

Karesanui garden is a type of Japanese traditional garden which hides our respect and gratitude for nature.

たけちよ

It’s a long story. Check out the link below.

The Rock Garden of Ryoanji hides religious syncretism in Japan

The Zen garden/Rock Garden of Ryoanji temple is one of the most famous gardens in Japan. In this article, we learn about the religious syncretism (Shinto, Buddhism) it hides behind.

kyotokankoyagi.com

2022.02.22

The way of traditional garden making is described in Sakuteiki , the oldest text book for Japanese gardening written in the 11th century.

シカさん

It is the most important and influential book for Japanese gardening.

Sakuteiki put it:

”石を立てん事、まづ大旨をこゝろふべき也。

一、地形により、池のすがたにしたがひて、よりくる所々に、風情をめ□□□□、生得の山水をおもはへて、その所々は□こそありしかと、おもいひよせ〱たつべきなり。”

Translation (summary):

To make gardens, remember the following;

1. Make a close inspection of the land and pond(s), Compose a garden as though it was a landscape in nature taking into consideration what real mountains and water (sea, river, stream. pond, etc.) are.

七里ヶ浜親方

In a nutshell, Sakuteiki wants a land and at least one pond. And it asks garden designer and constructor to duplicate nature in the gardens they make.

The gardens described in Sakuteiki belong to residences of aristocrats.They were large enough to have ponds and streams.

たけちよ

Of course there were many types of gardens since 11th century. But they are in the ways Sakuteiki indicates because the foundation of Japanese garden making is written in it.

Karesansui of pre-Muromachi period

たけちよ

Summary of the Karesansui in Sakuteiki. We call it “Karesansui of Pre-Muromachi period.”

Sakuteiki also describes Karesansui.

”池もなく鑓水もなき所に、石をたつる事あり、これを枯山水となづく。”

Karesansui: (In some place in a garden,) To place rocks on the ground, not in ponds or streams.

Basically, rocks in a traditional garden are stuck in water (usually a pond or a small steam) and Sakuteiki says that we can place rocks in Tsukiyama (artificial small mountain ) or Nosuji (a peak of small artificial hill ) exceptionally.

七里ヶ浜親方

Take a look at the photo. Rocks are in the pond. Under the surface, these rocks are surrounded by small rocks which work as reinforcement. That’s a basic way to place rocks.

On the other hand, There also are rocks behind them and they are just on the ground (actually they are stuck into the ground), not surrounded by any rocks.

The Karesansui of post-Muromachi period

たけちよ

Summary of the Karesansui of Post-Muromachi period.

七里ヶ浜親方

Now take a look at the rock garden of Ryoanji.

1. Ryoanji has a large stroll garden but the rock is separated from is with walls, i.e., it is a individual garden.
2. The garden is flat and has no artificial mountains.

In next chapter, we learn how such gardens were developed.

This article is the most precise information on the rock garden and Ryoanji temple. The garden is the most famous dry garden in the world. We discuss about its history, the meaning of the garden, other must-sees, and what Zen is.

Zen garden or Karesansui? 枯山水庭園英語で説明

"Zen garden" sounds strange for us. It is a Karesansui (garden). In this post, we learn what Karesansui is overviewing a short history of it.

kyotokankoyagi.com

2023.06.12

A short history of Ryoanji temple

The history of Ryoanji dates back to the 15th century. In 1450, Katsumoto Hosakawa (細川勝元),  a General  of the eastern Army that lead the largest civil war called “Onin war (応仁の乱 1467-1477) in the middle ages of Japan, inherited a villa build by Saneyoshi Tokudaiji (徳大寺実能). He made the villa his residence and built Ryoanji temple. He invited a monk named Giten Gensyo (義天玄承)  from Myoshinji, the largest Zen temple of Rinzai school, and make him as a founder of the temple.

The Onin war made Ryoanji temple into ashes and Masamoto Hosokawa, a son of Katsumoto’s rebuilt it in 1499. In 1797, a fire burnt down Ryoanji anew. During the Meiji restoration, the Meiji government gave an order: Shrines and temples  must be separated in terms of law. (As I indicated in the article on Gion matsuri festival, shrines and temples were fused.) The order caused destruction of Buddhist temples though it intended nothing but a separation of both religion and put Ryoanji temple into decline. In 1975, Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ of Grate Britain paid a visit and praised “the rock garden” of the temple and her admiration made the garden famous. In 1994, UNESCO enlisted Ryoanji and its garden as a world heritage site.

 The secrets of the zen rock garden

When was the garden built?

A source shown in a Ryoanji temple (The Picture above. It is a copy of a book on the rock garden.) tells that the origin of the rock garden was build in the days of Hosokawa Katsumoto. The garden of his villa has strange rocks and no trees because he wanted to see Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine every morning over the garden. The book explains the rock garden of the villa of Katsumoto Hosokawa’s and does not exactly tell the dry garden of the Ryoanji (The garden in the picture has a resemblance with “The rock garden” of today.). I suspect “The rock garden” was constructed on the that of Katsumoto’s villa. Some source says that the original garden had a corridor that pass through south to north side to admire the both side of the garden. As I stated before, the temple was caught in fires at least two times and these fires burnt out the documents that prove that what the origin of the garden was like.

Who did make the garden?

The builder of the garden reminds to be a mystery. It is believed that Soami, a gardener designed the garden. On a stone in the garden, the names of persons are engraved. They read “小太郎・口二郎 (Kotaro, Kuchijiro)” but we cannot tell whether they are builders of the garden or not (We cannot see these Kanjis from a veranda.). We can not say who build the garden.

The inspection of the garden

Take a look at the garden before discussing about it. The picture above is a miniature of the rock garden you can find at Ryoanji temple.

The actual size of the rock garden is around 83 feet from east to west and 33 feet from north to south.The garden has 15 stones ans they are put into 5 groupings.

Around the groupings of rocks, there are moss islands.

These island and rocks are floating on the sea of carefully raked white sand.

The garden has no plants except moss because we can enjoy the same view of the garden in every season. This is a typical construction of Karesansui teien (枯山水庭園), or a dry rock garden.

Let us make a close inspection on Japanese garden. We can see these plants behind a wall. They are outside of the garden. The garden itself has no plants and flowers except moss.

The plants and flowers are called Syakkei (借景) . Syakkei literally means “Borrowing scenery”. It is an art of dry rock garden. We usually “borrow” trees and mountains behind a garden and see them as parts of it. See the picture above. This is a garden of Tenryuji temple. It “borrows” the Mt. Arashiyama stands outside of the garden.

Now let us talk about the wall. This wall are made of clay boiled in seed oil. The oil seeped out of it and make “scenery” on the wall. It gave us a “wabi (poverty)-sabi (solitude) impression.

The peculiar thing about the wall is its height. From east to west, the wall gradually loses its height for drainage. Precisely, the garden is not horizontal in order to drain water.  It is said that the constructor had another intention; To gave us an impression that the garden broader than the actual size taking advantage of the gradual change of the height of the garden.

The meaning of the garden

The intention of the garden is also controversy. We have many hypotheses. I show you three of them.

Crossing the river with tiger cubs

This hypothesis depends on an old Chinese anecdote. When a tiger gives birth to three cubs, one of them is a leopard. The tiger family wants to cross a river. The mother tiger can cross the river with only one cub. The leopard eats tiger cubs without the presence of the mother tiger. So, the mother tiger crosses the river in this fashion;

A tiger family. A cub that has a fork is a leopard.

The mom crosses the river with the leopard.

The mom comes back.

The mom brings a cub to the other side.

The mom comes back with the leopard.

The mom brings another cub to the other side.

The mom comes back to the leopard.

The mom crosses the river with the leopard.

At Ryoanji temple, there is a miniature of the rock garden and a guidance beside it. The guidance explains that the garden indicates this hypothesis.

15

The rock garden has 15 stones. In the East, 15 is a numeral that means perfection. because the moon becomes full moon in 15 days. Seated on the veranda of Hojo, the main hall of the temple, we can see only 14 stones (If we stood there, we can see all of them). The constructor or designer of the garden intended to show imperfection in perfection (This is one of the typical conception we Japanese have.) .

Heart

Seeing the groupings of rocks as a Kanji letter “心”. The Kanji means “heart” or “mind”. In Zen, we prefer communicate without words.

あ

More information!

The meaning of Ryoanji Zen Rock Garden

No one tells the meaning of "The Rock Garden" of Ryoanj in Kyoto precisely despite its fame. Fortunately, we have some hypotheses. In this article, we make an inspection on the garden with them.

kyotokankoyagi.com

2019.08.05

THE GIST OF THIS ARTICLE

• This page　Introduction, what is religious syncretism, Shinto found in The Rock Garden
• Page 2　Four kinds of Niwa, Buddhism found in The Rock Garden, Conclusion　

The following is the contents of this page.

Introduction

The Zen garden/Rock Garden of Ryoanji temple is one of the most famous gardens in Japan.

In this post, we learn about the religious syncretism it hides behind in historical point of view.

七里ヶ浜親方

It’s gonna be a long story, O.K.?

What is religious syncretism?

Religious syncretism means a fusion of diverse religious belief.

Japan has Shinto, the indigenous religion to it for centuries. No one can tell when it was originated but some ruins tell us that it has over 2,000 years of history.

In the 6th century, Buddhism was brought to our country from India. Since then, both of them have been fused and coexisted in a phenomenon called Shinbutsu Shugo(神仏習合).

We can find an example of this coexistence in “The rock garden” of Ryoanji.

Shinto found in The Rock Garden

Niwa and Kami

“The Rock garden” is a kind of Teien (Garden in English). The word is derived from “Niwa.”

In the authentic sense, Niwa means a place where some activity is carried on. The most important thing took place there were ritual and prayer.

In prehistoric times, our ancestors considered mountains as one of the places to which Kami descend. Kami, known as Shinto Deity today, is spirit(s) we found in natural phenomena or nature itself.  For example, mountains provided our ancestors with wild food resources and were very closed to them and they showed respect and gratitude for nature.

They left the mountains

In Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD), rice cultivating was brought to Japan from ancient China, our ancestors left mountains and started to live in plains for rice paddy but they still considered mountains as one of the most sacred places.

『古事記(Kojiki)』, the earliest chronicle on Japanese history, describes Kami and the history of the Japanese Imperial family, puts it: 於御諸山 拜祭意富美和之大神前.

The sentence shows us the way a priest carries out a ritual in the mountain (山).

In the 6th century, Shinto shrines were developed as permanent place to hold ritual under the influence of Buddhism. They were build with Chinshu no Mori forest (糺の森) as a substitute for the mountains because they still wanted the sacred place for rituals and prayers though they left the places they used to live in.

Niwa for rituals

『古事記(Kojiki)』also puts it: 爾出雲國造之祖・名岐比佐都美、餝青葉山而立其河下、將獻大御食之時、其御子詔言「是於河下、如青葉山者、見山非山。若坐出雲之石之曾宮、葦原色許男大神以伊都玖之祝大廷乎。」

It narrates a ritual held in a garden where a tree ornamented with lots of leaves and the tree is a substitute for mountain. It shows us that the garden was a place for ritual but a mountain was still in need as a place for ritual.

『日本書記(Nihon Shoki)』, the second oldest chronicle on Japanese history puts it: 天照大神、手持寶鏡、授天忍穗耳尊而祝之曰「吾兒、視此寶鏡、當猶視吾。可與同床共殿、以爲齋鏡。」復勅天兒屋命・太玉命「惟爾二神、亦同侍殿內、善爲防護。」又勅曰「以吾高天原所御之穗、亦當御於吾兒。」

This is one of the most famous episodes in Japanese mythology. It describes Amaterasu Ohomikami (天照大神), the ancestor of the Imperial family, gave Ameno Oshihomimi (授天忍穗耳尊) a rice plant and an order to feed Japan with it. Now Ameno Oshihomimi is permitted to reign the country. The rice plant he were given used to belong to Yuniwa(齋庭), the sacred garden.

『万葉集(Manyoshu)』, the oldest compilation of Waka poem and known as the source of the name of the Imperial period Reiwa, puts it: 尓波(Niwa)奈加能 阿須波乃可美尓 古志波佐之 阿例波伊波々牟 加倍理久麻泥尓.

The poem is roughly translated in modern Japanese as 庭中の阿須波の神に小柴さし我れは斎はむ帰り来までに. It means that I hold a small ritual and pray that I shall come back here again in Niwa.

The Wakas in Manyoshu were composed by people in various classes. It tells us that Niwa was a popular place for rituals those days.

The most appropriate example for the usage of Niwa is Gion Matsuri festival. It was started as a Buddhist ritual called Gion Goryoe held in a private garden of the emperor called Shinsen-en. It may sound strange to you but it is very appropriate in terms of the role of Niwa.

The rock garden of Ryoanji is one of the most famous garden in the world. No one knows what it means. In this article, we’ll make a small inspection on it with many hypotheses.

Usually, a garden like that of Ryoanji is called Karesansi Teien in Japan. We can understand name and meaning of it easily because many gardens are designed on Buddhist teaching and we can know who the designer is. In many cases, we can find them on document Buddhist temple has.

On the other hand, we have scarce knowldge of Karesansui Teien of Ryoanji’s because the temple was caught by fire many times and documents are burnt out.

These things make The Rock Garden remain mysterious.

Before discussing the garden, let us see it.

Ichikisima hime

Here we go!

Crossing the river with tiger cubs　虎の子渡し

This hypothesis depends on an old Chinese anecdote and the most popular one. When a tiger gives birth to three cubs, one of them is a leopard. The tiger family wants to cross a river. The mother tiger can cross the river with only one cub. The leopard eats tiger cubs without her presence. So, the mother tiger crosses the river in this fashion;

A tiger family. A cub that has a fork is a leopard.

The mom crosses the river with the leopard.

The mom comes back.

The mom brings a cub to the other side.

The mom comes back with the leopard.

The mom brings another cub to the other side.

The mom comes back to the leopard.

The mom crosses the river with the leopard.

At Ryoanji temple, there is a miniature of the rock garden and a guidance beside it. The guidance explains that the garden indicates this hypothesis.

たけちよ

This is the most popular meaning. Ryoanji accepts it.