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Ryan-ji (late 15th century) in Kyoto, Japan, a famous example of a zen garden
History
Early Japanese rock gardens
Rock gardens existed in Japan at least since the Heian Period (784-1185). These early gardens were described in the first manual of Japanese gardens, Sakuteiki, or Records of Garden Keeping, written at the end of the 11th century by Tachibana no Toshitsuna (10281094). They were largely copied from the Chinese gardens of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), where groups of rocks symbolized Mount Penglai, the legendary mountain-island home of the Eight Immortals in Chinese mythology, known in Japanese as Horai.[3] 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 A mountain, waterfall, and gravel "river" at Daisen-in (15091513) 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.[4] White sand and gravel had long been a feature of Japanese gardens. In the Shinto religion, 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.
Japanese rock garden Soami is said to have been personally involved in the design of two of the most famous zen gardens in Kyoto, Ryan-ji and Daisen-in, though his involvement has never been documented with certainty. Michel Baridon wrote, "The famous zen gardens of the Muromachi Period showed that Japan had carried the art of gardens to the highest degree of intellectual refinement that it was possible to attain." [12]
Saih-ji, or the Moss Garden, an early zen garden from the mid-14h century. The moss arrived much later, when the garden was not tended.
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.
Part of the garden at Ryan-ji (late 15th century), the most abstract of all Japanese zen gardens
In the garden of Daisen-in, a river of gravel takes visitors on a metaphorical journey through life
The white gravel "ocean" of the garden of Daisen-ji, to which the gravel river flows.
In Zuiho-in garden, - some of the rocks are said to form a cross. The garden was built by the daimyo tomo Srin, who was a convert to Christianity.
The garden of Tfuku-ji (1940). The five hills symbolize the five great zen temples of Kyoto.
part of the modern zen garden at Tfuku-ji (1940). The "islands" of the immortals.
A small garden in the Japanese Tea Garden of Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco
Rosan-ji garden
Shitenn-ji in Osaka
Kmyzen-ji
Japanese rock garden 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.[17] 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.[18] Other important principles of rock arrangement include balancing the number of vertical and horizontal rocks.
Symbolism
In the Japanese rock garden, rocks sometimes symbolize mountains, (particularly Horai, the legendary home of the Eight Immortals in Buddhist 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." [19] Some classical zen gardens, like Daisen-in, have symbolism that can be easily read; it is a metaphorical journey on the river of life. Others, like Ryan-ji, 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 Ryan-ji does not symbolize anything, or more precisely, to avoid any misunderstanding, the garden of Ryan-ji does not symbolize, nor does it have the value of
Japanese rock garden 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.".[20] A recent suggestion, by Gert van Tonder of Kyoto University and Michael Lyons of Ritsumeikan University, is that the rocks of Ryan-ji form the subliminal image of a tree. The researchers claim the subconscious mind is sensitive to a subtle association between the rocks. They suggest this may be responsible for the calming effect of the garden.[21]
List
Shrines and temples with rock gardens: In Kyoto: Daitokuji Daisen-in Jishoji Myoshinji Rozanji Ryoanji Tofukuji
Outside Kyoto: An'y-in (Kobe) Bingo-Ankokuji (Fukuyama) Harima Ankokuji (Kato, Hyogo) Jmy-ji (Kamakura) Kinbyzan Zuisenji (Kamakura) Komyozenji (Fukuoka) Shitennoji (Osaka)
References
[1] Ono Kenkichi and Walter Edwards: "Bilingual (English and Japanese) Dictionary of Japanese Garden Terms (Karesansui. p. 20) from Kansai Prhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pageocess, Nara 2001 The Karesansui definition was extracted with permission from The on-line "living" guide to realize a Zen garden (http:/ / www. zen-garden. org/ ) by P.M. Patings. [2] Gunter Nitschke, Le Jardin japonais, pg. 65. [3] Michel Baridon, Les Jardins- Paysagistes, Jardinieres, Poetes, pg. 485-487. [4] Michel Baridon, Les Jardins, pg. 488 [5] Nitschke, le jardin japonais, pg. 67. [6] Baridon, Les Jardins pg. 472. [7] Nitschke, le jardin japonais, pg. 68-73. [8] Nitschke, le jardin japonais, pg. 68-73. [9] Nitschke, Le jardin japonais, pg. 86. [10] Nitschke, Le Jardin Japonais. Young and Young put the size at twenty-five meters by ten meters. [11] Nitschke, Le Jardin Japonais, pg. 90. [12] Michel Baridon, :Les Jardins, pg. 474. Translation of this excerpt from French by D.R. Siefkin. [13] Nitschke, Le jardin Japonais, pg. 217-218 [14] Michel Baridon, Les Jardins, pg. 485-490. [15] Young and Young, The Art of the Japanese Garden. pg. 22. [16] Young and Young, The Art of the Japanese Garden. pg. 22. [17] Young and Young, The Art of the Japanese Garden. pg. 22. [18] Young and Young, The Art of the Japanese Garden. pg. 22. [19] Baridon, Les Jardins, pg. 492. [20] Nitschke, Le jardin Japonais," pg. 92. Translation of this citation from French by D.R. Siefkin. [21] van Tonder, Gert; Lyons, Michael J. (September 2005). "Visual Perception in Japanese Rock Garden Design" (http:/ / www. kasrl. org/ axiomathes. pdf) (PDF). Axiomathes (Springer) 15 (3): 353371(19). doi:10.1007/s10516-004-5448-8. . Retrieved 2007-01-08. [22] Kuck, Loraine (1968, 1984). The World of the Japanese Garden (From Chinese Origins to Modern Landscape Art).. John Weatherhill, Inc. of New York and Tokyo. ISBN0-8348-0029-2. [23] Kuitert, Wybe (1988). Scenes and Taste in the History of Japanese Garden Art.. J.C.Gieben, Publisher, Amsterdam. ISBN0-5063-021-9. [24] Nitschke, Gnter (1991). Japanese Gardens. Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, Kln. ISBN3-8228-0556-4.
Bibliography
Young, David and Michiko, (2005), The Art of the Japanese Garden, Tuttle Publishing, Vermont and Singapore, (ISBN 978-0-8048-3598-5) Nitschke, Gunter, (1999) Le Jardin japonais - Angle droit et forme naturelle, Taschen publishers, Paris (translated from German into French by Wolf Fruhtrunk), (ISBN 978-3-8228-3034-5) Baridon, Michel (1998). Les Jardins- Paysagistes, Jardiniers, Poetes., ditions Robert Lafont, Paris, (ISBN 2-221-06707-X) Murase, Miyeko, (1996), L'Art du Japon, La Pochothque, Paris, (ISBN 2-253-13054-0) Elisseeff, Danielle, (2010), Jardins japonais, ditions Scala, Paris, (ISBN 978-2-35988-029-8) Klecka, Virginie, (2011), Concevoir, Amenager, Decorer Jardins Japonais, Rustica Editions, (ISBN 978-2-8153-0052-0)
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 Hish, "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
Zen Gardens: images and meaning (http://www.aboutzen.info/perceive/zengarden.htm) Photo Gallery of Japanese Zen Gardens (http://www.phototravels.net/kyoto/zen-gardens-index.html) Virtual tour of the Zen Gardens in and around Kyoto (http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/) Geometrical concepts of Japanese rock garden (http://www.phantomgallery.64g.ru/sad/sad1en.htm) Stanford University article on the history and meaning of some Japanese gardens (http://www.stanford.edu/ group/sjeaa/journal42/japan2.pdf)PDF(180KB) Tsubo-en (http://www.zen-garden.org/) - A virtual tour of the karesansui garden in The Netherlands Study into the karesansui gardens of the Edo era (http://www.zen-garden.org/html/page_samurai.htm) karesansui gardens of Traditional Samurai Residences Neuroscience unlocks secrets of Zen garden (http://www.nature.com/nsu/020923/020923-8.html) (Requires subscription) Neuroscience unlocks secrets of Zen garden (http://www.lauralee.com/news/zensecrets.htm) (Mirror) Criticisms of the term "Zen Garden" (http://www.rothteien.com/superbait/zenviewpoints.htm) - in Japanese Garden Journal
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