⓮ Founder’s Hall (Kaisando) This is a hall for veneration of the founding figure of the monastery where special memorial services are held.
⓯ Subtemples (Tachu) Over the centuries, subtemples proliferated along the sides of the main temple axis. Many contain items of great value, such as paintings, dry landscape gardens and rustic tea houses. Most were funded by powerful patrons and staffed by monks who had retired from formal duties. Some were constructed by samurai who had converted to Zen and wanted to pursue a religious life.
⓰ Shinto Shrines (Jinja) The custom of paying respect to guardian deities (kami) was part of the Japanese tradition before the arrival of Zen, and continues today. In some cases, shrines were already in place before monasteries were built, and they were maintained for protective reasons. Other shrines were added later, even as recently as the late nineteenth century when Buddhism fell out of favor (and over 20,000 temples were destroyed). Temples sought to appease the authorities by establishing Shinto shrines to show compliance with the new state religion.
Visions of Serenity:
The Zen Garden
Japanese gardens have a long history, stretching back even before the pleasure gardens of Heian nobles (794–1186). These featured a pond around which were set villas and pavilions. Here aristocratic pursuits took place, such as fishing, moon-viewing, poetry writing and boating. Shorelines were replicated by rocks along the margin of a pond and waterfalls were reproduced by water emerging from between rocks. Some of the gardens were given a spiritual dimension by evocations of Amida’s western paradise, with its promise of salvation. By the eleventh century, the sophisticated gardening knowledge had been collected in Japan’s first book on the subject, Sakuteiki (Notes on Garden Construction).
Kyoto’s flourishing garden culture was facilitated by the city’s location in a river basin. In the forested surrounds were plentiful resources of wood and stone. Added to this was fresh-flowing water and underground springs. Moreover, the humid climate lends itself to the cultivation of moss, which grows easily on untended soil (Japan has only 0.25 percent of the Earth’s surface but is home to nearly 10 percent of known moss varieties).
With the introduction of Zen, a new of type of thinking permeated garden design. Rather than a place to enter, the garden became a place to view. As a consequence, most of the gardens in Zen temples are enclosed, as if to frame the scene and stop the mind from wandering. It is worth noting,however, that there is no such term as ‘Zen garden’ in Japanese. Rather, there are garden types that have been adapted to a Zen setting. Although they come in various forms, they share underlying characteristics to do with a lack of ostentation, an inclination to tranquility, a tendency for symbolism and an ‘elegant mystery’ (yugen). The Daoist connections are reflected in a sense of flow and the frequent reference to Chinese myth.
Bonsai originated in China and was adopted by the Japanese following the introduction of Zen. The tray here was a New Year’s gift to Taizo-in and features the ‘three friends of winter’—plum, pine and bamboo. Tending to temple gardens takes up to seven full days a month.
Rocks can be appreciated in their own right as aesthetic objects, though they may also be invested with symbolic significance. In the dry garden at Ryogin-an, laid out by Mirei Shigemori in 1964, they represent a dragon emerging from the sea and about to fly up to heaven (the mythical creature has the attributes of both fish and bird).
Japanese gardens often feature a set of three rocks, such as that above sited on a rise at Komyo-in. The grouping represents a Buddhist triad, whereby an enlightened being is flanked by two attendants. In Zen this denotes the Shaka triad, in which the historical Buddha, known in Japan as Shakyamuni, is accompanied by two bodhisattva, Fugen and Monju.
One of the earliest examples is the Sogenchi pond garden at Tenryu-ji. It was laid out by the founder, Muso Soseki (1275–1351), who in one of his writings warned against a worldly love of gardens. His intention was rather for the garden to serve a spiritual purpose, and the landscaped grounds draw in the surrounding hills to speak of oneness with nature. In this way, his creation is not simply an adornment but a lesson in Zen thinking.
The Dry Landscape
The type of garden most closely associated with Zen is the dry landscape (karesansui). At its most basic it simply consists of raked gravel or sand. The style originated in China, where it was found useful for areas lacking water, and it developed into a three-dimensional counterpart to Chinese ink painting. Its adoption in Kyoto stemmed from a number of factors, one of which was economic. With the collapse of the central government in the Warring States or Sengoku period in Japan (1467–1568), there were few powerful patrons to fund expensive gardens. The large pond gardens required a lot of land and labor. By contrast, the dry landscape only required a small area of pebbles and rocks. Moreover, maintenance was easy as a single monk could manage the raking and sweeping.
One of the most common features at Zen temples is the Horai garden, as here at Ryogen-in. Mythical Mt Horai constitutes one of a small group of islands where Daoist Immortals dwell, represented by the rock grouping in the corner. This is accompanied by two symbolic islands, that of the Turtle (in the circle of moss) and that of the Crane (vertical to signify the long neck). Together the creatures symbolize longevity and happiness.
The new style was particularly well suited to Kyoto because of the abundance of gravel brought into the city by rivers flowing down from the granite hillsides. It was favored by Zen because of its representational qualities. Raked gravel suggested open expanses of sea, or space, or eternity. The rocks spoke of moments in time, thoughts in the mind or islands in an ocean. The enigmatic nature of the compositions offered a visual counterpart to Zen riddles. “What is the meaning of the Buddha mind?” asks a well-known koan. “A single pine growing in a garden,” runs the answer.
A common form of dry landscape is the Horai Garden (Penglai in English). This refers to the ancient Chinese belief in the Isles of the Immortals, where people live happily free of the ills that plague ordinary humans. Dominating the four Isles is mythical Mt Horai, which is represented by a rock grouping out of which flows ‘the river of life’. In this ideal place is a symbolic meeting place of human and heavenly worlds, where opposites are brought together in harmonious coexistence, signifying the underlying oneness of things.
The unity of opposites is manifest in the form of Turtle and Crane Islands (the animals are Chinese emblems of longevity and good fortune). While the turtle can plunge to the depths, the crane can soar to the heights, so that in their coming together the world of division is symbolically transcended. Turtle and Crane Islands can be found in pond gardens as well as dry landscapes, with the crane represented by a vertical arrangement (as if about to take off) and the turtle by more horizontal features. In some cases, the islands are reduced to a simple yin–yang pairing of rocks, one vertical and one horizontal.
A TEA GARDEN
Another type of garden often found at Zen temples is that leading to a tea house. Rather than an object for viewing, the purpose here is to act as a passage between the mundane world of everyday life and the more serene world of the tea house. The Japanese term is roji, which