zen rock garden 竜安寺の岩石庭園 (kyoto, japan)

Posted by timothy sullivan (Tokyo, Japan) on 8 February 2009 in Landscape & Rural.

Kyoto's Ryoanji Temple has one of the most fantastic Zen gardens--and one that truly lends to quiet meditation.
Generally speaking, Zen gardens fall into two styles. In the miniature artificial hill style (築山式; tsukiyama) a central pond symbolizes the sea, and mountains are represented by banks of earth and arrangements of rocks. In the dry garden style (枯山水式; karesansui--an example shown here) the sea is symbolized by a layer of white sand, which is given a pattern of furrows to represent the rippling movement of the water; waterfalls are symbolized by an arrangement of blue rocks.

Bowdoin University has an amazing resource on Japanese gardens.

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