![]() Prior to the fourteenth century, dry landscape compositions were generally subsections of larger gardens or temple complexes, and it was only during the Muromachi period (1338-1568) that they became independent garden designs. Shirakawasuna (flakey white river sand) raked in a typical mizumon, or “water pattern”, Gyokudo Art Museum, Tokyo (see “At a Rakish Angle” below). Alex Kerr points to the strange dichotomy of Japanese aesthetics – an almost Baroque profusion of sensuality on the one hand, battling against what he calls the “process of sterility” that manifests itself in the “tendency to fill every garden with raked sand and every modern structure with flat concrete and granite” on the other. For that reason they appear impenetrable.” Not everybody admires this impenetrability, though. The Zen connection is further strengthened when scholars compare the dry landscape garden to a visual three-dimensional kōan (公案), a Zen riddle designed to elicit enlightenment: “The rock gardens are a concrete expression of Zen thought, which is not accessible to ordinary people. These landscapes were not meant to be entered physically, but to be contemplated from the verandas and studies of nearby buildings. In the western mind, however, the dry landscape garden is now almost exclusively – and misleadingly – associated with the Spartan aesthetics of Zen temples. ![]() The dry pond and impressive stone span at Senshūkaku-teien (Kyū-Tokushima-jō-omote-goten-teien), Tokushima, Shikoku. The turning point came with the Higashiyama culture of the Muromachi era when, for the first time, gardens were laid out solely in kare-sansui style.” Günter Nitschke cites the research of celebrated scholar Shigemori Mirei (重森三玲 1896-1975), who divides the development of the dry landscape garden into four historic phases: “he first, prehistoric stage is equated with the huge boulders and rocky outcrops – iwakura and iwasaka – venerated as the abodes of gods by early Shinto devotees … The second stage corresponds to the Nara and Heian eras, when dry landscape gardens were built very rarely, and then only as integral components of pond gardens… The Kamakura era represents the third stage of kare-sansui development, in which the dry landscape, although still appearing in conjunction with the pond garden, is no longer relegated to a subordinate role… According to Shigemori, the fourth and final stage runs from the end of the Kamakura era up to the modern age. Here, the wavelike patterns surrounding the “islands” and hugging the “coastlines” have straightened and now run parallel to the flagstone path and building’s ama-ochi (雨落), or rain trench. Both these terms were replaced around the close of the Muromachi period (1338-1573) by the more familiar term karesansui 枯山水 (“dry or withered mountains and water”), which referred to the entire design of a garden and not merely a part of the larger design where water was absent.Īnd the view to the right, showing the perimeter wall and two massive red pines. Another ancient term, kasansui (仮山水, 假山水 “pseudo or false mountains and water”), was also used, and the implication was specifically that the landscape should be viewed as symbolic rather than representational. The eleventh-century Sakuteiki (作庭記 A Record of Garden Making) uses the term karasenzui (枯山水 “dry or withered mountains and water”) to indicate a part of a larger estate garden in which water was not physically present, thus Jirō Takei and Marc Keane translate karasenzui as “Dry Garden Style”. Needless to say, such a venerable garden style has attracted a number of appellations. In essence, the dry landscape garden is simply a symbolic representation of mountains and water using rocks, sand, gravel, and moss. As a distinct garden style, the dry landscape traces its lineage to the Heian period (794-1185), although its origins are lost in ancient Shinto religious sites. The dry landscape garden is the most widely known and most celebrated of Japan’s gardening styles, and it invariably forms a part of the stereotypical image that most people associate with Zen Buddhism and the temples of Kyoto. ![]() But this is because it is a vision, and it demands attention. It is an extraordinary vision – a stone garden is a contradiction in terms. ![]()
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