I am in awe of Japanese gardens. I think I have written about these gardens previously too, but like I said, I am in ‘awe’ and so I am going to write some more….

Japanese gardens are very traditional gardens and are highly abstract and stylized. The gardens of the Emperors and nobles were designed for recreation and aesthetic pleasure, while the gardens of Buddhist temples were designed for contemplation and meditation.

We visited one of each type of garden in Tokyo ( Emperor’s garden) and Kyoto (famous zen garden).  I found the zen garden in the Ryoan-ji temple very interesting. Many different theories have been put forward about what the garden is supposed to represent, which one can easily google. But, it is an abstract composition of “natural” objects in space, a composition whose function is to incite meditation. The garden has fifteen stones of different sizes and shapes, carefully composed in five groups. The stones are surrounded by white gravel, which is carefully raked each day by the monks. The stones are placed in such a way that the entire composition cannot be seen at once . The  arrangement of the stones is so unique that when looking at the garden from one angle, only fourteen rocks are visible at one time, one rock is always hidden . It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth rock.   Pretty amazing, isn’t it????

 

I am sure, I want to have a Japanese style garden when we have our own house 😉