Shitennoji Honbo garden

A Japanese rock garden (枯山水, karesansui^?), sometimes called a Zen garden, is an enclosed shallow sandpit containing sand, gravel, rocks, and occasionally grass and/or other natural elements. A rock garden, also known as a rockery or an alpine garden, is a type of Garden that features extensive use of rocks or stones along Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Chan. A sandpit or sandbox is a low wide container or shallow depression filled with Sand in which Children can play Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles Gravel is rock that is of a specific Particle size range In Geology, gravel is any loose rock that is larger than two millimeters (2mm In Geology, rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of Minerals and/or Mineraloids The Earth's outer solid layer the ‘ Lithosphere A lawn is an area of recreational or amenity land planted with grass, and sometimes Clover and other plants which are maintained at a low even height The main elements of karesansui are rocks and sand, with the sea symbolized not by water but by sand raked in patterns that suggest rippling water. Plants are much less important (and sometimes nonexistent) in many karesansui gardens. Karesansui gardens are often, but not always, meant to be viewed from a single, seated position. Some Westerners believe that karesansui gardens can be used to calm human minds, but they were not intended for such in their native Japanese settings.

The Karesansui garden in Ryōan-ji Temple

The dry garden at the Ryoan-ji

A famous Japanese rock garden is at Ryōan-ji in northwest Kyoto, Japan. is a Zen Temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. Belonging to the Myoshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism (IPA /kʲoːto / is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan.

The garden is 30 meters long from east to west and 10 meters from north to south. There are no trees, just 15 irregularly shaped rocks of varying sizes, some surrounded by moss, arranged in a bed of white gravel/sand that is raked every day.

The rocks of various sizes are arranged on small white pebbles in five groups, each comprising five, two, three, two, and three rocks. The garden contains 15 rocks arranged on the surface of white pebbles in such a manner that visitors can see only 14 of them at once, from whichever angle the garden is viewed.

The garden is not attributed to any single designer, although it is commonly believed that a leading monochrome artist named Sōami (1480?-1525), in association with Daisen-in, designed and laid out the garden. Sōami (相阿弥(d 1525) was a painter and landscape artist in the service of the Ashikaga shogunate who is claimed to have designed the rock garden However Ryoan-ji's records are contradictory and indicate some other makers, and the back of one of the 15 stones is inscribed with the names of Kotaro and Hikojiro, who might have been two of the workers that did the actual construction.

Layout

A miniature dry landscape garden

There have been many attempts to explain the karesansui garden's layout. Some of these are:

• The gravel represents ocean and the rocks represent the islands of Japan
• The rocks represent a mother tiger with her cubs, swimming to a dragon
• The rocks form part of the kanji for heart or mind

See Ryōan-ji for a mathematical analysis of a rock garden. An island (ˈaɪlənd or isle (/ˈaɪl/ is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water in two dimensions above high tide and isolated from other significant The tiger ( Panthera tigris) is a member of the Felidae family the largest and the most powerful of the four " Big cats quot in the Genus are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana The heart is a muscular organ in all Vertebrates responsible for pumping Blood through the Blood vessels by repeated rhythmic MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. is a Zen Temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. Belonging to the Myoshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism

A recent suggestion by Gert van Tonder of Kyoto University and Michael Lyons, of Ritsumeikan University, is that the rocks form the subliminal image of a tree. or is a major national university in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest university in Japan and formerly one of the Imperial Universities of is a Private university in Kyoto, Japan. With the Kinugasa Campus the university also has a satellite campus called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC in A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium designed to pass below the normal limits of the human Mind 's perception A tree is a perennial Woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or This image cannot be consciously perceived when looking at them; the researchers claim the subconscious mind is able to see a subtle association between the rocks. The term subconscious is defined as existing or operating in the Mind beneath or beyond Conscious Awareness. They believe this is responsible for the calming effect of the garden and is also made to have a quiet place for meditation, however their comments are speculation and not supported by Japanese traditions. ^[1]

Gallery

A small karesansui garden in the Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Sand and stone garden located in the Portland Japanese Gardens. The Portland Japanese Garden is a traditional Japanese garden occupying 5

See also

• Japanese garden

Notes

External links

• Neuroscience unlocks secrets of Zen garden (Requires subscription)
• Neuroscience unlocks secrets of Zen garden (Mirror)
• Zen garden images and meaning
• Photo Gallery of Japanese Zen Gardens
• Criticisms of the term "Zen Garden" in Japanese Garden Journal
• Stanford University article on the history and meaning of some Japanese gardensPDF (180 KB)