Based in the north of Tokyo, the Ryōan-ji zen temple is built in 1450 by renown landscape designer Hosokawa Katsumoto, deputy to the Shōgun, during Japan’s Muromachi period.
It is part of UNESCO World Heritage, being one of the historic monuments of ancient Kyoto.
Ryōan-ji means literally: “Temple of the Dragon at Peace,” and belongs to the Fujiwara clan.
The zen temple is a subdivision of the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai, which is a specific branch of Zen Buddhism.
Ryōan-ji,’ Zen Temple, Karesansui Style
Ryōan-ji zen temple evokes its famous stone garden, Karesansui style, which is considered a masterpiece of Japanese Zen culture.
The stones are positioned in a way that it is not possible to see the fifteen stones at once from any point of view.
Ryōan-ji zen garden is a minimalist representation and stylised representation of landscape through arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees, and bushes.
The small number of stones is a novelty compared to the other dry gardens of this period.
Gravel represents ripples in the water and rocks mountain.
The rocks gardens imitate the essence of nature, allowing you to meditate about the real existence.
If the zen garden is so pleasant to contemplate, it because our subconscious grasps the pattern of the surrounding.
Zen gardens are created to reconnect with nature allowing us to listen to the sound of the earth and the stones.
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