footsteps through tranquillity

Take the time to stop and smell the moss at Kyoto’s most enchanting Japanese gardens

A Saiho-ji bridge to
one of its islets

STROLLING past neatly clipped shrubs, a freshly-lashed bamboo fence directs you down a path. Leaving your shoes at the entrance, you walk down a polished wooden walkway leading to a vast tatami room overlooking the view: an ancient Japanese garden. This garden is not meant for anything as boisterous as jogging, playing ball or even sitting, but simply admiring from a distance. Everywhere you look, something interesting grabs your eye: the curve of a bridge, the natural sculpture of an upright rock, moss enveloping a stone lantern. But no single view allows you to make sense of the whole – the garden reveals itself only bit by bit.

Follow the stones
Japanese gardening was raised to an art form as early as the 12th century, when elegance and refinement was the focus of every minute detail. It was during this period that the Sakuteiki was written, a manifesto outlining gardening principles still followed devoutly today. Over the course of the next thousand years, Japanese gardens evolved into many forms: strolling gardens, dry gardens, tea ceremony gardens and even personal backyard retreats. Although you can hardly call them technically astounding, unlike Stonehenge or Angkor Wat, their minimalism offers something more contemplative. Here, we bring you four of Kyoto’s most sublime Zen gardens to savour, and experience Japan at its best value.

Saiho-ji Moss Garden

Bathed in an eerie green light, the atmosphere here is quiet and damp, and designed for meditation. Saiho-ji’s moss garden is one of the oldest gardens in Japan with origins going back to the 8th century. It remains unique in Japan and the world through its extensive use of moss, all 120 types of it, which creates this ancient wonder (best seen in May and June). The garden centres around a pond shaped like the Chinese character for heart. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t make out the character, most Japanese can’t see it either. The path around the pond offers a mini adventure, passing a tea ceremony cottage, tiny islets, lanterns and bridges. Take some time to admire the gardeners painstakingly tending the moss with their rough-hewn brooms and bamboo baskets, nurturing the gardens’ texture. Although most of the original temple structures vanished long ago, the feeling of an ancient sacred place remains – and this is what makes Saiho-ji so special. The temple is just one of Kyoto’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Tenryu-ji

Arashiyama
Bamboo
Grove

Equally impressive is the ancient pond garden of Tenryu-ji, known as the “Temple of the Heavenly Dragon”. Tenryu-ji was designed in the 13th century by the renowned Buddhist monk gardener, Muso Soseki. The composition here is of a pond with rock “islands” carefully laid out against the hillside for added contrast. Visitors may also have a Zen Buddhist lunch at the vegetarian restaurant on the temple grounds. Though you probably won’t glimpse any dragons at Tenryuji, the landscape certainly is heavenly; so much so it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Located in rural Arashiyama, Tenryu-ji is flanked by the dreamlike Arashiyama Bamboo Grove just behind the temple complex – a favourite place for a stroll after visiting the temple.

Daitoku-ji

Daitoku-ji’s many
gardens are an
exercise in discovery
and solitude

This working Zen temple and monastery is just one within a cluster of 23 small temples. Being the oldest, at nearly 700 years of age, Daitoku-ji has some of Kyoto’s most exquisite gardens, all within walking distance of each other. Another attraction of Daitoku-ji’s gardens is that they are less-frequented by tour groups, allowing you space for some quiet contemplation. The most famous of Daitoku-ji’s gardens is at the main temple Daisen-In, where the essence of nature is expressed only by rocks and sand. Sit and enjoy green tea at Daisen-in’s teahouse, from which you can admire its small but magnificent Zen garden. Ryogen-in, the oldest garden at Daitoku-ji, features a stone centre surrounded by moss, representing the centre of the universe. Less famous but more dramatic is Sangen-in with its turbulent wave textures and Koto-in with its single stone lantern as its centrepiece. Daitoku-ji has the largest concentration of gardens in one single area, including, well, the centre of the universe, making it ideal for visitors with limited time.

Ryoan-ji

Ryoan-ji garden; a pond for
reflection

But the most famous and profound of Japan’s Zen gardens is in Ryoan-ji temple, mainly because it is composed of just 15 rocks and moss within an empty field of finely raked white gravel. Completed in the 1400s, the carefully placed stones represent islands, mountains, or even ideals. Not all of them can be seen at once, though it is said that if you are able to, you’re on the cusp of spiritual enlightenment. The beauty of this rock garden lies in its austere, elegant simplicity of borrowed landscapes – don’t come expecting anything as pretty or trivial as hills, ponds or trickling water. The temple in the north-west of the city is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the neighbourhood of Ryoan-ji lies the magnificent Kinkakuji, or The Golden Pavilion, set in a garden pond that was once the domain of the shoguns (generals).

The Golden Pavilion

After visiting a Japanese garden, you might ask yourself what is deliberate and what is accidental? Do these rocks or ponds offer a hidden meaning? To enjoy the hushed silence of a Kyoto garden is to appreciate the Japanese aesthetic, which puts great value on what is implied and not shown. As Japanese historian and critic Teiji Itoh wrote: “A beautiful mind is essential to the creation of a beautiful garden”. Or if the symbolism gets too much, just choose which garden you like the most, then relax, take in the view and breathe deeply.

GARDEN GUIDE

For maps and information visit the Japan National Tourist Organization (www.jnto.go.jp) at Kansai International Airport or ask the Tourist Information Bureau in Kyoto Station for the information sheet “Japanese Gardens”. Otherwise check out www.japan-guide.com and select “Tradition” in “Japan A-Z” directory.

Saiho-ji Moss Garden
Saiho-ji, or Kokedera as it is also known, is a 15-minute walk from Kami-Katsura railway station on the outskirts of Kyoto. But it does not allow casual visitors; you need to request permission at least one month in advance of your visit, the cost is high at ¥3,000 (AU$32) and visitors are expected to attend a Buddhist chanting session before entering the garden, tracing sutras on rice paper. Such fees and formalities keep out the crowds. To gain 90-minutes admission, on a return postcard write in date, time, visitor’s return address, name and number of people. Send to: Sanpaikakari, 56 Matsuo-Jingatanicho, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8286.

Tenryu-ji
Susukinobabacho, Saga Tenryuji, Ukyoku, Kyoto; located a two-minute walk from Arashiyama railway station. Open 8:30am– 5:30pm 21 March to 20 October, 8:30am–5pm 21 October to 20 March; admission ¥500 (AU$5.30). For a Zen vegetarian lunch, reserve a table at the temple’s Shigetsu Restaurant before your visit, tel: +81(75) 882 9725.

Daitoku-ji
Daitokujicho, Murasakino, Kita-ku, Kyoto; near Daitokuji-mae bus stop or a 15-minute walk from Kitaoji subway station. Open 9am–5pm Mar to Nov, 9am–16:30pm Dec to Feb; admission is ¥400 (AU$4.24) for each garden.

Ryoan-ji
Goryonoshitamachi, Ryoanji, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto; near Ryoanji-michi bus stop, located in the vicinity of Kinkakuji Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Open 8am–5pm Mar–Nov, 8:30am– 4:30pm Dec–Feb; admission ¥500 (AU$5.30).

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN LANDER