The header picture we have on the home page is from the Ryoan-ji Temple, which is found in in the northwest section of Kyoto, Japan.  The temple has one of the absolute masterpieces of Japanese culture, the Zen Garden. One of the arts that flourished under the influence of Zen philosophy was garden architecture. Although the Japanese garden was always a replica of nature in miniature, in the 14th century the size was further reduced and the trees and shrubs replaced by rocks and sand.

The stone garden of Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto, laid out in the 15th century after the Onin Wars, is the most famous. It’s 15 rocks are arranged in five groups. Each group comprising five, two, three, two and three rocks on raked white sand. The garden contains 15 rocks arranged on the surface of white in such a manner that visitors can see only 14 of them at once, no matter what angle the garden is viewed from. It is said that only when you attain spiritual enlightenment as a result of deep Zen meditation, can you see the last invisible stone. The harmony in color, shape, and size of the rocks makes this one of the most subtle and powerful gardens in Japan. The rocks can be interpreted as an island in a river or as high peaks soaring over clouds.

To understand the effect of the garden, you have to go there as I was able to do a few years ago. The longer I sat the more the garden fascinated me. The branches of the trees beyond the earthen wall cast wonderful shadows across the garden. The raked lines are circles around the rock groups and yet straight elsewhere. There is not a single misplaced pebble of white when the patterns meet. The garden changes with the season-cherry trees beyond the wall blooming in spring, snow clinging to the moss in winter. The garden is never the same twice. I witnessed that on my 6 trips to Kyoto, a city that I grew to love.

I’m including a few pics from my visit. It’s me with darker, shorter hair! Loved that day at the Zen Garden!

I have a woodblock print of the Zen Rock Garden of Ryoan-ji. I keep it in my bedroom and every morning when I awake I can see it. The woodblock takes me back to my visit to the beautiful Zen Garden of Ryoan-ji.

Sharon