kyoto, part two
Our trek finally brought us to the Ryoanji Temple grounds, with its gardens, famous Zen rock garden, and this large pond, which was constructed in the late 1100s and has an island in the center of it:
The pond is full of thriving lilies, blooming in white and pink:
The islet in the pond houses a small shrine housing an image of Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess and mother of wisdom, learning and music, a shrine seen in this photograph from behind, looking out past its lantern to the red gate that marks it:
Next to this shrine were a group of idols, set on the ground, little lumps of stone with images in carved in relief on their face, but more on that sort of thing below.
As with Kinkaku, the Ryoanji Temple grounds are carefully gardened, with trees shaped and clipped to enhance their natural form, their roots exposed in a tracery spreading along the ground, and everywhere bright green mosses covering the earth:
The central feature of the site, however, is its Zen rock garden, consisting of fifteen rocks surrounded by white gravel, raked into a pattern recollecting the sea rippling around islands of stone:
I'm told that the rocks are laid out in such a way that no more than fourteen rocks are visible from any given angle, while fifteen is a number of fullness. This garden was designed and laid out by Soami in the late 1400s and is cloistered by low earthen walls made of clay that has been boiled in oil, leaving a pattern of dark and light patches striated across the packed and dried earth.
We attempted to do the Zen thing and sit and contemplate the artistry of the site(and read books in its peacefulness), but it was a difficult task given the continual caravan of tourists traipsing through the monastery, complete with tourguides loudly describing the purported serenity of it all. Nevertheless, I did mangage to do the nearly impossible and take a very un-zen-like picture Berek in which he is actually smiling:
The buildings, as at other temples, were finely crafted, full of meticulously wrought details, such as this quite antique handle on a sliding panel:
Nearby there hung an old bell, fashioned in a manner typical of other Japanese bells that I saw at various temples and shrines:
Next to the rock garden, on a covered porch where we sat for a while, there was a small table with a gold-leaf covered wooden bouquet, some bowls, and a number of inscribed columns, functioning as some sort of shrine, though unusual, it seems, in its lack of images:
The temple, however, was not entirely devoid of images, as this shelf near the entrance to the main building demonstrates with its collection of divinities and offering bowls and sprigs of green:
By the time we finished touring the Ryoanji Temple, it was nearing lunchtime and so I enjoyed some refreshing soba at the small cafe near the entrance, after which we caught a bus across town to Ginkakuji temple.
(continue to next post: kyoto, part three)
The pond is full of thriving lilies, blooming in white and pink:
The islet in the pond houses a small shrine housing an image of Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess and mother of wisdom, learning and music, a shrine seen in this photograph from behind, looking out past its lantern to the red gate that marks it:
Next to this shrine were a group of idols, set on the ground, little lumps of stone with images in carved in relief on their face, but more on that sort of thing below.
As with Kinkaku, the Ryoanji Temple grounds are carefully gardened, with trees shaped and clipped to enhance their natural form, their roots exposed in a tracery spreading along the ground, and everywhere bright green mosses covering the earth:
The central feature of the site, however, is its Zen rock garden, consisting of fifteen rocks surrounded by white gravel, raked into a pattern recollecting the sea rippling around islands of stone:
I'm told that the rocks are laid out in such a way that no more than fourteen rocks are visible from any given angle, while fifteen is a number of fullness. This garden was designed and laid out by Soami in the late 1400s and is cloistered by low earthen walls made of clay that has been boiled in oil, leaving a pattern of dark and light patches striated across the packed and dried earth.
We attempted to do the Zen thing and sit and contemplate the artistry of the site(and read books in its peacefulness), but it was a difficult task given the continual caravan of tourists traipsing through the monastery, complete with tourguides loudly describing the purported serenity of it all. Nevertheless, I did mangage to do the nearly impossible and take a very un-zen-like picture Berek in which he is actually smiling:
The buildings, as at other temples, were finely crafted, full of meticulously wrought details, such as this quite antique handle on a sliding panel:
Nearby there hung an old bell, fashioned in a manner typical of other Japanese bells that I saw at various temples and shrines:
Next to the rock garden, on a covered porch where we sat for a while, there was a small table with a gold-leaf covered wooden bouquet, some bowls, and a number of inscribed columns, functioning as some sort of shrine, though unusual, it seems, in its lack of images:
The temple, however, was not entirely devoid of images, as this shelf near the entrance to the main building demonstrates with its collection of divinities and offering bowls and sprigs of green:
By the time we finished touring the Ryoanji Temple, it was nearing lunchtime and so I enjoyed some refreshing soba at the small cafe near the entrance, after which we caught a bus across town to Ginkakuji temple.
(continue to next post: kyoto, part three)
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