京都
Japan Garden Travel Guide: Planning a Trip to Japan
Planning a Trip to Japan: A Guide for Garden Enthusiast Planning a trip to Japan is an exciting journey, especially if you’re passionate about gardens. Here’s a comprehensive Japan garden travel guide to help you design the perfect itinerary, focusing on the best seasons, destinations, and accommodations for your garden-themed trip. Best Time to Visit […]
Hōraijima of Rikugien
The Rikugien garden was initially built by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu from 1695 until 1702. In 1868 it was purchased by Iwasaki Yataro who remodeled the garden to his needs but kept the heart of the garden – the theme of Waka poetry. However, he added many elements. So also the Hōraijima in the pond. Jima is […]
The turtle and crane island of Konchi-in
Today, we want to explore two popular elements in Japanese gardens. The picture of the turtle and the crane. For this, we will take the garden of Koichi-in in Kyoto as an example, where we have both elements as a rock setting (island) in one garden. However, these pictures can be found in many other […]
The manifold interpretations of Ryoan-ji – an excerpt
虎の子渡し – Tiger family crossing a river 碧巌録に示された臥龍 – Sleeping dragon 星座カシオペヤ – The constellation Cassiopeia 心の字 – Heart character 京都盆地を囲む五山 – Five mountains surrounding Kyoto 光の反射板 – Reflecting of Light 満月を巡る – The moon phases around the full moon Today I want to dig deeper into the manifold interpretations of Ryoan-jis zen garden. Surely, […]
Stone Lanterns in the Japanese garden
The next garden element on my list is the stone lantern. Everyone knows the beautiful withered lanterns made of natural or hewn rocks. Today I want to talk about their origin and use in the Japanese garden. Origin Lanterns weren‘t always a garden element. They were invented in a religious context during the Tang Dynasty […]
Chozubachi – Hachimae – Tsukubai: Water basins
The next garden element on my list is the water basin! I guess, the best-known examples for these water basins are the ones in front of Japanese shrines but also the ones in Japanese tea gardens. Both are meant to symbolically purify oneself before entering a special place. To fulfill this, we are washing our […]
Treasure Ship – 宝船 ・ Ship Stone – 船石 explained
What I always tried to find out was the relationship between the Treasure Ship (takarabune) with the Seven Lucky Gods (shichifukujin), and the Ship Stone (funaishi). Now that I stuck at home, I have time to investigate! Let’s start with a more or less short explanation of these three: Treasure Ship – takarabune – 宝船 This […]
[New eBook] Zuiho-in temple in Daitoku-ji Kyoto
My first trip to Kyoto was back in April 2006. On my list were many famous temples including Daitoku-ji. However, I didn’t visit the Zuiho-in sub-temple back then. In 2014 and 2015, I visited Kyoto again, also Daitoku-ji, but only for special autumn openings and Zuiho-in was not on that list. Finally, in 2019, I […]
Pruning shrubs in Japanese gardens (karikomi)
Karikomi is a special design and pruning technique in a Japanese garden which is often seen done with plants of the Rhododendron family in Japan. It is separated into the usual karikomi and o-karikomi – a larger element in the garden put together by more than one shrub. What I want to talk about here […]
Moss in the Japanese garden
This post was a request by one of our followers on Instagram. If you want me to cover a special topic, feel free to contact me! Moss is commonly seen as a signature plant for a Japanese garden. Although not every Japanese garden will be covered with moss, it is still widely spread. Usually, it […]