Top > Gardens Overview > Secret Gardens > Kyoto Area > Jōruri-ji Jōruri-ji（浄瑠璃寺） Jōruri-ji (浄瑠璃寺) is a temple of the Jōdo school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded in 1047 by the priest Eshin. It is laid out around a large pond, which was dug out in 1150. Ponds...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Amida-dō Byōdō-in (Phoenix Hall) Amida-dō Byōdō-in (Phoenix Hall)（平等院 鳳凰堂） The Byōdō-in temple near Kyoto city was built in 998 in the Heian period (794-1192) as residence for Minamoto no Toru. In 1052, it became a Buddhist temple. A year...Continue Reading
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...Continue Reading
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:...Continue Reading
Summer is in full swing, we only want to sit somewhere doing nothing, but the garden is calling already. It’s time for planting bulbs! Today I would like to introduce what kind of bulbs or rhizome-building plants are going well with a Japanese garden. Some people think that flowers...Continue Reading
Japanese people tend to state that foreigners can’t understand the concept of wabi-sabi. But is this really true? Or is it one of these myths Japanese like so much hearing and spreading about their country and culture like that one about other countries don’t have four distinctive seasons? When I...Continue Reading
Kanji: 庭 – niwa – garden, yard 坪 – tsubo – unit of land measurement, 3.31 square meters, 2 tatami mats 壷 – tsubo – jar, pot, vase The courtyard garden – called tsuboniwa in Japanese – is a garden in a small, enclosed area. The gardener does not fill...Continue Reading
I hoped for some blog posts between the new eBook announcements, however, work kept me busy and I was not able to finish the two posts I already started.. That’s why, again, you can read about Real Japanese Gardens new eBook. But I think that’s not so bad either! Because...Continue Reading
The rainy season keeps everyone inside and in front of the computer. Me included. Unfortunately.. But actually, this is to your advantage! Else I wouldn’t do as much on RJG as I do now ^_- Finally I was able to finish the next eBook! I started to work on this...Continue Reading
Through the act of creating a garden, there is an inherent manipulation of nature. However, in the early forms of Japanese gardening, this was undertaken in order to serve nature and the deities that lived within the ‘garden objects’, such as rocks. It is true that many civilizations’ globally have...Continue Reading
