japanese temple
Visiting Byōdō-in Temple in Uji
Visiting Byōdō-in Temple in Uji was the first point on my itinerary. You might already be familiar with it—its famous Phoenix Hall is featured on the back of the ¥10 coin. The temple was originally built in the Heian period as a villa, and later converted into a Buddhist temple in 1052. One year after […]
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, […]
Bridges in the Japanese garden
Bridges are an element in the Japanese garden, that is often neglected in the literature. After the main elements, water, rocks, and plants, the stone lanterns follow as the next most often mentioned element. Or so it seems. Today, I would like to put the focus on bridges. What types exist, and how they are […]
Building ponds in the Japanese gardens
The way how ponds were built in Japan changed massively over time. In this article I want to introduce the ancient way and the more recent methods. Let’s begin when rich people wanted to build private gardens in the outskirts of Kyoto in as early as the Heian period (794-1185). There were still no electric […]
Pine pruning – Sukashi, Niban me, Ha mushiri, Mekiri, Mitsubushi
A lot of words connected to pine pruning we want to explore today! While midoritsumi みどり摘み and momiage 揉み上げ are already well known when it comes to pine pruning, there is still so much more to explore, even beyond the terms I will explain today. All techniques and examples I am showing, are applying either for Pinus […]
Ponds in the Japanese Garden
Water is one of the three important elements in the Japanese garden. Today we want to explore how water is integrated into the garden design in form of ponds. Ponds in the Japanese garden differ, depending on the type of the garden, in size and shape. History of ponds in Japanese gardens We have a […]
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 […]
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] Ryugon – a Ryokan in Niigata
You may remember my blog post about this Ryokan from back in early 2019. Now, one year later, I finally finished the eBook about this wonderful place and its gardens! Actually, I hoped for an opportunity to visit it after the renovations which took place until summer last year but it didn’t happen and I […]
The Use of Light in a Dry Landscape Garden
Sometimes I stumble upon phrases in texts about Japanese gardens. These phrases are actually common knowledge in the Japanese garden scene, yet, although it is widely spread and you can read about it in every book (or so it seems), in this one situation it always hits me as if I have never heard of […]