lea pof travels: Kyoto, Japan: Ryoanji Temple

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Kyoto, Japan: Ryoanji Temple

Ryoanji Temple, more than just a rock garden

I ventured into Japan without knowing much beyond "Konnichiwa" and "Arigatou" so subtle differences in Romanised Japanese still stump me, just as Ryoanji and Rokuonji do.

Here's a comparison of the 2 (of many, many) UNESCO sites in Kyoto:

Ryoanji Temple (龍安寺) - A Japanese Zen temple garden with a kare-sansui ("dry landscape")
Ryokuonji Temple (鹿苑寺) - Also known as Kinkakuji (金閣寺) or Temple of the Golden Pavilion

From the inscription:

Ryoanji Temple, originally an aristocrat's country villa, was converted into a Zen temple in 1450. In 1488, the Hojo (abbot's quarters) was restored, and repairs were made to the other temple buildings. When these were destroyed by a fire in 1797, the Seigen-in Temple's abbot's quarters, built in 1606, was relocated to Ryoanji Temple; this structure is the present Hojo, which serves as the main hall of the temple.

The temple garden, which lies on the Hojo's south side, is thought to date from the mid-15th century. A rock-and-gravel garden comprising 15 rocks in five groupings, arranged on a bed of white gravel, it is renowned throughout the world as the ultimate example of the kare-sansui or "dry landscape" style rock garden, in which nature is compressed and given abstract expression within the confines of a very narrow space.

I love how well the Japanese preserve their sites.