Name: Rock Garden / Location: Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto, Japan / DOB:approximately 1499-1507
The Beauty Within
by Ali Guinn
The mystery that lies behind the karesansui at the Ryoanji temple is what makes this garden so rich in meaning. The significance of the garden is that we do not know what it is because we do not know much about its creation. The garden was believed to be created between the dates 1499 and 1507. This would have been shortly after the infamous Onin civil wars, surviving the second fire at the Ryoanji temple shortly after the wars ended.
The Garden of Ryoanji has a few distinctive features that sets it apart from other dry rock gardens. The garden’s terrain is completely flat and geometrical. It is bordered by three walls, which help to create a 3D aesthic when viewing the garden. Most of the area in the garden ins being dedicated to emptiness. The scarcity of the rocks and their composition do not reflect upon any other garden.
nine digits and 7 and 3 being significant because they are closest to 5. Odd numbers are considered yang and even numbers are yin. The odd numbers are chosen in this work because odd numbers are considered propritous in Japan. The number five symbolizes the center of everything, such as the primordial elements. Each direction has an element, the fifth being the center of the four directions; the pivot.
The creator of the Garden of Ryoanji is, however, uncertain. It is believed that he garden was created by Kotaro and Hikojiro, names names found inscribed on the main rock in the garden. If this is true, then the garden was created not by monks, but of members of the kawaramono, laborers of the bottom of the social structure. This makes sense because in the 15th century, laborers began to replace monks as garden makers.