Embracing Ryoan-ji

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University of Northern Colorado

Embracing Ryoan-ji

Andrew J. Svedlow, Ph.D., Professor of Art History

Ендрю Дж. Сведлоу, професор мистецтвознавства та історії мистецтва, Університет Північного Колорадо, США

СПРИЙНЯТТЯ РЬОАН-ДЗі

У храмі Рьоан-дзі в Кіото розташований найвідоміший у Японії сад каменів. Камені розміщені так, що з будь-якого кута побачити всю композицію неможливо. Щодо цього саду, як і будь-якого витвору мистецтва, можливі різні інтерпретації. Висвітлено зв'язок між естетичними теоріями за часів створення саду та сучасними поглядами на природу і мистецтво, розглянуто важливість місця медитації в естетичному досвіді. Проаналізовано суворість і простоту саду в Рьоан-дзі в історичному і релігійному контекстах. Ключові слова: храм, сад каменів, дизайн, медитація, асиметрія, традиції дзен-буддизму.

Эндрю Дж. Сведлоу, профессор искусствоведения и истории искусства, Университет Северного Колорадо, США

ВОСПРИЯТИЕ РЁАН-ДЗИ

В храме Рёан-дзи в Киото находится самый знаменитый в Японии сад камней. Камни расположены так, что под любым углом увидеть всю композицию невозможно. Относительно этого сада, как и любого произведения искусства, возможны различные интерпретации. Освещена связь между эстетическими теориями времен создания сада и современными взглядами на природу и искусство, рассмотрено значение места медитации в эстетическом опыте. Проведен анализ строгости и простоты сада в Рёан- дзи в историческом и религиозном контекстах.

Ключевые слова: храм, сад камней, дизайн, медитация, асимметрия, традиции дзэн-буддизма.

Andrew J. Svedlow, Ph.D., Professor of Art History University of Northern Colorado. Greeley, Colorado, USA

EMBRACING RYOAN-JI

Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto is the site of Japan's most famous rock garden. The stones are arranged so that the entire composition cannot be seen at once from any angle. Like any work of art, also the artistic garden of Ryoan-ji is open to interpretation. The aim of this article is to unfold the significant connections between aesthetic theories at the time of the creation of the garden and the resonation of those ideas in providing some insight into a contemporary sensibility about nature, art, and the place of contemplation in the aesthetic experience. The austerity and simplicity of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji is detailed as well as the historical antecedents and religious context of this particular garden.

Key words: temple, rock garden, design, meditation, asymmetry, Zen traditions.

This essay endeavors to inquire into the history and aesthetics which underlie the stone garden at Ryoan-ji. The purpose herein is to unfold the significant connections between spiritual and aesthetic concerns surrounding the creation and perceptions of the garden and the resonation of those ideas in the author's sensibilities regarding the value of experiencing Ryoan-ji's famous rock garden.

Ryoan-ji is located in Kyoto and is home to one of Japan's most revered and masterfully designed rock gardens. Ryoan-ji is administered by the Myoshin School of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism whose central temple, Myoshin-ji is located about one and a half miles from Ryaoan-ji and is a relatively small compound that includes the eminent karesansui or dry rock garden, which is the focus of this essay, as well as the Temple's landscaped grounds: Kyoyochi Pond, Zoroku tea room, and additional facilities for meditation and contemplation. Ryoan-ji can be translated into English as the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon and its prominent rock garden is a rectangle measuring approximately twenty three meters running east to west by nine meters running north to south (UCLA CEAS Educational Resources 8/21/2007) and consists of finely raked white pebbles and fifteen rocks placed in groupings. Three sides of the garden are enclosed by a high wall varying in height and on one side, where visitors are allowed to view the garden, is the temple's jojo or viewing porch.

By most estimates, Ryoan-ji was built in 1499 and was developed by Rennyo, a proponent of the Jodo-Shin Sect of Zen Buddhism. It is an assumption that Soami (died 1525) a prominent artist of the late 15th and early 16th century in Kyoto, either designed or was an inspiration for the design of the rock garden. As was the practice at the time, the actual crafters of the garden were most likely sensui kawaramono: riverbank garden laborers. These craftsmen were probably assisted in the physical construction of the garden by monks living at Ryoan-ji.

In her text on Japanese Garden and Floral Art, Mrs. Paul Kincaid (1966) delightfully describes the garden thusly;

The Ryoanji garden in Kyoto is one of the finest examples of dry- landscape style. Its fifteen stones are grouped in five sets of two, three or five with perfect proportion on the level white gravelly sand raked in meticulously worked patterns. Such masterful use of space has never been expressed so eloquently and symbolically. To some the rocks suggest the legend of tora-no-ko watashi in which tigers led their cubs across a mountain stream. To others they represent an expanse of clouds or islands in the sea. It is an awe-inspiring thing to experience this garden in the daytime but I have been told that on a clear moonlit night the garden appears as living things of nature. (pg. 69)

Myoshin-ji. Myoshin-ji, the Temple of the Wondrous Mind, sits at the base of Daiunzan (Great Cloud Mountain) on the western slope of Mount Kinugasa above the Katsuragawa River in Kyoto about 1.5 miles from Ryaoan-ji. Myoshin-ji is home to the largest of the fourteen schools of Rinzai Buddhism which was established in 1337. There have been numerous temples established throughout the world following the practice of this school of Rinzai. As with the other forms of Rinzai, the Myoshin School practices a form of questioning using koans to help disciples on their path to enlightenment. A koan is an enigmatic story used in Zen Buddhism to elicit different meditative pathways of reasoning and thought so as to rouse potential enlightenment. Unlike other schools of Rinzai, Myoshin adapts its questioning of practioners to the student's experiential state and does not follow a set protocol for the use of koans in the training of disciples.

The principles of Myoshin are based, as most Buddhist sects are, on the teachings of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. In this tradition, the teachings of the historic Buddha were transmitted through Rinzai Gigen to Muso Daishi, the founder of Myoshin School Temple. Rinzai Gigen, whose Chinese name is Linji Yixuan, was born in what is now modern day Heze city in Shandong province of mainland China. He was educated and trained in Chan Buddhism and reached enlightenment through his interaction with the monk Dayu. After his awakening, Linji returned to his home in Shandong to continue his practice as a Chan Buddhist. In 851 CE, Linji moved to the Linji temple in Hebei, where he took the name he is known for today, which also became the name for the sect of Buddhism that carries that name.

According to the doctrine of the Myoshin School, “The Emperor Hanazono sacrificed his throne in order to support and help realize the aims of the Myoshinji and to work to `enlighten people and contribute to world culture by declaring the True Dharma in accordance with the sacred faith”.

Rinzai. The Rinzai sect of Buddhism is a Japanese descendant of the Linji sect of Chan Buddhism in China stemming back to the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century. The movement was originated with the monk Linji Yixuan whose name in Japanese translated to Rinzai Gigen. The Japanese monk Myoan Eisai traveled to China in the mid twelfth century and transmitted the teachings of Rinzai to followers back in Japan in the later part of that century. Later Japanese monks, in particular Muso Soseki in the early 14th century, greatly developed the presence of Rinzai in the imperial capital of Kyoto.

As mentioned earlier, the Rinzai sect of Buddhism's practice is based on the use of koan to help a practioner on the path toward enlightenment. This practice accompanied by zazen or sitting meditation has been part of the training of Rinzai adepts since the time of Eisai and Soseki. The rock garden at Ryoanji is a platform by which contemplation of koans and meditation may take place.

Rinzai from the eleventh to the end of the 19th century in Japan was an appealing discipline to the samurai class and attracted samurai and their Daimyo (territorial lords) to the practice of zazen meditation and the particular art forms of Rinzai. The Shogunate and many of those in the imperial court supported the development of Rinzai and the temples associated with its practice.

The early relationship between the Rinzai Zen school and the aristocracy in Japan resulted in the enhancement and development of various cultural practices, including sumi-e (ink painting), shodo (calligraphy), chanoyu (the tea ceremony), and garden making.

After a period of decline in the 17th century, the Rinzai School, through the work of the monk Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) in the 18th century, became, once again, a vital part of Kyoto residents' spiritual and cultural practices. Contemporary Rinzai Zen masters trace their lineage back to Hakuin and his koan training system.

Buddhism during the Muromachi Period. It was during the Muromachi Period (1333-1573) in Japanese history that Zen Buddhism became particularly prevalent in the ruling class and among the samurai. Zen practices of personal discipline and exercises devoted to building concentration and self-control were matched by the cultural development of Kyoto as it once again became the capital city under the Ashikaga Shogunate and the Imperial family.

The cultural arts benefited from the expansion of the role of the Zen temples in Kyoto which in turn profited from the increase in commercial and cultural trade with China. Some Zen temples were the originators of these trade missions which brought back to temple settings in Kyoto works of art by Chinese Buddhist monks and secular artists and artisans. Chinese painting and calligraphy had an impact on the artistic activities of Japanese monks and on the tastes in such Chinese inspired art by the aristocracy. The more opulent and ornate style of the Kamakura period preceding the Muromachi was tempered through this interaction with and attraction to Chan Buddhist art from China.

The concentration needed to produce such intensely focused paintings, as modeled by Chinese landscape painters of the fifteenth century and earlier that were brought back to Japan, can be articulated in the aesthetic concept of “Mushin” or focused state of mind. This practice and underlying value was being highly developed at places such as Ryoanji and in other temple sites in Kyoto in the Muromachi period.

This practice of focused mind can also be seen in the tea ceremony (chanoyu), calligraphy (shodo), and in martial arts such as archery and sword play, as well as in the rock and other garden designs within those temple compounds.

The complex political interactions between the Shogunate, the imperial household, and favored and disfavored Buddhist sects in the capital city of Kyoto caused friction between and competition for patronage among the temples. Shingon and Tendai sects produced monk/warriors and strife intensified among the temples. The influence of the temples as political and military forces also grew during this time. In contrast, many temples became refuges for monks seeking to practice Zen meditation and art forms. While less politically influential, many of these temples and sects, such as the Rinzai, focused their practices detached from the conflicts of the Kyoto court and Shogunate and became places more popular with those seeking peace and harmony and compassion free from the frays and struggles of the elite and powerful.

Karesansui and the Sakuteiki. The rock garden at Ryoan-ji is designed in the Karesansui style or dry landscape style. The fifteen rocks in the garden are divided into groupings of one set of five, two sets of three, and two sets of two rocks. While geomancy was a significant contributor to Japanese garden design, particularly during the Nara (645-794 ce) and Heian (794-1185 ce) periods, the application of such symbolism to the Ryoan-ji rock garden would be pure conjecture. However, it is informative to understand the symbolism in the numerical groupings in the garden, particularly the two sets of three rocks. According to Takei (2008), Buddhist numerology does play a role in garden design during the Heian period:

Whether the monks at Ryoan-ji in the late 15th century intended for the groupings of rocks in their garden to be directly linked to this type of symbolism is not clearly evident.

The use of rocks as the focal point of Japanese landscape design, however, can be found as early as the Heian Period in the classic text Sakuteiki or the Records of Garden Making. Jiro Takei in his introduction to his translation of the text writes:

The importance placed on stones in Japan stems from several sources. The first is the ancient use of stones as prayer sites, especially those found naturally in the landscape, often stones that have a rounded form or a naturally upright appearance. It was believed that through the medium of the stone, gods could be induced to descend from their heavenly abodes to visit earth and bestow their blessings for good health and ample harvests on village communities. These sacred stones, called iwakura, are still actively incorporated into religious life even today. In later eras, the spiritual qualities inherent in sacred stones carried over into the use of stones in gardens. New meanings were added as well, meanings that were derived from cultural imports such as Buddhism and geomancy, the latter being an ancient Chinese method of geophysical divination. ” (pg. 3-4)

This requirement of the use of stones in a garden's design reaches its apex in the creation of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji. The Rinzai monks, who must have been instrumental in the planning and construction of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji, were fulfilling a role also stemming back to the Heian period in Kyoto history. Again, according to Takei:

By the mid to late Heian period there were also Buddhist priests involved in garden building, known collectively as ishitateso, literally stone-setting priests, though in fact the expression “stone-setting” was simply a euphemism for “garden making.” (pg. 31)

According to Abd al-Hayy Moore (1992), a disciple of Shunryu Suzuki:

The rock garden of Ryoan-ji in Kyoto is perhaps the apotheosis of the art. For five centuries, people have made pilgrimages to visit this garden, spending hours or even days on its long veranda benches, nourished by its visionary possibilities, puzzled by its meanings... There is significant space between each rock formation, like a kind of pause in a conversation - a visual silence - and the raked sand between each group isolates them even further, making each one look like an island in a stream. The relative sizes of the rocks and the way they have been rooted in the ground create a sense of perfect harmony and balance. Some see the equipoise of Zen composure in this display of rocks and sand. Some see eternity in its stones. But there is also a legend suggested by these particular rock configurations, placing the garden in the category of idea symbolism. (pg. 76-82)

Sesshu and Garden Design. Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506), a Zen monk, traveled to and lived in China from 1468 to 1469. His hanging scroll ink on paper, Winter Landscape, is considered by many to be the height of Japanese landscape painting of the time period, if not throughout all of Japanese art history (Swann pg. 186).

It is this style and emphasis on the essentials of a composition, coupled with the Japanese interest in Chinese landscape painting during the 15th and 16th centuries that may have impacted the work of the designers of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji. There is a view of the garden that may be taken from the Chinese emphasis of the bird's eye perspective in landscape painting. As mentioned earlier, the rock garden at Ryoan-ji may be interpreted as a representation of a more cosmic landscape, a scene representative of islands in the ocean as seen from a great distance above the action of the white stones as water washing the shores of distant isles. There is no sentimentality expressed in the garden much like the absence of such mawkishness in the landscape paintings of Sesshu. Direct observation and practiced yet natural use of the brush stroke are hallmarks of Sesshu' s paintings as is the straightforward and explicit setting of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji. Both Sesshu's masterpieces and the garden use this plainness and precision to manifest a deeper spiritual practice and an image explicitly put forward for meditative purposes.

Kyoyochi and Zorokuan. Upon entering the temple grounds, one comes upon the Kyoyochi, the mirror shaped pond. This gentle body of water was created in the 12th century under the auspices of the Tokudaiji family. Two islands sit placidly within the pond. The larger isle is known as Benten Jima and may be accessed over a small bridge. A shrine to Benten, a female Shinto deity, is on this island. The smaller isle is known as Fushitora Jima or the Hiding Tiger Island.

Further along the interior temple grounds is the tearoom known at Zorokuan. This small pavilion designed for the Japanese tea ceremony is named in reference to the head, tail, and four legs of the tortoise and how the tortoise is able to conceal those six parts of his body hence the term Zoroku which means to hide or conceal six. The tortoise is the symbol most often associated with the guardian deity Genbu. Adjacent to the tea house is a water basin known as Tsukubai or crouch. The adherent of or guest to the tea ceremony would crouch down to the basin to wash their hands before entering the tea house. The inscription cut into the side of the water basin may be read as “be content to learn.” This sentiment for peacefulness and contentedness aligns with the Rinzai Zen practice at Ryoan-ji.

Soami. The rock garden of Ryoan-ji is sometimes attributed as the work of the artist Soami. This is partially due to the interest in the austere and monochromatic painting that was favored during the time of the garden's creation. Based on Chinese ink painting and best exemplified by Sesshu, as stated earlier, these ascetic works of art might be the inspiration for the garden at Ryoan-ji. Soami, a painter and garden designer, as well as a master of chanoyu, the tea ceremony, has been credited with designing other gardens in Kyoto. His style of sober and somber design makes it easy to associate him, at stylistically, with the garden at Ryaoan-ji.

Sensui Kawaramono. Sensui Kawaramono were considered, in Japanese social stratification, as a lower if not the lowest class of caste in society. These unidentified individuals were the laborers who assisted in the construction of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji. Sensui Kawaramono translates directly into English as "river-bed people." These were a class of outcasts who lived along the banks of the Kamo and Katsura rivers and who worked the tasks that most people in Japanese society would consider beneath their dignity, such as skinning animals and tanning hides. However, at the time of the construction of the rock garden at Ryoan-ji in the late fifteenth century, the Sensui Kawaramono also began working with Buddhist monks and others on the construction and perhaps even the design of rock gardens. This talent for design and construction from the unnamed individuals of this caste became influential in the aesthetic of rock gardens in Kyoto during the Ashikaga Shogunate.

Kotaro and Hikojiro, the two names etched into one of the rocks in the garden are most likely members of this caste. Their in-put into the garden is undetermined but the reality of their presence is clear and this certainty points to a more significant role for the Sensui Kawaramono in important rock garden design and construction during this time period that stands in contrast to the castes historic character as outcasts within broader Japanese social order.

Mutei (Garden of Nothingness) and Kutai (Garden of Emptiness). The rock garden at Ryoan-ji, referred to at times as the Garden of Nothingness or the Garden of Emptiness, is part of the tradition of garden that are viewed from a jojo, or veranda. This zakan shiki teien or seated appreciation garden is also referred to as a shiro-roji or white sand garden.

According to Robert Alan Deane , the tradition of the seated appreciation garden stems from Zen Buddhist influence in the early Muromachi era.

During the Muromachi period (1338-1568), due mainly to the influence of Zen Buddhism, a new style of garden arose that was not intended to be entered physically. The contemplation or meditation garden was a spiritual sanctuary, a three-dimensional landscape art designed to be viewed like a painting from a seated position in a room or on the veranda of a nearby building. For this reason, they are sometimes collectively termed kansho-niwa (“view-praise or admiration gardens”; kansho-shiki-teien “view-form-gardens”) or zakan-shiki-teien (“seated-view-form gardens”). If the garden design centers on a pond, the preferred term is chisen-kansho-shiki-teien (“pond-spring view- form garden”). In all cases, the essential idea is a garden for the spirit, designed to be toured mentally with the eye rather than with the legs.

Aesthetic Theories in the 15th and 16th centuries. The striking difference and, in retrospect, the great innovation of Ryoan-ji is its starkness. Garden design of the 15th and 16th centuries in Kyoto was characterized by decorative and sumptuous elegance, as opposed to the purity and austerity of Ryoanji. This starkness of Ryoan-ji's aesthetics resonates in contemporary ideas about beauty. The space and the rhythm of the placement of the rocks and the raked white stones are central aspects of the continuity of Japanese attention to and valuation of the rustic and the simple as a means to spiritual enlightenment. A reverence for natural materials, asymmetry, and a commitment to tradition while concentrating on the here and now of contemporary life are manifested in the rock garden at Ryoan-ji. This studied asymmetry is a representative of Japanese Zen aesthetic and tea culture established within the Zen tradition in Japan. The basis for this attention to asymmetry and naturalness of design has its roots in a reverence for natural phenomena as exhibited through the beginnings of Shintoism and early Japanese architecture and garden design. This source and life on the rugged volcanic archeapelogal that is Japan is the backdrop for a deep attentiveness to the materialization of natural forces and forms in the man-made art and design of Japanese cultural artifacts, such as the rock garden at Ryoan-ji.

Conclusion. Japanese's historical, spiritual, and sacred use of rocks in garden designs has its antecedents in Chinese aesthetics and landscape painting, as well as in Chan Buddhism. This intellectual, spiritual, and physical dynamic reaches a high point of Japanese rock garden construction at Ryoan-ji.

The value and use of koan in Rinzai is manifested in the garden as a koan in its meditative purpose. While in some Zen traditions, koans may have specific resolutions, in the customs of the sect that resides at Ryoan-ji, the koan is a personal journey into spiritual awakening and, thusly, has no set edicts or dictums underlying the meditation upon the koan. The rock garden serves this purpose.

References

garden meditation aesthetic

Kincaid, Mrs. Paul (1966) Japanese garden and floral art. New York, Hearthside Press, Inc.

Takei, Jiro and Keane, Marc P. (2008) Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese garden. Rutland, Vermont, Tuttle Publishing.

Moore, Abd al-Hayy (1992) Zen rock gardening. Philadelphia, PA, Running Press Book Publishers.

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