Get your Zen Garden On

Posted on 28. Mar, 2010 @ 4:58 am by in Art, Crazy Consumers, Culture Views: 1,254

I don’t see these rock gardens much in Japan. You really have to go out of your way to find them. The last time that I can remember visiting one was at Sanzenin in Kyoto, when my parents were in the country visiting for our wedding back in 2007.

At Sanzenin in Kyoto

I think I also saw some near Himeji Castle when I was there some time ago.

The word for Japanese rock garden is karesansui 枯山水. The characters literally mean “dry,” “mountain,” “water.” The gardens represent a dry landscape. The raked patterns in the sand represent water, rivers, oceans, and lakes. Apparently it’s extremely difficult to create realistic waves in the sand using the rakes. I wouldn’t be surprised, the entire garden is a work of art. You can read more about these rock gardens on Wikipedia.

When I do find these gardens in Japan I rarely have time to sit around and enjoy the view. I’m normally traveling with a group that wants to keep moving, or maybe the site is crowded with other tourists so you’re not allowed to linger. Sanzenin was great though, very quiet, peaceful, and you could sit around as long as you wanted. Highly recommended.

On a somewhat related noted, we got my parents one of these cheesy mini rock gardens as a gift. We’ll see what they end up doing with it when I visit next! Hopefully it will be getting some use…

Deluxe Zen Garden, ordered from Amazon.

Good times.

- Harvey

  • http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

    Hehe, I also have one of those minature Zen gardens. I bought mine in Australia a few years ago, but I never opened the package. Maybe I’ll give it to someone as a birthday present or something like that one day. :)

    I really like strolling around those rock gardens, unfortunately they are quite hard to come by in Germany. I’d say even though you claim that you have to go out of your way to find them in Japan, they are still a lot harder to find in Germany. ;)

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