Photo Gallery

Ryōan-ji Temple - 竜安寺 (built 1488 onward)

The Zen garden of Ryōan-ji is famous for its simplicity—made of nothing but clay walls, raked sand, and fifteen rocks. This simplicity belies Ryōan-ji's long history as an important site. In 983 Fujiwara Saneyoshi constructed the first temple at this location. Most traces of his original work have vanished except for the large pond that covers much of the lower garden. Destroyed in the Ōnin war that devastated much of Kyoto, reconstruction began in earnest with Hosokawa Katsumoto, a powerful member of the Buke clan of Kyoto, who founded Ryōan-ji proper in the upper half of the grounds. Here he lived with resident Zen monks until his death in 1473. Following a fire in 1488, his son Hosokawa Masamoto financed the construction of the present garden.

The architect of Ryōan-ji is not known, but tradition attributes it to Somai (1480?-1525), an artist who also worked at Daisen-in. Records kept at the temple give conflicting information, but the actual designers were probably anonymous professional laborers called sensui kawaramono "riverbank workers as gardeners" assisted by Zen monks. The names Kotaro and Hikojiro were found chiseled into the back of one of the fifteen rocks, and this has been taken as evidence of sensui kawaramono involvement. Certainly professionals helped build the garden, but whether they designed it is an ongoing debate.

Over the centuries the feel of the garden has changed. It is thought that the original design "borrowed" features from the distant landscape but that these views disappeared as the trees matured to the south of the garden. In 1789, following a disastrous fire, the modest temple building was replaced by a much grander structure transferred from another site. A second fire in 1797 necessitated the reconstruction of the area to the east of the garden. An open walkway that had previously existed was replaced with a wall and new gate that restricted views of the garden to only the veranda. Even this veranda, from which the best views of the garden are seen, lacked a roof until 1797.

Scholars continue to debate the the purpose of the garden and its significance. Many explanations are given for the rock arrangement and minimal decoration. Probably all that can be safely said is that the garden is highly influenced by the ideals of the tea ceremony, in which honesty, rusticity, and understatement are held in esteem. In the Muromachi era (1338-1573), architecture and the tea culture mutually influenced each other as patrons erected rustic tea houses. The ideals of wabi (honesty and understatement) resonated well with the Zen branch of Buddhism, which incorporated tea architecture into temple design, leading to gardens like Ryōan-ji.

Wabi is a powerful design technique that uses simplicity and understatement to allow the viewer's imagination to "fill in the blanks". Probably more has been written about Ryōan-ji's fifteen rocks than all the other rocks in Japanese gardens combined. The strikingly horizontal composition is optimized for views from the veranda, from which Zen monks meditated by staring into the blankness of the garden. All but one of the fifteen rocks seems to be flowing from left to right. Some have described the composition in colorful terms such as "a tiger crossing the sea with her cubs" or "islands in the ocean." Indeed, the raked sand does resemble water lapping at the base of mystical islands. Whatever its significance, the garden has inspired and continues to inspire designs to the present day.

Click on an arrow or a thumbnail for a specific view
Image drawn by Timothy M. Ciccone, copyright 2003.

The red square is the boundary of the axonometric drawing at the top of this page.
Site plan adapted and redrawn from the original in Japanese Gardens, Design and Meaning. Michell Bring and Josse Wayembergh. Copyright 1981.