As an example of Japanese traditional culture, today I’m going to talk about Karesansui (枯山水), Japanese Zen garden style, and especially I’d like to focus on the Ryoanji (龍安寺) which is the Zen temple in Kyoto.
Usually Karesansui consists of sand, gravel and rocks, and without using water it represents the beautiful landscape of the stream. Karesansui was born to make the beautiful garden in the place where is little water and little space, and in the Muromachi era (室町時代) it developed as a representative garden style of Zen temples. Karesansui is like a picture, because we can feel the beauty not by walking there, but by seeing the landscape quietly.
Ryoanji is famous for its beautiful and mysterious Karesansui garden.
Above picture is the miniature of the Karesansui in the Ryoanji, as you can see there are fifteen rocks in the garden, but there is no certain interpretation about the arrangement of the rocks, so each person has different interpretation about that, and we cannot know what the artist really wanted to express through the garden. 
I think the puzzle of this stone garden represents “Japaneseness”. There is a word “aun no kokyu (あうんの呼吸)” which means that people can communicate without gestures or words and Japanese have such sense, so the artist who made the Karesansui garden in Ryoanji might consider such a Japanese character when he made it.
Usually Karesansui consists of sand, gravel and rocks, and without using water it represents the beautiful landscape of the stream. Karesansui was born to make the beautiful garden in the place where is little water and little space, and in the Muromachi era (室町時代) it developed as a representative garden style of Zen temples. Karesansui is like a picture, because we can feel the beauty not by walking there, but by seeing the landscape quietly.
Ryoanji is famous for its beautiful and mysterious Karesansui garden.
Above picture is the miniature of the Karesansui in the Ryoanji, as you can see there are fifteen rocks in the garden, but there is no certain interpretation about the arrangement of the rocks, so each person has different interpretation about that, and we cannot know what the artist really wanted to express through the garden. I think the puzzle of this stone garden represents “Japaneseness”. There is a word “aun no kokyu (あうんの呼吸)” which means that people can communicate without gestures or words and Japanese have such sense, so the artist who made the Karesansui garden in Ryoanji might consider such a Japanese character when he made it.
2 件のコメント:
This is an interesting subject and a nice post. The links you provide are useful.
You might have done your layout a little differently; perhaps you could have used the photos to break up the text. Maybe some description of the photos would have been helpful.
"[P]eople can communicate without gestures or words and Japanese have such sense..." Are you suggesting that Japanese people are telepathic? This idea of wordless communication is a common claim of nihonjinron. But I don't think the rock garden would be considered wordless or gesture-less communication anyway. Certainly making the rock garden is a gesture of some sort, perhaps an example of indirect communication. See Hendry and Watson (2001):
http://books.google.com/books?id=XbDlg1bWAYsC&pg=PT17&dq=indirect+communication&lr=&source=gbs_toc_s&cad=1&sig=I-XAzjO_qNj6wM9iDPkmIItb5_Q#PPT5,M1
I am not saying that Japanese people are telepathic, but I think to commnicate without saying is regarded as the admired way of communication in Japan.
I agreed with your opinion, as you said making rock garden itself can be said as expression of some thoughts.
コメントを投稿