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Reading Zen in the Rocks: The Japanese Dry Landscape Garden
The Japanese dry landscape garden has long attracted—and long baffled—viewers from the West. While museums across the United States are replicating these "Zen rock gardens" in their courtyards and miniature versions of the gardens are now office decorations, they remain enigmatic, their philosophical and aesthetic significance obscured. Reading Zen in the Rocks , the classic essay on the karesansui garden by French art historian François Berthier, has now been translated by Graham Parkes, giving English-speaking readers a concise, thorough, and beautifully illustrated history of these gardens.
Berthier's guided tour of the famous garden of Ryoanji (Temple) in Kyoto leads him into an exposition of the genre, focusing on its Chinese antecedents and affiliations with Taoist ideas and Chinese landscape painting. He traces the roles of Shinto and Zen Buddhism in the evolution of the garden and also considers how manual laborers from the lowest classes in Japan had a hand in creating some of its highest examples. Parkes contributes an equally original and substantive essay which delves into the philosophical importance of rocks and their "language of stone," delineating the difference between Chinese and Japanese rock gardens and their relationship to Buddhism. Together, the two essays compose one of the most comprehensive and elegantly written studies of this haunting garden form.
Reading Zen in the Rocks is fully illustrated with photographs of all the major gardens discussed, making it a handsome addition to the library of anyone interested in gardening, Eastern philosophy, and the combination of the two that the karesansui so superbly represents.
Praise for the French
"A small book of rare depth, remarkably illustrated, on one of the most celebrated and beautiful rock gardens of the monasteries of Kyoto."— L'Humanité
"Through Le Jardin de Ryoanji , Berthier teaches us to read the zen in the rocks, to discover the language offered by the garden at Ryoanji. Enigmatic, poetic, and disconcerting, an enriching journey through a work of art of surprising modernity, Le Jardin de Ryoanji is a work that will interest all the amateurs of Japanese art and Eastern philosophy."— Lien Horticole
Berthier's guided tour of the famous garden of Ryoanji (Temple) in Kyoto leads him into an exposition of the genre, focusing on its Chinese antecedents and affiliations with Taoist ideas and Chinese landscape painting. He traces the roles of Shinto and Zen Buddhism in the evolution of the garden and also considers how manual laborers from the lowest classes in Japan had a hand in creating some of its highest examples. Parkes contributes an equally original and substantive essay which delves into the philosophical importance of rocks and their "language of stone," delineating the difference between Chinese and Japanese rock gardens and their relationship to Buddhism. Together, the two essays compose one of the most comprehensive and elegantly written studies of this haunting garden form.
Reading Zen in the Rocks is fully illustrated with photographs of all the major gardens discussed, making it a handsome addition to the library of anyone interested in gardening, Eastern philosophy, and the combination of the two that the karesansui so superbly represents.
Praise for the French
"A small book of rare depth, remarkably illustrated, on one of the most celebrated and beautiful rock gardens of the monasteries of Kyoto."— L'Humanité
"Through Le Jardin de Ryoanji , Berthier teaches us to read the zen in the rocks, to discover the language offered by the garden at Ryoanji. Enigmatic, poetic, and disconcerting, an enriching journey through a work of art of surprising modernity, Le Jardin de Ryoanji is a work that will interest all the amateurs of Japanese art and Eastern philosophy."— Lien Horticole
- GenresGardeningPhilosophy
179 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 8, 2009
Fabulous must-read. Their quality of R and D in their essays is deep and tasty, this one's a big yes.
September 20, 2024
Written by the French art historian Francois Berthier and translated by Graham Parkes, who contributes an essay at the end. This is not a lavish coffee table book, but an approachable volume which provides a simple historical background to the founding principles and evolution of the Japanese rock garden. Many smaller black and white photographs illustrating the gardens are contained throughout.
The dry landscape with rocks symbolizing islands is the epitome of a Japanese garden. This book addresses the influence of Daoist myths, the cosmic images of Buddhism and Hindi beliefs on what looks like a supremely simple arrangement. Added to these in later years during the Heian (Kyoto) period of the late 8th century was the Shinto shrine with its precincts and the noblemens' houses and pavilions of the Imperial Palace.
Later came pleasure gardens, with formal rules on placement similar to what we know as Feng Shui. What was required in a garden as well as a city were topographical principles including "a stream in the east, a depression in the south, a path in the west, and a mountain in the north." This would ensure "happiness, health and long life."
Beginning in the 14th century there is a turn away from the garden as a source of recreation and toward Zen, where it becomes a focus of contemplation. The pond in the depression in the south is now a source of contemplation, a view from the building. The garden is composed like a painting to evoke a famous view, like Mt Lushan or Mt Fuji, and elicit similar sentiments to those one experiences in the presence of the actual mountain.
The most famous garden in Japan is extensively covered here--Ryoangi Temple in Kyoto. It is composed of 15 unsculpted, "true" rocks (signifying the importance of odd numbers in the Japanese culture) and based on the concept of yin and yang. This austere landscape is grounded in an ancient cult of stone and looks quite unlike the traditional Chinese love of rock "play" in which rocks are chosen for their "convoluted shapes and torturous reliefs, riddled with holes like pockmarked skin, and so affected by erosion that one would think them artificial..."
Some Shinto shrines had a niwa which was a space covered with white sand or gravel. These were sacred spaces for performing prehistoric rites. The term niwa today has evolved to refer to a garden.
Included in these pages are the descendents of Ryoanji: Daitokuji, Myoshinji, Shodenji, Rukonji, Jishoji. "Every masterpiece is imperishable, at least for as long as human beings have the wisdom to respect and the intelligence to protect it. Every masterpiece is inexhaustible, like a vital spring whose life-giving waters continuously overflow. Such is the garden of Ryoanji, which was built in times of famine and civil war by laborers who were regarded as untouchables, built under the sign of Zen for the edification--or mystication--of the world."
The last half of the slim volume is composed of an essay by Graham Parkes, professor of philosophy at at the University of Hawaii. He describes the best way to experience Ryoanji and briefly analyzes the memorable scene from the father's visit there in Ozu's film Late Spring.
The dry landscape with rocks symbolizing islands is the epitome of a Japanese garden. This book addresses the influence of Daoist myths, the cosmic images of Buddhism and Hindi beliefs on what looks like a supremely simple arrangement. Added to these in later years during the Heian (Kyoto) period of the late 8th century was the Shinto shrine with its precincts and the noblemens' houses and pavilions of the Imperial Palace.
Later came pleasure gardens, with formal rules on placement similar to what we know as Feng Shui. What was required in a garden as well as a city were topographical principles including "a stream in the east, a depression in the south, a path in the west, and a mountain in the north." This would ensure "happiness, health and long life."
Beginning in the 14th century there is a turn away from the garden as a source of recreation and toward Zen, where it becomes a focus of contemplation. The pond in the depression in the south is now a source of contemplation, a view from the building. The garden is composed like a painting to evoke a famous view, like Mt Lushan or Mt Fuji, and elicit similar sentiments to those one experiences in the presence of the actual mountain.
The most famous garden in Japan is extensively covered here--Ryoangi Temple in Kyoto. It is composed of 15 unsculpted, "true" rocks (signifying the importance of odd numbers in the Japanese culture) and based on the concept of yin and yang. This austere landscape is grounded in an ancient cult of stone and looks quite unlike the traditional Chinese love of rock "play" in which rocks are chosen for their "convoluted shapes and torturous reliefs, riddled with holes like pockmarked skin, and so affected by erosion that one would think them artificial..."
Some Shinto shrines had a niwa which was a space covered with white sand or gravel. These were sacred spaces for performing prehistoric rites. The term niwa today has evolved to refer to a garden.
Included in these pages are the descendents of Ryoanji: Daitokuji, Myoshinji, Shodenji, Rukonji, Jishoji. "Every masterpiece is imperishable, at least for as long as human beings have the wisdom to respect and the intelligence to protect it. Every masterpiece is inexhaustible, like a vital spring whose life-giving waters continuously overflow. Such is the garden of Ryoanji, which was built in times of famine and civil war by laborers who were regarded as untouchables, built under the sign of Zen for the edification--or mystication--of the world."
The last half of the slim volume is composed of an essay by Graham Parkes, professor of philosophy at at the University of Hawaii. He describes the best way to experience Ryoanji and briefly analyzes the memorable scene from the father's visit there in Ozu's film Late Spring.
December 20, 2024
Graham Parks' philosophical essay paints Saihoji as a magical place to visit in Kyoto. Here are some excerpts from the introductory portion of his essay:
“Saihoji—recently better known as Kokedera, the ‘Moss Temple’—lies nestled against the hills bordering Kyoto on the west, and harbors the oldest surviving example of karesansui…From the steep path that leads up to the garden, one sees to the left a magnificent group of rocks floating on a bed of moss and arranged in the ‘turtle island’ style, evoking the Daoist Isles of the Immortals…The turtle-island group is like an overture to the main body of the work, the ‘dry cascade’ (karetaki) in the uppermost part of the garden. Here fifty or so rocks in three tiers descend the hillside, evoking a waterfall deep in the mountains…”
“Saihoji—recently better known as Kokedera, the ‘Moss Temple’—lies nestled against the hills bordering Kyoto on the west, and harbors the oldest surviving example of karesansui…From the steep path that leads up to the garden, one sees to the left a magnificent group of rocks floating on a bed of moss and arranged in the ‘turtle island’ style, evoking the Daoist Isles of the Immortals…The turtle-island group is like an overture to the main body of the work, the ‘dry cascade’ (karetaki) in the uppermost part of the garden. Here fifty or so rocks in three tiers descend the hillside, evoking a waterfall deep in the mountains…”
September 26, 2016
reviewed here: http://buddhistartnews.wordpress.com/...
The title essay is an overview of karesansui, the Japanese rock gardens familiar from the
world famous Ryoanji. The essay by Professor Parkes places dry landscape gardens in the
wider context of Chinese rocks and stones, with reference to Western philosophy
(Emerson, Thoreau, Goethe, Nietzsche). Really excellent, highly recommended.
The title essay is an overview of karesansui, the Japanese rock gardens familiar from the
world famous Ryoanji. The essay by Professor Parkes places dry landscape gardens in the
wider context of Chinese rocks and stones, with reference to Western philosophy
(Emerson, Thoreau, Goethe, Nietzsche). Really excellent, highly recommended.
November 5, 2016
Très interessante histoire des jardins japonais et de certains de kyoto
La visite après lecture du livre était encore plus belle!
La visite après lecture du livre était encore plus belle!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews