Ryōan-ji

Meaning

You sit on the wooden veranda as fifteen stones rest like islands on raked white sand, and beyond the low wall, all is still, as if time had paused.

A Kyoto Zen temple whose garden is said to date from the fifteenth-century Muromachi period, famed for its karesansui rock garden of white sand and fifteen stones. The stones are said to be placed so that all fifteen can never be seen at once, and the silent stones and sand are held to mirror the mind of Zen. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

Field notes

Location

Kyoto · Ukyō · N35.0° · E135.7°

Best time

Early morning, when the garden is at its quietest.

Getting there

In Kyoto's Ukyō ward, near Kinkaku-ji.

Etiquette

Sit quietly on the veranda facing the rock garden.

Sources

• · UNESCO World Heritage
• · Encyclopaedia Britannica

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