Ryoanji Temple

What is Ryoanji Temple

Ryoanji of Kyoto is known the stone garden and registered as UNESCO World Heritage.

History

The stone garden of Ryoanji, Kyoto is known world widely. Maybe Zen word of Japan and this garden is not spreadable. The temple was established in 1450 A.D. as a Zen temple. The temple locates the North West area of Kyoto near the temple of Gold pavilion.
When it was established the temple was much larger than what we can see now. It was burned out during the battle of 1467-1477, but rebuilt in 1488 by the chief priest of the temple.

Highlight

Known as Zen garden which is a stone garden is called “Hojo Stone Garden” but the original name is “Hojo Garden”. Hojo means chief priest private room. Many tourists visit to the garden from all over the world.
The garden locates to the south side from the Hojo, the area is 25 meters long 10 meters wide with white sand and allocated 15 stones in there. White sand shows the water and Stones shows the mountain appearance and stream.
Enclosed three side with the wall and surrounding trees as a part of the design of a garden.
The author and established year is unknown. It says the garden shows the perfection of Zen spirits. This garden uses 15 stones but strangely it is not possible to see all the stone at onece from any direction.
In addition, there other highlight points, for example the oldest tree of “Wabisuke Tsubaki”, a kind of Camellia Japonica in the temple, please look for the others.