Senshukaku Karesansui Garden

 

Senshukaku is one of the names of the former Omote Goten of Tokushima Castle.

It's not a particularly big garden, but it splits nicely into two halves: a karesansui garden and a pond garden.

This first post is just on the karesansui part. I will cover the pond garden next.

Stones and rocks are the neart of a Japanese garden. This is my opinion after viewing hindreds of gardens. The rocks are chosen and set first and the rest of the garden grows from that.

This is certainly obvious here in the gardens at the former Tokushima Castle.

One particular type of stone predominates, known as Awa Bluestone. Not a geologist but I believe it is a type of rock called greenschist in English.

Awa bluestone was used a lot by the greatest 20th-century Japanese gardener, Mirei Shigemori.

The garden was designed by Ueda Soko ( 1563-1650) a warlord as well as a garden designer, and was built around 1600.

He was also a tea master and founded his own school of tea ceremony.

Some of his other gardens include the Nishinomaru garden at Wakayama Castle, and one I posted about quite recently, the Shukkeien Garden in Hiroshima.

Perhaps the most famous site in the garden is the stone bridge made of a single ten meter long piece of bluestone.

Seen in photos 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, and 20.

The long piece of rock is actually split, according to legend, by Hachisuka Yoshishige, the first lord of the castle, and the person for whom the garden was built.

It is said he stamped upon it and it cracked.

The gardens are a designated National Scenic Spot.

The previous garden I posted on was the garden at Matsue History Museum.

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Entsuji Temple Garden

 

The karensansui rock garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is almost certainly the most famous example of what are commonly called Zen gardens.

Five clusters of rocks on moss "islands" in a 300 square metre "sea" of raked gravel....

At Entsuji Temple in Saijo, Hiroshima, is a garden that while not quite an exact copy of the one at Ryoanji, is more than modelled on it.

It was created in 2001 by the head priest who received permission from Ryoanji to measure their garden. Entsuji and Ryoanji both belong to the same sect of Rinzai Zen.

The shape of the garden is a little different to that of Ryoanji, but it was made to be the same total area.

The rock clusters and their spatial relationship with each other seem to coincide with Ryoanji. Since taking these photos it seems the garden has been changed a little by the addition of pure white gravel areas around each rock cluster contrasting with  the sandier coloured gravel of the rest of the garden.

The full name of the temple is Fukujuin Entsuji and it is believed that Shotoku Taishi trained here.

It fell into disuse multiple times over the centuries but was revived as  Rinzai temple in 1706 and the current main hall dates to that time.

The honzon is an Eleven-faced Kannon. The temple is one of the 24 Flower Temples of Sanyo and so is worth visiting in Spring and early Summer when flowers such as azaleas, hydrangeas, and lilies are blooming.

The previous post in this series exploring Saijo while walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on Aki Kokubunji, the ancient provincial temple....

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Jinsenji Temple Yuasa

 

Jinsenji Temple is located in Yuasa, the small town in Wakayama said to be where soy sauce was invented.

Said to have been founded originally as Kaiunji Temple in the early 8th century by Gyoki, and was used as lodgings by imperial pilgrims on their way to Kumano, but fell into disrepair and was re-established in the mid 15th century as a Jodo sect temple.

It was burned down in the Great Fire of Yuasa in the 1650's but rebuilt in 1664. 

Jinesenji has a small but lovely raked sand garden, but its most interesting feature is the large  pair of mythical Shachi on the roof ridge.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, said to be the oldest circuit pilgrimage in Japan, was on Kimiidera, the huge temple somewhat north of here.

Ittekikai Garden at Komyozenji Temple

 

The rear garden at Komyozenji Temple, known as the Ittekikai Garden, was the garden that really first piqued my interest in Japanese gardens, although at the the time I did not realize it was a fairly modern one.

Komyozenji Temple is a Rinzai Zen Temple located close to what is now Dazaifu Tenmangu.

The temple was founded in 1273 and belongs to the Tofukuji Schoolof the Rinzai Zen Sect.

During the Edo Period it was the family temple of those who served at what is now Dazaifu Tenmangu but which at the time was a temple and not the shrine it became in the Meiji Period.

In 1856 it became an affiliate of Dazaifu Tenmangu.

The rear garden of Komyozenji, like the smaller front garden, was designed by Mirei Shigemori.

I can find no exact date for their creation,but he passed away in 1976 so probably in 1960's or 70's.

Like the front garden it is a "dry" karesansui garden, though unlike the front garden it also incorporates a lot bof moss.

In fact one of the temples nicknames is Moss Temple.

What is noticeably different from this karesansui garden to most others is that here it is planted with many trees.

The trees are mostly maple, and so create a stunning display in the Autumn when the leaves turn red and fall.

These first 16 shots wre all taken during a visit in the Spring when the the garden is mostly shaded by the new foliage, but mottled sunlight breaks through.

The last 8 photos were taken during a Winter visit when the bare trees allow much more light onto the garden but the sun is much lower for much of the times.

In 2016 photography of the gardens was banned, and two years later the temple closed to the public for renovations, and it seems to stiill be closed.

Mirei Shigemori was a self taught garden designer and scholar of gardens who was incredibly influential in the twentieth century.

He was very prolific designing and restoring many gardens throughout Japan, but as far as I can tell there is only one other, very small garden by him in Kyushu.

Earlier I posted shots of the other garden here, the Bukkosekitei Garden.