Jyoei-ji Temple & the Shigemori Garden

 

Jyoei-ji Temple in Yamaguchi City is a Rinzai temple more commonly known as Sesshuteien after the garden designed by Sesshu within its grounds.

A statue of Sesshu, one of the most important artists and garden designers in Japanese history as well as being a zen monk, stands at the entrance to the temple.

On the approach you pass through Muin, a wide, fairly simple garden created in 2012. photos above and below. This is the first of 4 gardens at the temple.

None of the current buildings are very old, but it is quite a big temple with many smaller halls within the grounds.

The temple also has some nice art...

However, the main focus of the temple is the huge garden to the rear which is the biggest garden designed by Sesshu and said to be based on one of his landscape paintings....

I was here at the start of day 23 of my walk along the Chugoku Pilgrimage and it was peak Autumn Colours time so I highly recommend my post from last year of 24 shots of the Sesshu Garden in glorious colours.

For this post I will concetrate on the garden in front of the main hall.

It was designed by Mirei Shigemori.

It is called Nanmeitei garden and was built in 1968.

There is a story that the head priest asked Shigemori to make a garden that was not so good so that it did not detract from the Sesshu Garden.

The garden uses the two gates as a backdrop.

Please enjoy these close-up shots of the garden.

The honzon of the temple is a Thousand-armed Kannon.

The final garden is a small karesansui garden using  a reddish gravel rather than the usual white....

I once again urge you to check out the post of the Sesshu Garden in full Autumn Colours.

The previous post in this series was on my walk into Yamaguchi City the previous afternoon.

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Gardens at Buttsuji

 

Buttsuji is a major Zen monastery in the mountains of southern Hiroshima.

Outside of the main walled compound, and across the river is a small garden attributed to Sesshu

Some garden experts suggest it doesn't look much like a Sesshu garden, but the temple says it has been changed over the centuries.

A little further down the approach road is a sub-temple of Buttsuji, Yotokuin, and its not possible to enter its grounds, but a sign claims that it also has a Sesshu garden.

Across the pond and stone bridge is now a Kannon altar.

Crossig over the river into the main temple compound, is a large karesansui garden.

Buttsuji is a Rinzai temple, founded in the last years of the 14th century.

It grew to be an important monastery, and is currently the only Zen monastery in western Japan with a training hall.

The garden is completely dry and has just rocks and a few pine trees among the raked sand.

On this visit the autumn colours were not in full swing....

I can find no information on when the garden was built or who designed it.

There is a small courtyard garden, recently designed, but it is not open to the public.

The previous post was on the walk to reach Buttsuji.

Hofukuji Temple in Soja

 

Hofukuji Temple is an historic Zen temple in Soja, Okayama.

It is most well known as being the temple where Sesshu trained as a child.

Sesshu, or Sesshu Toyo, was born around 1420 to a samurai family in what is now Soja City.

He went on to become a zen monk and one of the greatest Japanese painters.

He is also known for his gardens.

The most famous story connected to his time at Hofukuji was the story of Sesshu and the Rat

It is not known exactly when the temple was founded, but was originally of the Tendai Sect.

In 1232 it was converted into a Rinzai Zen temple, one of the first in the area.

It received Imperial patronage and grew powerful with more than 50 sub-temples and 300 branch temples at its peak.

In 1575 almost the whole temple was burned down during the Bitchu War, but the 3-story pagoda survived. It has been reliably dated to 1376 and is an Important Cultural Property and the oldest structure still standing here.

The rest of the temple was restored during the Edo Period. The main hall dates to 1735.

Other treasures include the 15th century temple bell, and several silk paintings.

There are two small gardens, a karesansui raked sand one, and a small pond garden.

Hofukuji is a great spot for autumn foliage.

At this time, the Hojo, the Abbots living quarters, are open to the public and paintings by Sesshu and other items relating to Sesshu's time at the temple are on display.

On this visit I was at the start of my 7th day walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

The previous post in the series was on Shorenji Temple in Takahashi.

Sesshu is one of my favorite garden designers, and over the years I have visited almost all of his gardens that still exist, but have not posted many on this blog.

His biggest garden is in Yamaguchi and I did recently post a lot of photos of it in full autumn foliage.