Garden at Kozanji Temple

 

The garden at Kozanji Temple in Chofu, Yamaguchi, is neither well-known nor well-visited, though the temple itself and its grounds are usually crowded.

Kozanji is the 19th temple on the 33 temple Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, and that was the reason for my visit. 

It's a large, Zen temple whose main hall is a National Treasure as it is one of the oldest Kara-yo buildings left in Japan. Kara-yo is the Chinese-influenced temple architecture that was introduced along with Zen in the 13th century and so is strongly associated with the Zen sects.

While wandering the grounds I was approached by a priest who engaged me in conversation. Foreign visitors to the temple are certainly not rare, so maybe he was intrigued by my pilgrim jacket.

Anyway, it was he who suggested I seek out and visit the garden which is tucked away at the side of one of the main halls and seems to have been designed to be viewed from what I presume to be the abbots residence.

Since 2020, photography of the garden has been forbidden, but not when I visited in 2014.

The buildings that view the gardenm,... the shoin, kuri, and walkway between them, were built in the late Edo Period, so it is believed that is when the garden was built.

It has a long, shinji pond, but most of the garden is moss.....

Unfortunately, the strong shadows and bright sunlight made it harder to appreciate the garden....

I suspect an overcast day might be better to appreciate the moss.....

The previous post in this series on November 27th, 2014, day 25 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, was on the old samurai district near the temple.

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Ryushintei Garden at Sorinji Temple

 

When I arrived at Sorinji Temple in the outskirts of Ube, Yamaguchi, the day was ending and the temple was in shadow with light fading fast.

I caught a glimpse of colour behind the buildings and upon investigating, was stunned to discover an amazing garden....

It is said to be the oldest garden in all of Yamaguchi.

Sorinji Temple was founded in 1670, but it was built on the site of a much older temple.

The original temple was called Fusaiji, and was founded in 777 by a monk from China.

It is believed that the garden dates from the mid to late  14th Century, although the great garden designer and scholar Mirei Shigemori suggests it might be even earlier

In 1983 the garden was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty.

It is a pond garden, with a couple of features that, while not unique, are quite rare.

The pond has two straight lines of stones. They are called Yodomariishi, and represent boats at anchor in a harbour.

They are said to be "treasure ships" on their way to Horai, the mythical Daoist home of the immortals.

The other unusual feature is the areas of pebbles laid on the edge of the pond. See the third and fifth photos below.

This is said to represent the ebb and flow of the tides.

Another feature I didnt notice but read about later is a section of the railings along the porch overlooking the garden ahs a section with the lower railing removed.

This is so you can sit on the porch with your legs dangling over...

I hope to be able to return to Sorinji and see the garden in sunlight one day...

There is also a small "courtyard" garden between the buildings.

I visited at the end of day 24 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. The previous post was on the unpleasant part of my walk earlier that day.

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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.

if you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the most recent posts.