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.

Choshoji Temple 33 Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

Choshoji, temple number 33 of the 88 temple pilgrimage on Shodoshima is located on a hillside at the southern edge of Ikeda Town.

Built on several terraces with great, stone, retaining walls it is quite impressive and seems to not be suffering financially.

It is a Shingon temple of the Omuro School.

It was founded in 1676, although some sources say it was relocated to this spot at that time.

The honzon is a Dainichi Nyorai and is flanked by a Fudo Myoo and an Aizen Myoo.

The main hall, built by temple builders from Kyoto, and the Shoin and Kuri were all built in 1996.

The previous main hall was built in the early 19th century and is now used as the Daishi Hall.

As all the buildings on this upper level were built in 1996 I am guessing that was when the karensansui landscaping was also done.

So far on this pilgrimage I have not noticed much in the way of gardens, so this was very pleasant.

The temple has a set of hachiman statues that are registered as Important Cultural Properties. They were shintai at the neighboring Hachiman Shrine but were removed with the shinbutsu bunri edict of early Meiji

The previous post was on the Ikeda Saijiki which is just below the temple.

Seikantei Garden Kinosaki

 

Gokurakuji Temple is hidden away in a corner of Kinosaki Onsen and is barely visited by the majority of visitors to the resort town, who will miss a quite remarkable garden.

Called Seikan Tei, it is a karesansui, "dry garden" most often associated with Zen, and Gokurakuji is a Rinzai Zen temple.

It is somewhat unusual in that the garden is in front of the main hall and the entrance pathway cuts right through it. many of the traditional gardens were built to be viewed from the rear of the main hall or from the Abbot's residence.

The most unusual thing, to my mind, was that one half of the garden used areas of white gravel and dark gravel, something I don't remember noticing before.

The light and dark areas are separated by a border made of roof tiles set vertically, something that is quite common.

Actually the light areas inside the dark ground form the Chinese character for kokoro, "heart". This is sometimes the shape of ponds.

The rock and moss "islands" in the sea of gravel  also use standard design representations, there being a Crame Island, a Turtle Island, a Three Buddhas Island.....

The garden uses a red rock brought from Kurama, a blue rock from Yoshino, and Shirakawa sand from Kyoto.

 I have been unable to establish when the garden was built. Most sources suggest it is fairly modern and a photo of it dates to 1976.

One source suggests it was designed by a disciple of Mirei Shigemori.

Entry is free, so if you are in the area it would be well worth a visit.

Later I will post on the temple and its history and the nice rock garden in front of it.

The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the lower part of nearby Onsenji Temple.

Gardens at Gokuraku-ji Temple

Karesansui style Zen garden at Gokurakuji Temple in Kinosaki Onsen

Gokurakuji Temple, in a back street of the popular hot spring resort of Kinosaki Onsen, has some nice, small gardens, one of which is quite unusual.

Panoramic view of the gardens at Gokurakuji Temple in Kinosaki

Outside the temple gate is a small hillside garden with miniature waterfalls and a lot of statuary, but inside the gate the whole courtyard is given over to 2 karesansui dry gardens.

Unusual 2 color raked gravel in the garden at Gokurakuji Temple

One of the gardens has raked gravel of two different colors, white, and grey, with theb two being separated by rooftiles set vertically. I can't remember ever having seen the two colors before like this, though using rooftiles to separate sections is fairly common in many types of garden.

Paths extend between the two gardens so they can be viewed from many different angles. The temple also offers zazen classes followed by green tea while viewing the gardens from inside the temple.

801 Kinosakicho Yushhima, Toyooka-shi, Hyogo 669-6101

Tel: 0796 32 2326