![]() Do we actually understand them? I cannot read the language, so I cannot claim to understand Zen fully. In Kyoto, abbots and Buddhist monks laid out temple gardens which had the most esoteric and refined references. The Sermon on the Mount was not exactly in favour of pensions, let alone “structured products”. This disjunction is what I call “Brompton Oratory syndrome” after the gap, in this London church, between the ardent Christian charity of many of the keen congregation and the techniques they have to use to succeed in their competitive financial lives. It bore no relation to the warriors’ own way of making a living. Warlords became benefactors to Buddhist temples whose gardens then became related to Zen theory. Zen began in China, but influenced Japanese temple gardens mostly from the 1160s onwards. It is he who dared to change the topping of the boundary wall at Ryoan-ji from clay tiles to roof shingles. He restored many of them, carefully studying features which visitors still consider “historic”. He catalogued almost 500 historic gardens until he died aged 75. Shigemori belongs in every serious history of garden design, where he is often omitted in favour of people like Marion Cran. The most remarkable two are Shigemori Mirei, active from 1932 to 1971, and Nakane Kinsaku, active since the mid-1950s. The reinventors of Japanese gardens are remarkable designers in their own right. I just like to know who has reinvented what and when. Transience is an essential aspect of gardens and I do not object at all. Much of what we see has been “restored” in the past 100 years. Kyoto is not the one place in the world where 16th-century gardens have somehow survived in pristine condition. She helps outsiders to understand what may be going on and she is admirably clear about the many subsequent alterations in gardens which the crowds go off to see. Her book is beautifully illustrated, to a level which my memories of the gardens are not. ![]() She is described as a “passionate gardener” who has lived in Britain since 1989, but her education has spanned the US, Canada and Japan. One reason for returning is an excellent new book by Yoko Kawaguchi called Japanese Zen Gardens. I left, vowing not to come back, but as the years pass, I am increasingly wanting another look. The meaning of the garden is said to be connected with Zen philosophy, but in 1972 Zen seemed more accessible in California where it was said to help with motorcycles. Over the wall, a weeping cherry tree came into fine pink flower, as it will do again this month. I found it hard to think that this wear and tear was part of the garden’s original “meaning”. Even in 1972, the boundary fence of clay mixed with rapeseed oil and brine was flaking opposite my sightline and splintering from old age. On beautifully raked white gravel, 15 stones are arranged in five groups, set on moss, with nothing whatever between them. The garden was the “dry landscape” of the Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. On a late May afternoon, more than 40 years ago, I sat and looked at one of the world’s most famous gardens and failed to empty my mind of any thought except, “Is this a con trick?”. Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest - delivered directly to your inbox.
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