JAPAN [six]: GARDEN PROPS & A FEW TOOLS...

Our wild cherry tree has been reclining for more than 40 years. Terry-san has suggested we devise a prop... a crutch. 

I have a good deal of difficulty believing that the tree's weight won't simply push such supports into the soil which seems unable to support it in the first place... 

Thus, I became fascinated in appreciative study of both the simplicity & rich variety of methods & techniques of props & supports for trees I observed in Japan. I am still taking improbably complex lessons.

 Visuals must, for the most part, suffice to share this study... suggesting others have danced with  these problematic notions for a long time.

While my gardening guru Doug-Oh! might call such manipulation "hortitorture".
I can easily appreciate results of such faithful effort... which can be seen generally... here in Tokyo. 

Some were nearly invisible isometric webs transferring weight inside a large system...

JAPAN [five]: THE GOLDEN TEMPLE & GARDEN...

 As first-time visitors we were following guidance of those before,  including our friend Terry, who first visited & lived in Japan during his college years... he is known for his cultivation of a large Japanese garden near Seattle for many years & now is known on our Vashon Island for his  garden & water-feature design with very sensitive rock work... quite wonderful!

He recommended the palace & temple gardens of Kyoto as essential destinations. They are, of course, well known... thus crowded!

An obvious example is the Golden Temple... too famous for its own good... not without reason. It is stunning. We joined the throng & took our turn to get our photographs...

I must explain that both Stephen & I were making photographs with our cameras & phones. We do not always know which of us took these images, so I give equal credit to him...

 This is the scene we met as we first approached the prime viewing terrace... a throng of mostly young people & students on field trips. Everyone was polite... taking turns to give all an opportunity to capture this favored shot. Of course, most followed the current custom of posing while flashing the first two fingers as a "v", like the old "victory" or "peace" sign of times past. I don't know what it means to them, but we saw it every where... even in the ubiquitous selfies.old

 Is this my shot? Or Stephen's? Or... one of the hundreds of others made within that same hour hour?

 Landscape or portrait... with the island or not... minor choices!

 My favorite emanation of golden...

 Reflected light under the eaves was definitely catching my eye...

Wondering what the morning light does to this building...

We were there at the beginning of the full autumnal color-change. 

How might the light look then?!?

Most temples have bells or gongs, rung by ropes twined of rice straw...

We observed devotees punctuating prayers by ringing the gongs before bowing acknowledgement.

Were these school girls asking for confidence toward exams... or romance?

I postulate this couple was observing ritual toward their wedding... 

Playing with ageless ritual... into which runs a multi-patterned kid...

JAPAN [four]: TEMPLE GARDENS...

In this reality the sacred is close... inviting, yet.. elusive. One feels invitation... permission to taste & sample. Heaven seems to exist first in life on this earth... reality as abstract gardens.

While I can claim no real knowledge about theology or religion in Japan, architecturally at least, they present themselves quite often at street level. Never so grandiose as European cathedrals, they seem to support everyday life in their presence... or to offer a deep sense of remove behind gated walls.

I often felt a bit intrusive as we explored... Yet each accommodates stocking-footed visitors along the verandas circumambulating the temples while coming to awareness that these garden are many centuries alive... even those made only of sere stone. A difficult concept even to this organic gardener remembering the natural temples in the Red Rocks of Sedona.

Thus the gardens, which have long been part of the meditational practice of the temple devotees, proving a literally living faith. While there is resonance between them, there does not seem to be any formula. Each presents an individual history of story & style.

This is the most famous of the raked gravel type:

We were nearly always accompanied by groups of youngsters on school outings...

I was enthralled by the wooden walkways, protected by the eaves, with deliciously comfortable flooring made with extravagantly wide polished boards. They buffered the building from the garden, while offering possibility of opening the shoji to marry interior with the exterior spaces.

Another was a study in moss...

Details I liked included interactive margins & the surprize of these red buckets, both just over the edges of the walkways. I must presume the buckets are part of fire protection...

Compositions could be severely geometric or quite amorphic. All were poetic dialogues & dramatic conversations between rocks & plants inside constucted controlled space surrounding a wooden space built as "nature" by & for humans... becoming rather an elaborately organic theatre.

I caught Stephen in a sweet reverie at sunset in this rich Zen environment...

The meditation rooms of the zendos were serene, with lively painting on the shoji.

Skillful craftsmanship in wood abounds in Japan, of course.

There is a pair of famous temples on the eastern & western sides of Kyoto, close to the bordering mountains...  one Silver & the other Golden... both having large gardens... in opposing styles. The Silver Temple never got its metallic treatment... the dark two-story building just to the right of sand cone is the temple. It's gardens are the attraction, beginning with this sand garden featuring a blunt conical shape representing Mount Fuji... seemingly as symbolic volcano.

This was the largest... & tallest! of this kind of sculptural construct in nature we saw.

The shogun who built this garden lived his retirement in the larger villa near the temple.

The severity of the geometric sand evolves as the path turns into more verdant planting while the mountain receeds into the distance.





A waterfall is another typical feature of Kyoto's gardens... as are the props used to shape the trees... I may need to make a separate post of the many images I made of such devices & other tools which caught this gardener's eyes...







 The path climbs quite high up the steep hillside to a viewpoint of the temple complex before relaxing down through green glades.

One last glyphic sand garden...

Plus a glimpse I made into a gardener's toy box...

For the record, I must explain that both Stephen & I were making photographs with our cameras & phones. We do not always know which of us took these images, so I give equal credit to him...