Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto

 

April 29, 2015

In Japan, there are many random days that we have as holiday, the 29th of April being one of them. I am not exactly sure on what the holiday was but I was just happy I didn't have to go to work. On this day, I was blessed with plans with my friends Kiyoko and Mayumi. Every time I spend time with them, they always teach me something new about Japanese culture I didn't know before. This particular day, Kiyoko made a plan to visit Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto.

When the three of us first met at Kyoto station, we decided to have lunch first before the window time for lunch had passed. So we enjoyed a lovely lunch of Korean food near the station. It was nice to catch up with them both also to share small gifts I got from Spring travels to Vietnam and Hokkaido.

After lunch, we took the bus to Ryoanji. When Kiyoko suggested we go there, I didn't really know what to expect. When we arrived, I learned that this temple was famous for its rock garden. But before enjoying the rock garden, we walked around Kyoyochi Pond that was within the temple grounds. When looking at a map of the temple grounds, I saw that it was decently large. To give you some background on the temple it was originally a country house of the Tokudaiji Clan and was acquired in 1450 by Hosokawa Katsumoto to be used as a Zen training temple. The surrounding garden and pond has lots of different flowers. A flower I really have grown to love being in Japan is the Wisteria plant. It is purple and smells fantastic!

Eventually, we made our way to the Rock Garden. The garden measures only 25 meters by 10 meters. The Zen garden is completely different from any garden at that time because it only consisted of 15 rocks and white gravel. An interesting thing about this garden is that you can only see 14 rocks at one time, no matter where you stood along the garden (unless you're a bird in the sky). We sat there and meditated on the garden for some time. Being that it was a holiday, it was rather crowded with other people too.

Being that this was a Zen temple, there were other concepts about the place that were also very "Zen like." One of those was the "tsukubai." Kiyoko and Mayumi were telling me alot about the kanji and meaning of this unique water basin inscription. The inscription says "I learn only to be contented" carrying a meaning that translated into, "He who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who does not learn to be contented is spiritually poor even if he is materially wealthy." Mayumi said the meaning was really near to her heart. When thinking about its meaning and relation to life, I could see how one would hold its importance very near.

It was really nice to spend the afternoon with Kiyoko and Mayumi talking about life things, Japanese things, and future things. As always, I appreciate these two ladies and their time and feel happy to have them in my current life.

Thanks ladies! I had a great time!!



xx
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