Meditative space
Introduction
The Japanese dry garden, or karesansui, also known as zen garden, is a style of Japanese garden consisting of a shallow sand field containing sand, gravel, rocks and occasionally grass, moss, grass and other natural elements, simulating water and mountains. They are used as a form of meditation by Japanese Zen monks.[1] It is included within the typology of the "flat garden" (hiraniwa), as opposed to the "garden of hills and lakes" (tsukiyama).[2][3].
They are scene-gardens, and therefore of limited dimensions (at most 10x30 meters). The raked sand represents the sea, around the rocks it is raked in rings, as if they formed ripples in the water. In the rest of the garden, it is raked parallel to the platform. These gardens are created for contemplation, generally from a terrace or upper platform, but not for walking through them.[4].
History of karesansui
During the Kamakura Period in the 13th century, Japanese gardeners enthusiastically adopted the latest Chinese trends. At this time, Chinese painting favored the monochrome Suiboku-ga ink style, with its emphasis on controlled expression. In imitation of this pictorial style, characteristic rocks were placed, especially in groups, symbolizing the mountains rising above spaces of white sand, which in turn symbolized the ocean. This style is called Karesansui (arid landscape), and became an ideal during the Muromachi Period (19th century). The Karesansui style was fundamentally adopted by Zen temples, which have the influence of Buddhism and are where the monks met to meditate. The basic ideals were:
• - Yugen: elegant simplicity and the expression of ideas through allusion.
• - Yohaku no bi: the beauty of emptiness—just as silences are valued in music. It is related to Taoism, according to which emptiness is the essential part of things—a glass is not the glass, but the emptiness inside.
In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1574-1599) some variations were introduced:
• - Rock carving: carved stones are allowed to be introduced into dry gardens (previously only natural stones).
• - O-karikomi: practice that consists of cutting out trees and plants giving them shapes. Themes such as The Treasure Ship or are cut into hedges.