Overview of Zen Gardens

The Japanese Zen gardens or Karesansui are somemust have predated this period by quite some time
of the most beautiful and exotic gardens. The storyas the earliest recorded gardens were already highly
of Zen Gardens goes back into the misty beginningsdeveloped. In the early 700's, Zen Buddhism began to
of Japanese culture.spread over Japan and the early Zen monks found
The Zen garden is also known as a Japanese rockthe rock and sand gardens to be a perfect fit for
garden or a Karesansui. These gardens are verythe ideas of simplicity and harmony that marked their
simple and in most cases have very few actualview of the universe.
plants. In many Zen gardens, there are no growingThe development of the Karesansui gardens
things at all. The gardens consist mainly of rock andcontinued until the 13th century when they reached
sand. The word Karesansui translates as "dry waterthe form that they have kept into modern time. The
and mountain." The illusion of water is created bygardens could be very small. Some simple Zen
raking the sand into a rippling pattern that suggestsgardens were made to be held in the hand, while
the movement of water while the rocks areothers were quite extensive. Many people saw the
arranged to make islands or mountains. The historypatterns of sand and rock as representing the sea
of Zen gardens goes back to as early as the 6thand the islands of Japan. Others saw deeper patterns
century in Japan.that invoked deep subconscious images that
One of the most famous of the Japanese gardensproduced the tranquility that was being sought.
contains 15 rocks arranged in a pattern on the ripplingIn 1935, an American author named Loraine Kuck
sand. Although most rock gardens are intended to becoined the term Zen Garden in her book, "100
viewed from one specific location and perspective,Gardens of Kyoto." The term became popular and
this garden can be viewed from any angle.eventually even made its way into the Japanese
Regardless of the angle, only 14 of the 15 rocks canlanguage. It is often used to represent several
ever be seen at once. It is said that when spiritualdifferent styles of Japanese rock and sand gardens.
enlightenment is reached, the invisible 15th rock wouldThe common feature, however, remains the
then be seen. This is an example of the Zen influencesimplicity and understatement that characterized the
on these gardens.gardens of the early Zen monks.
There are records of rock and sand gardens datingAazdak Alisimo writes about gardening subjects for
back to the reign of the Empress Suiko in 592 AD.GardenSupplyShops.com, where you can find garden
Some evidence indicates that the art of rock gardenssupply shops near you.