TofukuJi's Hojo GardenOn our trip to the Tofukuji Temple yesterday we have visited the Kyoto Gozan, one of the five greatest Zen temples of Kyoto. The misty weather seemed to greatly enhance the effects and the serenity of the stone garden, saturating the surrounding landscape and colors alike and setting up a perfect meditative atmosphere. The entire complex is symbolic in its arrangements of rocks, moss mound, shrubs, raked gravels, and etc.
The Northern Garden is my favorite part of the complex, with shrubs trimmed to precise chequered patterns. The practice apparently imitates "Seiden," a popular way of land division practiced in parts of China. Tofukuji's rock garden is very different from Ryoan-ji's rock garden, including the shape and scale of the stones in the arrangement, the presence of the bridge over the gravel symbolizing water and the moss garden behind the main building on the north side. The East side is a continuation of the main garden semi-divided by the bridging, and the West side showcases trimmed shrubs.
The most striking similarity between Tofukuji's rock garden and the Ryoan-ji's rock garden is revealed in simplified sectional view of both of the buildings. The leveling of the floor and the roof shows the customary construction example.
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