is the oldest sub-temple () of the Myōshin-ji

Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by My ...

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temple, situated in the northwest of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ...

, Japan. It was founded by Zen priest Muinsoin in 1404. The original temple buildings were burned during the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. '' Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bu ...

(1467-1477), and were later rebuilt. Taizō-in is well known for its two gardens. The main garden, Motonobu-no-niwa, is a traditional Japanese dry landscape garden (''karesansui''), containing several angular rocks suggesting the cliffs of the island of Hōrai, with smaller stones suggesting a stream. The planting is mostly

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

, including

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controvers ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

, and

Japanese umbrella pine ''Sciadopitys verticillata'', the or Japanese umbrella-pine, is a unique conifer endemic to Japan. It is the sole living member of the family Sciadopityaceae and genus '' Sciadopitys'', a living fossil with no close relatives. The oldest foss ...

. It covers 50

tsubo A ''pyeong'' (abbreviationpy) is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square '' kan'' or 36square Korean feet. The ''ping'' and ''tsubo'' are its equivalent Taiwanese and Japanese units, similarly based on a square '' bu'' ( ja: ...

(170 m²) and was designed to integrate a borrowing of scenery ("shakkei") of a view of Narabigaoka Hill in the distance. It is thought to be the final work of

Muromachi The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

painter Kanō Motonobu (狩野元信), reproducing one of his paintings in three dimensions. A new pond garden, or yoko-en, was designed by

Kinsaku Nakane Kinsaku Nakane (1917 – 1 March 1995) was a landscape garden designer, builder, restorer, and professor. He was the president of the Nakane Garden Research Institute and president of the Osaka University of Fine Arts. Nakane studied city planni ...

in 1963–1966. The new garden is large enough for visitors to walk in, and contains

azalea Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections '' Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Oct ...

s and a stream that cascades along the main axis, directly toward the main viewing position. The stream flows around rocks, gradually widening until it empties into a pool in front of the viewer. Taizō-in holds one of Japan's oldest ink paintings, , c.1413, by , which is a National Treasure of Japan. It is identified as a turning point in

painting, and represents a Zen

koan A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-J ...

. File:MyoshinjiTaizoin1.jpg File:MyoshinjiTaizoin2.jpg File:MyoshinjiTaizoin3.jpg File:Taizou-in.JPG File:Taizou-in 2.JPG File:Taizou-in 3.JPG

References

Secret teachings in the art of Japanese gardens
David A. Slawson, p. 100
A guide to the gardens of Kyoto
Marc Treib and Ron Herman, p. 86

External links

Taizō-in
Official website

1404 establishments in Asia Rinzai temples 1400s establishments in Japan {{zen-stub