Photoessay #1043 - Tojiin Temple gardens

I'll conclude my posts about Tojiin Temple by featuring the garden and a few other supplements to the previous posts about the shogun statues and the Daruma painting.

Quoting from the brochure that we received after paying our 500 yen (only a small portion is in English

The temple, together with its garden was founded in 1338 by the Lord of the Takauji Asikaga under the guidance of his respected Buddhist teacher Soseki Muso (1275-1351) who was the then most reknowned landscapre gardener as well as the founder of the present Tenryuji.

and later

As a matter of fact, this is one of the very rare existing gardens in Japan laid out by the Most Reverend Soseki Muso himself

We were there on a very rainy April afternoon. Very peaceful. I couldn't really see it because of the gray day but apparently the temple's garden backs up against Ritsumeikan University which blocks the framing views of the mountains so prized by the garden's admirers. But since it was so cloudy and gray, we couldn't even see much of the university let alone the mountains. Se we didn't know. But still a huge presence.

The first shot looks at the gardens from the side. The teahouse at the back, built by the eighth shogun Yoshimasa, is considered very important and esteemed. On the left, just to the left of the building you can see, is a room with tatami mats on the floor, very quiet. Purpose is to meditate and enjoy the garden's beauty.

It was open that day and I did sit there for a time on the tatami mats staring out into the garden. Could have stayed there all day. Second shot shows the view from the quiet garden room. Serenity is the goal.

What's missing that we saw this and other days in Kyoto was hundreds and thousands of high school students dressed in their formal uniforms touring the sites.

We just could....enjoy the garden quietly.

I'm also including another shot of the Daruma picture (considered very famous) in the context of the temple itself.

Also I found a quote from a Kyoto University of Foreign Studies site commenting on the shogun statues

Each character seems to speak about the world of the Muromachi period to those visitors who are quiet.

Yes, yes, I did feel like those statues were speaking to me, instructing me but I could not truly understand.