Yesterday, spent the day with a guide exploring the eastern side of Kyoto, which is bordered by hills.
I’m staying in a machiya, which is a traditional Japanese house, in the Gion district...this is near the Geisha district. No. I am not thinking of coming out of retirement & looking for a night job.
We walked from the machiya, across a canal, to the geisha area. You can tell if a house is a boarding house for geisha (older, more experienced performers) or maiko (meeko, younger), if there are many name plates above the door.
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| Left: Kyoto canal Right: Name blocks above the door |
Like Cher, they only have their first names written on the blocks.
From there, we got on a bus to take us northern most temple...the “silver” temple, its gardens & the beginning of the philosopher’s walk. Beyond this...don’t expect me to remember the names of the rest of the temples we visited!
But...it was neat to finally see dry gardens, zen gardens, as well as borrowed landscape gardens & stroll gardens.
A dry garden is just that...sand & gravel (represent water, if flat with raked patterns), rocks, which can represent mountains or the 7 bits of buddhism (you apparently aim for enlightenment, not heaven) - no flowers, to distract you.
Borrowed landscape gardens are meant to be looked at (and not strolled around as the name implies), is a planned garden which “borrows” neighbouring features. Such as using a hillside forest as a back drop.
From there, we got on a bus to take us northern most temple...the “silver” temple, its gardens & the beginning of the philosopher’s walk. Beyond this...don’t expect me to remember the names of the rest of the temples we visited!
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| Silver temple |
But...it was neat to finally see dry gardens, zen gardens, as well as borrowed landscape gardens & stroll gardens.
A dry garden is just that...sand & gravel (represent water, if flat with raked patterns), rocks, which can represent mountains or the 7 bits of buddhism (you apparently aim for enlightenment, not heaven) - no flowers, to distract you.
Borrowed landscape gardens are meant to be looked at (and not strolled around as the name implies), is a planned garden which “borrows” neighbouring features. Such as using a hillside forest as a back drop.
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| Top left: Strolling garden;Top right: borrowed garden Bottom: Zen garden |
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