Zen Garden Design. Shunmyo Masuno
of tall trees produce a scene of layered space which seems to extend far beyond the actual boundaries of the garden.
From this narrow area, the triangular garden expands toward the south, where it is visible from the kitchen and dining nook. From this point, it becomes clear that the white wall seen from the meditation room is one of a series of white walls that create a sense of depth through the layering of space while also mediating the noise from the adjacent road. The walls intersperse with lush greenery: trees, bushes, and low plants. A variety of sizes and shapes of leaves provide movement and color to the mountain scene. Rounded rocks serve as stepping stones through the mossy floor and lead toward a chōzubachi, a carved stone basin used for purification by washing hands and rinsing the mouth. Masuno brought the square basin from Kyoto, where it was carved by the father and son team of Nishimura Kinzō and Daizō. Each side of the square features an image of the Buddha, and the corners are carved in the form of owls, which represent happiness. The chōzubachi sits among a number of large rocks, one of which is topped by another low tōrō lantern.
Set into a lush moss-covered mound, softly rounded stepping stones in hues of orange and gray contrast with the green carpet-like moss and lead to a chōzubachi stone basin carved with an image of the Buddha on the front and owls in each of the corners.
With a background of bamboo culms in front of a clean white wall, a square stone tōrō lantern sits low to the ground, bringing the focal point down to where the edge of the pea gravel “ocean” meets the mossy bank.
The basin and lanterns provide a connection to humankind through the obvious hand-carved shapes and images, as well as with their contrast to the naturalistic scenery of the mountain garden. Along with water and mountains, white walls and green plants, this combination of hand-formed and naturalistic elements adds another layer of meaning and visual interest to this carefully constructed garden of pairs.
A side window from the dining room opens to a view of a hidden area of the garden. Although the neighboring house is close by, the simple elements—bamboo growing up through the gravel and a single stone sculpture set against a white wall—give a sense of serenity and quiet privacy.
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
SYMBOLISM 寓意 gūi
Historically, Japanese Zen gardens incorporated various elements representing important Buddhist symbols or concepts. For example, rocks may be composed to symbolize a crane or a tortoise, denoting longevity and health. Based on a Zen Buddhist expression referring to Zen training on the path to enlightenment, Shunmyo Masuno often creates waterfalls as ryūmonbaku (literally “dragon’s gate waterfall”), an arrangement of rocks representing a carp attempting to ascend the waterfall and pass through the “dragon’s gate” to reach enlightenment.
澄心庭
CHŌSHINTEI
Private Residence Kamakura, Japan, 2016
A simple bamboo fence indicates a shift from the publicly visible part of the garden near the entrance gate to the more private garden areas adjacent to the residence.
Visitors to the art gallery enter through the main gate with the white garden wall ending at the gallery building on the right. They are greeted with close views of the garden on both sides and a short stepping stone path leading to the gallery door.
Filling the space on the south side of the house, between the house and the gallery building, and wrapping around the house on the west, the garden provides changing views and experiences both from within the buildings and from outside.
A FORMER CAPITAL OF JAPAN, Kamakura is a city rich with history and culture, including as a place where Zen Buddhism first took hold in Japan. Shunmyo Masuno designed the Chōshintei garden in Kamakura for a client who practices Zen Buddhism and wanted to renovate an existing garden, in part to use for meditation. The previous owner of the house and grounds was an artist, and the current owner manages a gallery of the artist’s paintings in a separate building on the site. Masuno wanted the garden to act as a connector between the two buildings, while providing many different views and ways to enjoy the nature of the garden. He also aimed to reuse as many of the existing trees and rocks as possible.
Starting with the Zen expression sankō waga kokoro o sumashimu (山光澄我心), which refers to a clarity of spirit that comes when looking at majestic mountain scenery, Masuno named both buildings as well as the garden. The main house is Sankōken, literally “mountain light eaves,” taken from the first part of the expression. Gasshin-an, or “self-spirit retreat,” is the name of the gallery building and is derived from waga kokoro. The garden, Chōshintei, means “clear spirit garden,” and Masuno’s goal was to design a place where the owner could have a dialogue with the garden and feel that clarity of spirit.
For a visitor to the gallery, the experience of the garden is very different than it is for the client or a visitor to the house. From the street, a few steps constructed of rocks in a random pattern lead up to the entrance gate, which is shifted slightly off axis from the front door of the house. A single large rock, like a bridge through a river of white shirakawa suna pea gravel, spans from the entrance gate to the stone platform just outside the front door of the house. On each side of the bridge-like rock, stepping stones move through the gravel river. To the left, they move past an area with rocks holding back a knoll with pygmy bamboo and a tōrō stone lantern flanked by a black pine and an aburachan, or abrachan tree. The weathered tōrō, existing from the original garden, composed of five stones carefully balanced one atop the other, suggests a sense of endurance yet with a certain fragility.
Interrupting the stepping stone path within the flowing stream of gravel, a large flat rock bridges the main entrance on the left and the stone platform just outside the house entry on the right.
The stepping stones continue past the tōrō toward a wooden gate to a private wood-decked side garden. A mokkoku, or Japanese ternstroemia tree, grows up through the deck, and bamboo in a raised planter lines the outside wall of the side garden. At the far end of the wood deck, the stepping stones resume and lead through an area of gravel flanked by greenery and a wood fence with a door to the rear of the property.
Just outside the entrance to the gallery building, a stone chōzubachi basin is the primary element of a richly detailed composition of plants and rocks, and welcomes visitors as a place to pause and cleanse their hands and mouths before entering the gallery.
Back near the main entry, on the opposite side of the bridge-like rock, the stepping stones lead directly to the entrance of the gallery building. Just off to the right, a few additional stepping stones move toward a chōzubachi basin in a corner garden. Part of a composition of landscape rocks amidst plants and trees, the chōzubachi provides a place to stop and rinse the hands and mouth, an act of purification before entering the gallery.
A low window in one