Tenryu-ji. Norris Brock Johnson
architecture (shinden zukuri; literally, Sleeping Hall Building) patterned after imperial palaces in T’ang Dynasty (618–907) China. Buildings were laid out and interconnected in a U-shape; to protect high-status occupants, buildings were linked by roofed corridors elevated off the ground (figs. 34, 35).
Detached palaces, though, “lacked the most elementary comforts of life. Winter was extremely cold in the basin formed by the plain of Kyōto. For all that, the emperor had nothing to warm himself but a simple brazier [and elaborate, layered clothing] … He remained nearly all day seated on a thick straw cushion covered with woven grass, sheltered alike from observations and insidious draughts by screens of wooden lattice … The only light he had [apart from natural light] came from lamps. There was little or no furniture—just a few chests. Summer time … was more bearable … It was quite cool in the palace but it was very dark inside, a place of perpetual twilight.”39 To our eyes, imperial retreats undoubtedly would appear spartan and rustic.
FIGURE 35. Covered walkways still link several buildings within the present-day Temple of the Heavenly Dragon. The walkways preserve the influence of Heian-period (794–1185) shinden zukuri architecture on the design of the temple.
Tachibana Tomoshige and Go-Saga designed and oversaw construction of the landscape aspect of the villa. Emperor Go-Saga possessed a keen aesthetic sensibility, and quite elegant tastes. The villa was constructed near the Ōi River. The river was to the south, with mountains in the background—“a place of great scenic beauty … which gave the appearance of a mountain village.”40 Remnants of Prince Kaneakira’s cottage were to the east of the villa.
As will be the case later with the layout of Tenryū-ji, here Tachibana and Go-Saga incorporated aspects of previous habitats into the design of the compound. Rather than the spiritual sensibilities of Tachibana no Kachiko and Prince Kaneakira, though, the human-constructed landscape of the imperial villa at Turtle Mountain privileged Go-Saga’s aesthetic sensitivity to nature.
Eternity, and a Palace Pond
There was an extensive pond garden within Go-Saga’s imperial villa at Turtle Mountain. Despite the careful selection of the site, water shortages at the time were endemic within the basin where Kyōto was located (opposite, interestingly, of the flooding in Nara). One account from this period reveals “a terrible drought dried up the earth … where the young green shoots were wont to grow. The fields overflowed with the bodies of those who starved.”41 Possession of a well-maintained pond of water must have been a welcome, yet privileged, experience.
Construction of Go-Saga’s pond garden required solving several problems, as the emperor’s detached palace was sited on ground somewhat higher than the nearby Ōi River. A waterwheel initially was fashioned to bring water from the river into the villa. Lower-caste people forced to live along the banks of nearby rivers were conscripted to construct the waterwheel but, not being specialists, the waterwheel was not well engineered and did not function properly. Subsequently, craftsmen from the village of Uji, south of Kyōto, were conscripted to rebuild the waterwheel, which then functioned properly. The bed for the garden pond was excavated then lined with clay, to better retain water in the pond (remnants of the clay at the bottom of the pond in the emperor’s detached palace are held to still be present at the bottom of the pond within the present-day Temple of the Heavenly Dragon).42
Go-Saga’s pond garden “did not adjourn the house, rather did the house form an integral part of the garden … the dwelling place begins in the garden.”43 Buildings and the pond garden aspect of the detached palace were interrelated architecturally, yet the garden was the privileged aspect of the compound.
Two smaller buildings flanked a larger central building, and long corridors were placed at right angles at each end of the flanking buildings. Pavilions were built at the ends of the corridors, extending out and over the water of the pond, such that one could walk the corridor and remain sheltered yet still be surrounded by water (fig. 34).
The manner in which Go-Saga’s detached palace interrelated buildings, nature, and the human-created landscape was quite subtle. A small branching stream (yarimizu), fed by higher mountain water, was channeled under the corridors and floors of buildings then into the garden pond and “care was given to such details as the foaming and gurgling of the water as it dashed against the stones … lining the small stream.”44 Wooden planks served as the floor. People could remove the planks, perhaps merely to experience the murmuring of water streaming underneath the buildings.
In 1276, a visitor experiencing the pond garden wrote of experiencing “eternity, and the pine trees on Tortoise Hill [Kameyama] reflected in the clear waters of the palace pond.”45 At night, boating parties often were held on the pond in the garden. The Mirror of Increase (Masukagami) says “at that time, they floated a boat on the pond and performed Bugaku [a courtly dance, and associated music], and so on.”46 When retired Emperor Go-Fukakusa (1243–1304) visited the villa on May 10, 1261, “a temporary pavilion was erected on the islet. The emperors sat under the pavilion, enjoying a feeling of being in the pond and on land at the same time.”47 Musicians performed and people danced. Music wafted in the air, as flowers were strewn on the pond.
Go-Saga was an accomplished poet. Boating parties were settings for “Battle of the Seasons” contests in which guests composed poems extolling the felt qualities of each season. People “called to imperial poetry contests on moonlit nights and snowy mornings” boated on the nearby Ōi River while composing poems by torchlight, an indication that the river at this time was a vital aspect of the villa’s garden landscape.48
The Fragrant Spirit of Trees
Go-Saga further defined a fairly permanent aspect of the landscape in the area through the planting of myriad cherry trees around the imperial villa beneath Turtle Mountain. Cherry trees were transplanted from the legendary Yoshino region south of Kyōto. The mountain area of Yoshino (Fields of Good Fortune) was known as Fragrant Mountain and Beloved Fields. Yoshino remains a venerated, sacred mountain area.
Cherry trees are wonderfully fragrant, and visually arresting. In bloom, the cherry trees of Yoshino sprout fragrant blossoms primarily in subtle shades of pink. Shortly after vibrantly bursting forth in the spring, blossoms fade to white then drop, swirling, to blanket the ground. People still graft feelings of transience and impermanence (無常, mujō) onto the fleeting life of blossoms falling from cherry trees, and “the sad fleeting quality of the moment [物の哀れ, mono no aware] is savored just as fully as the moment itself.”49 It is said that veneration of blooming cherry blossoms “derives from the idea of the bud where the divine spirit is closeted until the tip bursts and blossoms.”50 Divine Spirit. Kami.
The Mirror of Increase tells us “in this spring the Emperor came to this Detached Palace [the villa] and enjoyed seeing cherry blossoms.”51 One can only imagine the sight and fragrance of myriad cherry trees in bloom on the slopes of the mountains of Sagano. It was said that the cherry trees transplanted from Yoshino added to the “fragrance of the spirit” of the emperor’s villa.52 After Go-Saga’s retirement as emperor in 1246, Go-Uda (1267–1324) ordered the additional planting of several thousand cherry trees from Yoshino onto the slopes of the nearby Mountain of Storms.
Emperors Go-Saga and Go-Uda ordered the transplanting of trees for purposes aesthetic and ornamental, as there is no evidence that the cherry trees were cultivated for their fruit. Alteration of the land surrounding the imperial villa emphasized aesthetics and the sensory, affective pleasure attendant upon a primarily visual experience of the landscape.
We have noted the increasing energy invested in the location and construction of buildings, as well as physical alterations of the land west of the City of Purple Hills and Crystal Streams, in the fashioning of an affecting human-created landscape. Three people of influence initially defined the character of the land and landscape west of Kyōto within which the Temple of the Heavenly Dragon will emerge. Tachibana no Kachiko ordered construction