Born in Kyoto, Yuri Ugaya studied Japanese Cultural History at Doshisha University before obtaining a master’s degree from Awaji Landscape Planning and Horticulture Academy in Hyogo. She also studied horticulture and landscape design at the School of Niagara Horticulture in Canada and did an internship at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in the United Kingdom. Years of research and interviews with garden designers and owners across Japan have resulted in her publishing eight books on the subject. She designs gardens in Japan and abroad. Amongst them is the recent renovation of the garden at Houon-in temple, Kyoto, and a dried rock garden at New York City’s Grand Central Station in 2017.
The video was shot at Komyo-in in South-East Kyoto, a subtemple of Tofuku-ji, one of the most important Zen temples in the city. Komyo-in was founded in 1391 and rebuilt in 1911. Mirei Shigemori was asked to design its garden in 1939.
A deeply cultured man, Shigemori (1896-1975) was a multi-faceted designer with an interest in painting and in ikebana. He wrote a 26-volume history of the Japanese garden after having surveyed all the significant gardens in the country. He designed more than 200 gardens himself and his most famous creation is in the Tofuku-ji. Komyo-in is significant in being the first major garden he designed. Here he created a dry rock garden, or karesansui, his preferred kind of garden, which consists of rock and gravel compositions.
As Yuri-san explains, the garden is named Hashintei, after a Zen saying [‘雲ハ嶺上ニ生ズルコトナク、月ハ波心ニ落ツルコト有リ’; kumo wa reijo ni shozurukoto naku tsuki wa hashin ni otsurukoto ari]. The name of the temple, Komyo-in, means ‘Bright Light’. Shigemori also designed the tea house above the garden. It represents a full moon rising from the clouds and is called Ragetsu-an. The meaning of Ragetsu can be read as ‘the moon illuminating the ivy’. The full moon, a perfect circular shape, is a symbol of enlightenment in Buddhism.
The hanging scroll shown towards the end of the video is the work of Shigemori, his calligraphy evoking the Zen saying mentioned above.
Yuri-san tells us that a deep knowledge of different aspects of traditional Japanese culture is required. She mentions Zen, the tea ceremony, painting and waka, a traditional form of poetry that developed in aristocratic circles from the Heian period (794-1185) and became a very significant source of inspiration in art and design. Zen, which literally means ‘meditation’, is a Buddhist sect that stresses self-discipline through the practice of meditation. It was introduced in Japan in the 13th century and became a powerful stimulus to the arts. In Zen temples the garden would become an object of meditation; it cannot be entered but instead is viewed from a veranda.
In visiting the garden with Yuri-san, I found emotion, science, art and philosophy intertwined. Of modest size, Komyo-in is often blissfully quiet compared to other, more famous Kyoto gardens. Its head priest has a deep understanding of art and welcomes a few art events during the year.
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Supported by the Toshiba International Foundation