Japanese rock garden

The Japanese rock garden (枯山水, karesansui) or "dry landscape" garden, often called a zen garden, creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water. A zen garden is usually relatively small, surrounded by a wall, and is usually meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint outside the garden, such as the porch of the hojo, the residence of the chief monk of the temple or monastery. Classical zen gardens were created at temples of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan during the Muromachi Period. They were intended to imitate the intimate essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid to meditation about the true meaning of life.

History

Early Japanese rock gardens

Music of Japan

The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles both traditional and modern. The word for music in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 "on" (sound) with the kanji 楽 "gaku" (enjoy).Japan is the largest physical music market in the world, with US$2 billion in 2014 and the second largest overall music market, with a total retail value of 2.6 billion dollars in 2014 – dominated by Japanese artists, with 37 of the top 50 best selling albums and 49 of the top 50 best selling singles in 2014.

Local music often appears at karaoke venues, which is on lease from the record labels. Traditional Japanese music is quite different from Western music as it is often based on the intervals of human breathing rather than mathematical timing.

Traditional and folk music

There are two forms of music recognized to be the oldest forms of traditional Japanese music. They are shōmyō (声明 or 聲明), or Buddhist chanting, and gagaku (雅楽) or orchestral court music, both of which date to the Nara and Heian periods.Gagaku is a type of classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court since the Heian period. Kagura-uta (神楽歌), Azuma-asobi(東遊) and Yamato-uta (大和歌) are indigenous repertories. Tōgaku (唐楽) and komagaku originated from the Chinese Tang dynasty via the Korean peninsula. In addition, gagaku is divided into kangen (管弦) (instrumental music) and bugaku (舞楽) (dance accompanied by gagaku).

Rock garden

A rock garden, also known as a rockery or an alpine garden, is a type of small field or plot of ground designed to feature and emphasize extensive use of rocks or stones and occasionally boulders, along with a few plants native to rocky or alpine environments.

Plants commonly found in rock gardens are small as they typically do not grow larger than 6 meters in height. So as to not cover up the rocks, they may be grown in containers, or in the ground. The kinds of plants usually are types which prefer well-drained soil and less water.

The usual form of a rock garden is a pile of rocks, large and small, aesthetically arranged, and with small gaps between, where the plants will be rooted. Some rock gardens incorporate bonsai.

Some rock gardens are designed and built to look like natural outcrops of bedrock. Stones are aligned to suggest a bedding plane and plants are often used to conceal the joints between the stones. This type of rockery was popular in Victorian times, often designed and built by professional landscape architects. The same approach is sometimes used in modern campus or commercial landscaping, but can also be applied in smaller private gardens.

Japanese Zen

Zen is the Japanese variant of Chán, a school of Mahayana Buddhism which strongly emphasizes dhyana c.q. concentration-meditation. This gives insight into ones true nature, or the emptiness of inherent existence, which opens the way to a liberated way of living.

History

Chinese origins

According to tradition, Zen originated in India, when the Buddha held up a flower and Kasyappa smiled. With this smile he showed that he had understood the wordless essence of the dharma. This way the dharma was transmitted to Kasyappa, the second patriarch of Zen.

Buddhism was introduced to China in the first century CE. According to tradition Chán was introduced around 500 CE by Bodhidharma, an Indian monk teaching dhyana. He was the 28th Indian patriarch of Zen, and the first Chinese patriarch.

Kamakura (1185-1333)

Buddhism was introduced in Japan in the 8th century CE during the Nara period (710-794) and the Heian period (794–1185). Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until the 12th century during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when Nōnin established the Daruma-school. In 1189 Nōnin sent two students to China, to meet with Cho-an Te-kuang (1121–1203), and ask for the recognition of Nōnin as a Zen-master. This recognition was granted.

Japanese

Japanese may refer to:

See also