KOMYO-IN TEMPLE – gardens and rocks

We have two more temples to see today – there may be three parts to today’s post – I will see how I go with the amount of photos – –

After the amazing time at Tofuku-ji earlier, my mind is still blown away by such a bombardment of colour.  It is now time for some quiet time to gather our senses.

It is only a short walk to our next adventure – Komyo-in Temple which was established in 1391 as a sub-temple of the Tofuku-ji temple.

Mirei Shigemori, a renowned gardener in the Showa era (1926-1989) created the traditional Chinese dry landscape garden here, named Hashin-no-Niwa. I a told that I should enjoy a slow and leisurely stay here to experience the quiet atmosphere.

This is the first thing we see as we enter – of course it’s another ‘shoes off’ temple – just as well I wash my socks every night.

How beautiful and uncluttered this is – and yes – we do have Mr ‘I want to be First’ barging his way in – but we are all awake up to his antics.

We proceed past the little screen and into the garden beyond –

The garden is a dry landscape garden of stones arranged atop a bed of white sand and moss. The primary feature of the garden is that there are 3 sets of rocks arranged in circles, and the arrangement of the stones makes them appear to emit light.

On the higher ground there is a teahouse called “Ragetsu” (“Mossy Moon”) that overlooks the garden. The tearoom design is based on the image of a rising moon, and so there is a large circle drawn on the wall of the room.

This is the only circle that I could see – it’s really not drawn it’s more of an opening.

As this is only a ‘small’ temple and garden it is not long before I am back at the beginning so I put my shoes on and head outside to have a look around.

Even the entry at the first gate and the walkway to the temple is relaxing.  There is a small seating area so of course I take some more photos while waiting for everyone else.  Komyo-in certainly lived up to it’s promise – what a calming treasure.

There is no one about so I manage to get some tourist-free photos before we leave.

Every temple so far has had the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows but this is the first time I have seen this colour maple – so just had to take a photo of course.

It is now time for us to head to Enkoji Temple – another temple that has it’s own WOW factor – stay tuned for – yep – Part 3