The garden was built by Kogaku, a monk who founded Daisen-in. Surrounding the main temple in all four directions, the garden is divided by a roofed bridge, etc. to create space for a mountain, a river and the ocean. It is a masterpiece Karesansui (dry landscape) garden that recreates a mountain-and-water landscape by arranging many rocks in a small area.
cultural property : historic sites and places of scenic beauty as natural monuments
type : places of special scenic beauty, historic sites
54-1 Murasakino Daitokujichō, Kita-ku, Kyōto-shi, Kyōto-fu 603-8231
Tel：075-491-8346
Daisen-in is a sub-temple (built to commemorate the death of a high-ranking Zen monk) that stands in the precinct of Daitoku-ji, the north of Kyoto’s urban area. The temple was founded in 1509 by the 76th Daisho Kokushi, Kogaku Soko. A document preserved at Daisen-in states that the garden was also made by Kogaku himself.
The garden surrounds the main temple in all four directions. The south section represents the ocean with two ceremonial piles of sand on ground covered with white sand at both sides of the entrance. The east garden has a dry waterfall arrangement of large rocks and plantings of camelias and Japanese white pines (Pinus parviflora) to recreate the scenery of a secluded mountain. A stone bridge is installed under the dry waterfall, and a stone that resembles a boat is placed on white sand down the “stream,” to represent a large river flowing to the ocean. In this way, the garden depicts a mountain, a river and the ocean.
The roofed bridge that divides the garden into two was once removed at the end of the Meiji Era, resulting in the “mountain” and the “ocean” becoming connected. In 1960, the bridge was restored, and the garden regained its original state.