First Visit to Tenryu-ji

by William Will

Tenryu-ji was the first Japanese garden I ever visited in Kyoto. The photographs on these pages cannot nearly convey the scenery as it unfolded in front of me for the first time on a clear brisk November morning. Our group had taken the rail line to the end station in Arishiyama. A brief walk brought us into the temple precinct, which is set at the foot of the surrounding hills, rising to the west of Kyoto.

Behind the head priests quarters I find the main garden, also known as the Sogenchi garden. A large empty veranda looks out onto the garden. The open architecture of these traditional timber frame buildings, with their walls of retractable shoji screens, form the frames out of which I settle down to observe the wide-open space. The amazing openness of the room and veranda is what brings the garden closer than it would usually be. Raised just 3 feet off the ground or so, I look both down and up at the composition.

The immensity of the three dimensional painting before me is overwhelming. It is a multilevel work: ground level pond, several planes of rocks, plantings, all rising into the hills behind the temple precinct in one seamless work of art. The turning colors in the nearby foliage add contrast to the landscape and give it even more depth than I imagine it might usually have.

I have never seen this type of large scenic composition. This garden is not meant to be walked through – it is meant to be viewed from the veranda where I am sitting. Its full impact is experienced from only a few vantage points, and in that it is similar to the ikebana flower arrangements I have always admired and tried my own hand at.