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The Japanese Zen gardens or Karesansui are some of the most beautiful and exotic gardens. The story of Zen Gardens goes back into the misty beginnings of Japanese culture.

The Zen garden is also known as a Japanese rock garden or a Karesansui. These gardens are very simple and in most cases have very few actual plants. In many Zen gardens, there are no growing things at all. The gardens consist mainly of rock and sand. The word Karesansui translates as “dry water and mountain.” The illusion of water is created by raking the sand into a rippling pattern that suggests the movement of water while the rocks are arranged to make islands or mountains. The history of Zen gardens goes back to as early as the 6th century in Japan.

One of the most famous of the Japanese gardens contains 15 rocks arranged in a pattern on the rippling sand. Although most rock gardens are intended to be viewed from one specific location and perspective, this garden can be viewed from any angle. Regardless of the angle, only 14 of the 15 rocks can ever be seen at once. It is said that when spiritual enlightenment is reached, the invisible 15th rock would then be seen. This is an example of the Zen influence on these gardens.

There are records of rock and sand gardens dating back to the reign of the Empress Suiko in 592 AD. Some evidence indicates that the art of rock gardens must have predated this period by quite some time as the earliest recorded gardens were already highly developed. In the early 700’s, Zen Buddhism began to spread over Japan and the early Zen monks found the rock and sand gardens to be a perfect fit for the ideas of simplicity and harmony that marked their view of the universe.

The development of the Karesansui gardens continued until the 13th century when they reached the form that they have kept into modern time. The gardens could be very small. Some simple Zen gardens were made to be held in the hand, while others were quite extensive. Many people saw the patterns of sand and rock as representing the sea and the islands of Japan. Others saw deeper patterns that invoked deep subconscious images that produced the tranquility that was being sought.

In 1935, an American author named Loraine Kuck coined the term Zen Garden in her book, “100 Gardens of Kyoto.” The term became popular and eventually even made its way into the Japanese language. It is often used to represent several different styles of Japanese rock and sand gardens. The common feature, however, remains the simplicity and understatement that characterized the gardens of the early Zen monks.

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