Japanese superlatives, Totekiko, the smallest Japanese Zen rock garden

Generally, the Japanese Zen gardens are small, covering just dozens of square meters. The reason is that the viewer must be able to see the entire garden, to understand the symbolic meanings. Some of them are very small, just a few square meters… but the smallest Japanese Zen rock garden is Totekiko, one of the gardens from the Ryōgen-in Temple, Kyoto.

Totekiko was designed by Nabeshima Gakusho in 1958 and it represents a Zen kōan: The harder a stone is thrown in, the bigger the ripples. The garden was built in the small space between two of the temple’s buildings and, depending on the weather outside, in some moments of the day a ray of light comes in and it makes it breathtaking…

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Totekiko, the smallest Japanese Zen rock garden, Ryogen-in Temple, Kyoto

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