It is day six of this month’s Squares Challenge, and if you have only just joined us the theme is Geometry. Today I thought I’d take us back to the Japanese Garden we all loved in Washington Park. I omitted from my garden post one of its most wonderful features; the Zen Garden. I first spied it from above.

Even at a distance it causes you to pause.

This type of garden was described in the first manual of Japanese gardens, written in the 11th century and seems to be an adaptation of a much earlier Chinese garden philosophy. Quite extraordinary to think this style has lasted so many centuries, not sure the squares challenge will last as long!

This one shows off to great effect

yohaku-no-bi 

or ‘the beauty of blank space’. It seems so simple but I suspect there’s a huge amount of geometric contemplation behind it.

81 thoughts

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  3. The only reason I could have for visiting Japan (too crowded) would be to visit their gardens. They are just on tranquil. And a zen garden is purely for meditation.

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  4. The Japanese do such a wonderful job of creating calm, peaceful scenes. It takes a lot of work to achieve that minimalistic look, though. This weekend we visited the Japanese Friendship Garden here in Phoenix and you get the same feeling.

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