Saihō-ji (西芳寺)

Professor Joseph Volpe,Maozhu mao

The Saihō-ji, the formal name "Kōinzan Saihō-ji"(洪隠山西芳寺) is one of the oldest garden in the world. The garden is famous for its more than 200 species of moss in the garden. The temple was first used as a temporary place for the Mikado (Japanese emperor), after several years, it becomes a temple. It’s in Kyoto a city with a long history, so the temple also gets a long history, it had been destroyed several times because of the fire, war and flood, but people always rebuilt the temple, get some changes there and also improve the garden.

From 1928, the temple is open to the public but after July 1977, people who want to visit there have to make appointment several weeks before he actually get there and only after the Buddhist ceremony. You get only about one hour’s time to experience the beauty of the garden. So in this way, the garden minimized the number of people and gets good protected. 

Two pine trees here at the entrance of the garden, is almost a typical Japanese thing in old garden with the beauty of age.The shape of pine trees are heavily pruned with great care, to create this certain form.

The cherry blossom here gets multiple trellises to get control the form of the cherry, making it smaller. In the historical garden, everything is about control. To control the plants means you understand the plats and work with their habits finally change them.

The Japanese prefer to get a cleaner place, so you have to wear appropriate shoes in different situations. And you can see water channels are everywhere, they follow the edge of the architecture, collect the rain water from the roof.

The Japanese have a kind of love – the love of age. They respect the elders and also respect the old plants, old buildings. So people here do all what they can do to keep the old tree alive. Like setting up some trellis to support the trees just as the image shows you.

Mosses are so beautiful that they are everywhere. There have over two hundred species of moss cultivated. Moss is a kind of plant that needs high maintenance, they cannot live even a tree leave fall from the branch and covered on it.

Carefully look at this path, you can see some stone in the path way get different color, that’s because the stones which are brighter means they are the replacement. Those stones are carefully picked to keep the path in the original way.

The little path here allows people to experience the gorgeous moss land and the plants around and finally ended at teahouse.

The plants here in the picture is azalea, they never let it grow wild. The blooming can only last for several days as a great celebration and cut the flower to avoid the adventitious bugs. The only reason why they take that form is because it’s blooms in that form.

The water in this garden is kind of muddy, but the little island there still plays an important role in the garden. The little bridge there also become a part of the beautiful scenery.

The garden is more than a place with old trees, moss, and water there. It’s also a place for people to think, get meditation in the green world build up with moss. In 1994, Saihō-ji was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".