The Zen Beauty Of Kyoto’s Gardens | Dan Pearson Routes Around The World | TRACKS

My name's Dan Pearson and I've been building and making and designing gardens for quite a long time since I was a little boy and I have been looking at gardens very intensely in that period. I feel that I've sort of reached a plateau, I've looked at things and I'm ready to go and look elsewhere for some new sources of inspiration. So I'm going to go to Japan to look at a very old gardening tradition and then to America, somewhere where new ideas are being tried out. Passport, money, ready to go. Next stop, Japan, just 18 hours away. That was easy. Kyoto feels like the right place to begin my journey. It's a modern city now but it was the imperial and cultural capital of Japan until the mid-19th century. Kyoto embodies Japanese tradition, the ancient religions of Shinto and Buddhism and the love of simplicity and profound subtlety that personifies the spirit of Zen. These have somehow retained their place in the new high-tech Japan. I've only been here an hour and Japan is a complete assault on the senses. There is a juxtaposition of beauty and incredible ugly things as well. There are lines going over all the streets, there are these wonderful, wonderful buildings, wonderful details and this, for example, is just the entrance to a restaurant and it's a Japanese garden. There are plants which are all manicured and teased and pruned and wet floor. There was a guy here just a minute ago wetting the floor so that everything has got this wonderful atmosphere. I've just spent the night in one of Japan's temples which has a garden right outside and I've just been waking up to the sound of rain falling right outside my window. One of the most important parts of this journey is to look at the tradition of garden making in Japan and I'm sitting now in the temple of Shunmyo Masuno who is the last Shunmyo Zen priest who is practising garden design in Japan. Gardens have always been linked to either imperial palaces or temples and the philosophy of Zen is very important. Shunmyo is taking me to see three of Kyoto's finest gardens. I couldn't have hoped for a more perfect garden. So Shunmyo, can you tell me why you became a garden designer? It's a long story. When I was an elementary school boy I had a chance to go to Kyoto with my family, with my father and mother. As you know I was born in a Zen temple and at that time we visited many Zen temples and all of those temples had a garden. Kyoto has a beautiful Japanese garden. So I was shocked. Our temple is also a Zen temple but our temple didn't have any beautiful garden. My dream was just to design a Japanese garden for our temple. As we travelled through the dramatic countryside we planned our itinerary. Three gardens in three days. It should be easy but somehow I knew there had to be a hitch. The imperial palace of Katsurahiki was our first stop. This is the imperial garden. Yes, so it's very difficult to get the permission to go in. I know that we've been trying for a long time to get our passes and Japanese people need to apply for two months before. No, no, three months. It's a great honour to be allowed in. Oh, we are in Katsurahiki now. What's happening is you're not allowed anyone to film inside the garden. And the reason why is they don't want to accept any drama people making the film inside. And they accept only the documentaries. And what is the difference of documentary and drama? And they decided people in. So you're not allowed to film. Katsurahiki is a stroll garden and has been designed to be viewed from a path. It's a garden that has to be looked at on a designated route. Once inside we are left to explore alone. Well, almost alone. Eventually the guards relax and the crew are able to film from a distance. I think that these gardens are almost better in the rain, you know? Yeah, of course, sure. On a rainy day, in a Japanese garden, if we are not in the garden, just under the eave or in the house, the best day is a rainy day. So Shimio, this area here is halfway between the garden and the tea room. Yes. We are not sure if this is a garden or a house. This idea is very important in Japanese house and garden, the relationship between the two of them. So the two can be integrated. Nobody knows which is garden, which is house. So Katsurahiki is most probably what we would consider in Britain as being the archetypal Japanese garden. Katsurahiki is integrated with many types of Japanese gardens. Very old Japanese gardens, Zen gardens, tea gardens, everything. We've walked around the very perimeter of this lake to get to this point and at no point were we allowed to see any of the views together. We were only allowed to see one view. So where we are now, at the tea house, is the first point where we've actually been able to see a bigger expanse. I think this designer's idea was to control the view and where the view should be open, where the view should be closed. I can see from having been out in the countryside this morning that many of the things that we saw there are used back here in this garden. There is the black pine and the red pine and the aces and it's really an interpretation of nature here. Oh yes. That's why Japanese gardens are natural landscape style. So, I'm allowed to film out here. That was an extraordinary experience. It was more amazing than I ever could have imagined. This garden is the personification of sophistication. Every detail is perfect, right down to a stone in the middle of the path that they don't want you to go down. I know it was a hassle getting in this morning but there are lots more wonderful things to see and I feel greatly inspired. Shimeo's going to take me on to see two more very special gardens which we're going to go and see tomorrow. So, I shall meet you then. This is 4.30 in the morning and we're just about to go and see Saihoji which is a very special garden. It's very, very difficult to get into. It's a moss garden and I think Shimeo might be used to getting in bed this early in the morning but I'm not. Saihoji Temple and its treasured moss garden is rarely open to the public and the conditions of entry are very strict. We've got to wait here for the next hour because no filming is allowed in the Buddhist temple. We're going in to complete the sutra which means writing over some Japanese text which is the sutra itself and we've got to do some chanting. So, we'll see you in an hour. So, Shimeo, I can see how important it was that we had to do the sutra. Yes, because this is Zen Temple's garden so we need to change our mind from the outside of the temple and inside the temple. So, we should be very relaxed and forget everything. Our mind should be clear. And the idea behind this being one atmosphere and there's less for you to look at so that your mind can concentrate more clearly. Yes, exactly. I read when I was reading about Saihoji that there are 40 different mosses here. Well, I don't think so. I think more than 40 variety of moss here. So, you can see many, many mosses here. This is called Osugingoke and this one is a different one and this is another one and you can see another one. They all have their own names. Yes, all names but I don't know. This is just Osugingoke. Osugingoke. What does that mean? Sugi means... For the cedar. Cedar, Sugi cedar. So, this leaves looks like a Sugi, shape of the Sugi. Yes. But this is a different part of garden. This is gate. And it signifies a different area. Yes. This garden is a vision of nature which is highly manicured and highly mannered. You look up into the branches and a perfect dome of greenery on the top which you think at first is just the way that they are and then you see that they've all been tended and clipped. There's a world of difference between the vision of these gardens that you see in books to actually being within them. This is a complete emerald forest that smells different. The wind is delicious. It's a complete sensual experience being here. And that's what these gardens are all about. They're about taking you onto another level and into another place. And for me, that's why I'm interested in gardens. And hopefully I'll be able to take a little bit of it back. If there's nothing else, I hope it will be that. Shunryo is going to stay on a while. But I'm heading back to the city. Pipe music. Plastic food. Just plastic. You're supposed to slurp your noodles. What I like about these back streets is that there's a degree of confusion back here. There are all these crossing lines everywhere and people hanging out and just being themselves. And it's a great contrast to the gardens of Kyoto which are all manicured and clipped and everything's very tight and maintained. And I think if I was to immerse myself too much in that, I'd want to scream. So it's either that. It's either coming here or I'm going to have to run across a very large field like a red setter. This is the equivalent of the British timber yard. And there's every single type of bamboo you can imagine here. This is black, black stem bamboo. And giant bamboos that have been grown in square mould so that they're different shapes. And there are speckled bamboos and all sorts of things, wonderful things. And then there are these wonderful screens here. This is a piece of, I imagine it's part of a fencing. This is my favourite one. It's all been woven very, very beautifully. Absolutely lovely. And then further down, these incredible screens here, which are made up of something which is like a kind of broom, I think. This is one of the wonderful woven ones, my favourites. There's some incredible things here, wonderful things. And a bit more exciting than the average British timber yard. So Shunmyo, this is Ryoan-ji. Yes, we are in Ryoan-ji. Ryoan-ji is the best zen garden. And also, Ryoan-ji is well known all over the world. I think the thing for me that makes it completely different from all the other gardens is this incredible, minimal gravel garden here. Yes. Which is just extraordinary, isn't it? Yes. This is the most famous and sophisticated garden in Japan, I think. This stone is a very important element of this garden. If there isn't any stones, this garden is nothing. So everything has just been stripped away, so all you see is the stone you can concentrate. Yes, exactly. Exactly on the stones. Yes. In Zen Buddhism, we think all of the stones, all of the trees, even the gravel has mind. The gravel is very special. Some people think this gravel expresses a sea, or some people think this gravel expresses a cloud. But it's up to you. It's up to the people who see the garden. People should feel something from this garden. And the most important point is that this garden gives us to think about what you are. That is the most important point of this garden. And the activity of looking after the garden is part of Zen. Yes. To rake the gravel, that is a very important training practice for the Zen monk. You can see the straight lines, but it's very difficult to keep a straight line. If you think about something, the line will be moving like a wave. So the concentration, we say, move. Don't think anything, just concentrate. At that point, the line will be straight and beautiful. I can see exactly how this is working, because the more you look into this space, which is completely stripped away and pared down, the more your mind is freed up, and you can contemplate what is beyond the world that we normally live in. So I think this is an incredible garden. It's incredibly minimal, and therefore it's sort of timeless. And it makes me want to see more in Japan. There's one more garden I want to look at in Kyoto called Gengo-in, which is designed by a modern designer. And then there's the rest of Japan. It's very exciting.