Karesansui (Dry Landscape) Garden

Timeline

1. 1185–1300Zen temples of Kamakura and Kyoto · KantoAfter Zen entered Japan in the Kamakura period, Zen temples built practice gardens with rock arrangements, ponds and borrowed scenery, laying the religious and spatial groundwork for karesansui's evolution from strolling pond gardens to minimal stone gardens.
2. 1321–1330Zen temples of southern Kyoto · KyotoDespite frequent warfare in the late Kamakura shogunate, Zen temples kept renovating the front gardens of their abbot's quarters; techniques of raked gravel patterns and rock arrangements symbolizing landscapes spread among Kyoto's Gozan Zen temples, accumulating practical experience for Muromachi karesansui.
3. 1400–1600Ryōan-ji · KyotoIn the Muromachi period karesansui moved away from large ponds, using white gravel for the sea and rock arrangements for islands and waterfalls; minimal layouts like the Ryōan-ji stone garden became classic Zen contemplation paradigms influencing temple-building standards nationwide.
4. 1600–1900Japanese archipelago · JapanIn the Edo period karesansui spread from Zen temples to warrior study gardens and tea-house roji; after the modern national cultural property system was established, famous gardens gained legal protection, with maintenance skills and gravel-raking rituals transmitted as living traditions.