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Three Japanese waterfalls.

Landscape with Waterfall,
Nakabayashi Chikutō

Natural waterfalls inspired the art of gardening in Japan and the detailed instructions in the Sakuteiki, the oldest text dedicated to garden-making, explained how to create them starting from the selection of the falling-water stone.

Rocks and water, fundamental elements in Japanese gardens, are combined in waterfalls not only to create enchanting decorative effects, but also to inspire with the different shapes and sizes of the rocks, and the energy and purity of the running water that conveys the constant changes of the universe.

In the following three waterfalls, movement, reflection and the sound of water, or better its absence, are linked to ancient traditions.

Ryumon-no-taki

Kinkaku-ji

The waterfall to the north of the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto is called "dragon gate waterfall", Ryumon-no-taki. The central stone represents a carp that is swimming upstream.



According to the Chinese and Japanese mythology, if it succeeds in climbing the rapids and passing the Dragon Gate, the tenacious carp is transformed into a Dragon. The idea of the carp as symbol of success and social advancement, of courage and wisdom is reinforced by its scales seen as a warrior's armor.
Kinkaku-ji was created in 1397 by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Sengetsu-sen

The "spring in which the moon washes", or Sengetsu-sen, is the poetic name of the waterfall at Ginkaku-ji, a temple in eastern Kyoto created in 1480 by the Shogun Ashkaga no Yoshimasa. The name of the waterfall refers to the reflection of the moon captured on the surface of the water. 

Ginkaku-ji

Autumn moon, the harvest moon, was celebrated with popular moon-viewing parties, offerings of sweet potatoes, cakes and miscanthus grass, poetry and dances.  

Karetaki

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden is a small gem in central Tokyo. Dating back to the 1680s, Edo period, it develops around a central pond inspired by a Chinese lake. It is a pleasant place to take a stroll with its trees, seasonal flowers, islands,  rocks and small hills, vantage points to discover the garden from different points of view.

At the feet of the Ōyama mountain, the highest hill in the garden, a dry waterfall, Karetaki, is suggested by rocky hills crossed by a sinuous path where evergreen shrubs trickle down as fresh water in a mountain gorge.

Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden 

Photos: 

TravelinaGarden, November 2015 Kyoto, Tokyo.
painting:
Landscape with Waterfall, Nakabayashi Chikutō (Japanese, 1776–1853), 1841
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
https://www.metmuseum.org/

Further reading:
Japanese Gardens, Gunter Nitschke, Hohenzollernring, Germany: Taschen, 1991
Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shrane, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012