FROM THE GARDEN OF ZEN: shokin-tei

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October 28, 2022

Shokin-tei teahouse and pond garden: Katsura-rikyu (Kyoto)

About the middle of this September, I visited Katsura Imperial Villa (located in Kyoto City, under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Household Agency), which is esteemed as one of the most exquisite examples of Japanese classic architecture and garden design. I was given a guided tour by the Imperial Household Agency, which lasted only one hour, to look around the pond-garden, the teahouses and the private Buddhist-hall scattered along the pond.

Unfortunately, due to the guiding policy of the Imperial Household Agency which is in charge of managing the facilities, it was not allowed to see the celebrated interior of the main palaces such as the Study halls, the reception hall and so on. The architectural designs, furnitures and interior decorations of these palaces are the highlights of this excellent villa.

The palaces and garden in the present form were completed in 1645 as the residence for the Katsura Family, members of Japan's Imperial Family.

The riverside area of the Katsura-gawa River, where this villa is located, was known for the noted place for moon-watching. There is a shrine called Tsukiyomi Shrine (moonlit-night-viewing shrine) near this villa, and the name "Katsura" is said to be derived from the Chinese word for "moon-viewing."

Katsura Imperial Villa, located in such a location, was basically designed to be a place for viewing the beautiful moon. It also served as a aristocratic place for various entertainments and events, such as boating on the pond, tea ceremonies at its teahouses scattered around the pond-garden, and banquets, in addition to enjoying the moonlight.

The view of Shokin-tei teahouse from Gepparo teahouse: Katsura-rikyu (kyoto)

In the deep past, until the spread of the lunar calendar introduced from China, Japanese people perceived intuitively the subtle transition of the seasons through the sensitive awareness of the movements of the sun and the moon, the changes in weather, the flowering and coloring of plants, and other transitions in nature.

The delicate sentiment of admiring the beauty of nature changing from season to season has been the traditional aesthetic sense of Japanese that permeates all Japanese arts, including fine arts, literature and so on. The four seasons and their transitions have been expressed lyrically in a variety of natural scenes symbolized by Kachohugetsu (flowers, birds, wind, and the moon).

According to such aesthetic tradition, the scenery and architecture of Katsura Rikyu have been composed so as to correspond to the qualities of the four seasons for entertaining its guests in each season. It is said that each teahouse in this garden symbolizes each of the four seasons.

While the "Geppa-ro" is the teahouse for viewing the harvest moon and has an typical autumnal character, the "Shokin-tei" teahouse, which is said to have been designed by Enshu Kobori, is considered to represent the season of winter. This teahouse is built in the direction of moonrise on the winter solstice and is equipped with a stone furnace for heating.

The name "Shokin-tei" means "the house of the beautiful tones of the harp and the wind blowing through pine trees." This name was taken from the classic Waka poetry "on the quiet fall night, I wondered which of the beautiful sound of harp or the sound of the chilly wind passing by pine trees was echoing beautifully in this way," which is included in Goshui Wakashu (Gleanings from a Later Collection of Japanese Poetry).