houses and gardens of

houses and gardens of
kyoto
Photography by Akihiko Seki
Text by Thomas Daniell
T u t t le Publishing
Tokyo • Rutland, Vermont • Singapore
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houses and gardens of kyoto
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Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus
Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation
Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759 USA and 61 Tai
Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167
Text copyright © 2010 Thomas Daniell
Photographs copyright © 2010 Akihiko Seki
All photographs by Akihiko Seki except
Page 55—photo from istockphoto
Photo on page 10 by courtesy of Urasenke/Tanko-sha.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
All Japanese names are given in
the traditional order, with the
family name first. As is
customary, famous cultural
figures are referred to by their
given name, not their family
name. Traditional Japanese
architecture is subject to an
ongoing process of addition and
alteration, and it is often
impossible to definitively state
when a particular building was
completed. Many dates (birth,
deaths, constructions,
demolitions, and so on) are still
debated among historians. In
each case, I have taken the most
commonly accepted date, or
that provided by the institution
or family in question.
Japan
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Houses and Gardens of Kyoto 08
CHAPTER 1:
Aristocratic Villas
Katsura Imperial Villa 24
Shugakuin Imperial Villa 30
Kyoto Imperial Palace 36
Daikaku-ji 42
Byodo-in 46
Kinkaku-ji 50
Ginkaku-ji 54
Jakko-in 58
CHAPTER 2:
Temple Residences
CHAPTER 5:
62
Merchant Townhouses
Kinpyo 96
Kinmata 102
Inakatei 106
Iori Minoya-cho 110
Iori Sujiya-cho 116
Iori Zaimoku-cho 120
Iori Sanbo Nishinotoin-cho 124
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Traditional Inns
128
Private Retreats
160
Shisendo 162
Okouchi Sanso 166
Hakusasonso 170
Kawai Kanjiro Memorial Hall 174
Shigemori Mirei Garden Museum 178
Shunki-an 182
Suisen-an 186
Ryogen-in 64
Shoren-in 68
Tofuku-ji 72
Ryogin-an 76
Ninna-ji 78
Nanzen-ji 82
Kanchi-in 86
Jingo-ji 90
CHAPTER 3:
CHAPTER 4:
Hiiragiya 130
Gion Hatanaka 136
Rangetsu 140
Jijuden 144
Momijiya 148
Yoshida Sanso 152
Miyamaso 156
22
CHAPTER 6:
94
Tea Houses
190
Kodai-ji 192
Toji-in 196
Koto-in 200
Murin-an 206
Shokado Garden Art Museum 210
Urasenke 214
Juko-in 218
Bibliography 222
List of Houses and Gardens 223
Acknowledgments 224
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Left The central gate along the main garden
path in the Okouchi Sanso estate.
Right The Kinkaku, or Golden Pavilion, is now
part of Rokuon-ji temple, but was originally the
Buddhist relic hall in the retirement villa of
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
Houses and Gardens of Kyoto
Kyoto (or Heian-kyo, as the city was named at its founding by
open to the south—a secluded locale and climate judged to have
Emperor Kammu in 794) has been the birthplace—the incubator
ideal geomantic properties. Emperor Kammu paid token compensa-
and crucible—of most what is now considered to be quintessential
tion to the local farmers that he forced to relocate, and then had the
Japanese culture. Afflicted by fires, wars, typhoons, floods, and
city laid out on a regular gridiron pattern comprising walled blocks
earthquakes, Kyoto was razed and rebuilt more than once during its
called cho, each a 120m by 120m square (40 jo by 40 jo in the
thousand years as the capital of Japan, yet it has also witnessed
traditional measurement system). Influenced by city planning
extraordinary flowerings of stylistic invention in literature and
models from China, Kyoto was intended as an ideal city ex nihilo, a
theater, ceramics and calligraphy, clothing and cuisine, and, not
kind of urban mandala or matrix that placed the Emperor as an
least, architecture and gardens. Much of this coalesced in the
intermediary between the gods and the citizens. Inevitably, the
fifteenth century as what is now collectively known as higashiyama
purity of the original vision was compromised by topography and
bunka (east mountain culture), during which the arts became
distorted by demographics. Over the ensuing centuries, the city has
suffused by the Zen-inspired aesthetic of wabi sabi (best translated
ebbed and flowed across the land, shifting eastward and regenerat-
as “impoverished beauty”): the chado tea ceremony, ikebana flower
ing in the aftermath of intermittent destruction. The present layout
arrangement, sumi-e ink painting, no theater, and so on. “Flowering”
of Kyoto largely dates from the late-sixteenth century, when the city
is indeed the right word; the quintessential Kyoto aesthetic and
was reconfigured and rebuilt by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598),
attitude is known as hannari, literally “to become a flower.” The
an extraordinary figure who rose from peasant origins to become
goal—for people as well as artifacts—is to be elegant yet understat-
the unifier and ruler of Japan after centuries of unrest and civil war.
ed, vibrant yet delicate, and always exquisitely sensitive to the
founding of the city onward, and has been retrospectively classified
over the centuries, for all the relentless modernization still taking
into three main stylistic subdivisions: shinden zukuri (palace style),
place today, Kyoto remains a rich, inexhaustible archive of Japanese
shoin zukuri (study style), and sukiya zukuri (tea house style). Rather
cultural history.
than distinct historical stages, these form a continuous evolution of
On the site of what was in prehistoric times an enormous lake,
Kyoto occupies a flat plain surrounded by a horseshoe of mountains
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Kyoto’s residential architecture evolved gradually from the
nuances of one’s surroundings. For all the damage that has occurred
shared themes, following a general progression from a somewhat
rigid and monumental formality to a more emancipated and
INTRODUCTION Houses and Gardens of Kyoto
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Left Totsutotsusai, a sukiya-style eight-tatami
chashitsu in the Konnichian estate of the
Urasenke Tea School.
Right An elevated walkway extending across
the enclosed space of the Shihoshomen-noniwa. (Garden with Four Frontages) in Kanchi-in
temple.
sophisticated eclecticism. Not quite styles in the strict art-historical
eters were closed by means of shitomido (detachable wooden
sense, they reflect particular lifestyles and social stratifications.
panels), making the interiors completely dark at night and complete-
Though primarily intended for the nobility and aristocracy, these
ly open to the environment during the day. Aside from a few
three architectural types have also influenced the design of minka,
movable tatami mats used for sleeping or sitting, the floors were
the traditional vernacular houses of the general population. The
wooden boards. No original shinden residences survive today, but
minka may be broadly subdivided into urban dwellings (machiya
their general characteristics are known from ancient picture scrolls
townhouses, nagaya rowhouses, yashiki detached manors) and rural
and archaeological excavations. Some structures within Kyoto’s
dwellings (noka farmhouses, gyoka fisherfolk dwellings, sanka
Imperial Palace precinct (a reconstruction built in the nineteenth
mountain huts), all of which comprise wooden post-and-beam
century) give a good sense of the shinden style, as does the Heian
structures surfaced with a variety of natural materials.
Jingu shrine (a partial, reduced-scale replica of the original Heian-
During the early Heian Period (794–1185), members of the
kyo Imperial Palace).
aristocracy moved from all across the country to the new capital,
As effective political power shifted from the Imperial family to
where they built houses in the shinden style. Though commoners
the samurai warriors during the Muromachi Period (1336–1573),
inhabited small subdivisions of a city block, a shinden dwelling often
samurai families adopted the courtly lifestyle manifested in the
occupied an entire block, and in some cases two or even four blocks.
shinden style while adapting the dwellings to suit their own needs.
Within perimeter fences made of tamped earth and capped with
As the samurai were expected to become monks upon their
tiles, the north half of the site would contain a roughly symmetrical
retirement, a number of distinctive elements intended to facilitate a
array of pavilions linked by large sheltered corridors, arranged to
life of scholarship appeared, such as the tokonoma (decorative
contain a central courtyard that faced onto a garden and pond
alcove), chigaidana (staggered shelves), and tsukeshoin (built-in
located to the south. The main building was the shinden itself, used
writing desk). These were initially contained in an annex that
for the daily life of the master of the house, with tainoya (secondary
appeared as a component of the transitional shuden style, through
pavilions) for other family members and servants. The buildings
which the shinden style evolved into the relatively opulent and
lacked ceilings or internal partitions, their interior spaces articulated
formal shoin style of houses for both aristocrats and abbots. Made
only by freestanding folding panels called byobu. The outer perim-
up of pavilions comprising an omoya (central volume) surrounded
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