What springs to mind when you hear the name "Nanzen-ji"? Most people probably imagine the "Sanmon" gate, but I also recommend seeing the "Seven Dry Landscape Gardens" of Nanzen-ji Temple.

If you cross the Sanmon gate and proceed further through the meditation hall, you will see the "Ōhōjo” garden which was built by Kobori Enshū, a famous tea master for the Edo Shogunate Government. This garden is characterized by the way the giant stone slabs are laid down horizontally. Normal dry landscape gardens use boulders and artificial hillocks to express a Buddhist aesthetic, which perhaps ties to the imagery of Mounts Sumer and Hōrai, which are greatly symbolic mountains in the Buddhist faith. But the Ōhōjo garden is unique because it was not designed with this concept in mind. So, what does it show?

The patterns running through the white sand of the “Ōhōjo” seem to represent the flow of water, while the large and small stones on the inner left side could represent a mother tiger and her cub. Many people call it the "Leaping Tiger Garden" because the scene looks like a mother tiger leading her cub across a river.

Further within the Ōhōjo, there is also the Kohōjō garden, which is nicknamed "Nyoshin-tei," or "Heart Garden." Why does the name include the character for "heart” (心)? Well, if you look at the way the stones are aligned from the left at a slight angle, don't they look a bit like the "heart" character?

True to the nickname "Nyoshin-tei," the "heart" character stone arrangement makes the Kohōjō very distinctive. It was built under the passionate guidance of Zen Master Shibayama Zenkei in 1966, who also managed the temple in those days. He insisted that the garden must "express the heart," and much like its inspiration, this Zen dry landscape garden has a very calming atmosphere.

Opposite of the simple "Nyoshin-tei", which displays Nirvana with only stones and sand, is the "Rokudō-tei," a garden that warns of the Wheel of Samsāra. The Wheel of Samsāra is a Buddhist concept that describes humanity's endless cycle of reincarnation through the Six Realms: Heaven, Humanity, Asura, Animal, the realm of Hungry Ghosts, and Hell. Through a composition of trees, boulders and overgrown moss, the Rokudō-tei evokes the sense of how humans are trapped inside this Wheel due to their worldly desires.

Outside of these two gardens, there are four other gardens surrounding the Hōjō, or main hall. The "Taki-no-ma" is a room where you can enjoy tea as you take in the sights and sounds of a waterfall. While you relax in this calming space, you can take some time for self-reflection.