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Moonlight in Japanese Zen Buddhist temple gardens: ananalytical simulationToru MitaniPublished online: 01 Feb 2012.

To cite this article: Toru Mitani (2011) Moonlight in Japanese Zen Buddhist temple gardens: an analytical simulation, Journal ofLandscape Architecture, 6:1, 46-53, DOI: 10.1080/18626033.2011.9723446

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2011.9723446

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Journal of Landscape Architecture / spring 201146

The enjoyment of gardens is usually imagined as taking place in bright sunshine, but during evening or late at night, totally different spatial experience and delight are to be found, especially under the soft, cool light of the full moon.

In Japanese gardens, traditionally the moon has been as sig-nificant as the sun in terms of both physical environment and cultural meanings. The moon was a symbol of the after-life in ancient Japan, and later of enlightenment. The oldest Japanese garden design book, Sakuteiki (Notes on Garden Design) written in the 13th century, describes how to design a water feature with careful attention to moonlight effect, and it is known through historical research that the Katsura Imperial Garden had a moon viewing deck for the Imperial family and their guests to enjoy the evening gazing at the moon or its surrogate reflected on the surface of the garden’s lake.

While the moon and moonlight have been the subject of Jap-anese poetry, discussion and artistic images including gar-den design for centuries, no systematic study to measure its effect or accurately trace its character in the garden had been attempted.

The Zen Buddhist garden is not solely a garden space design but links directly with the interior of the architecture. It is known that white gravel surfaces in Zen Buddhist temple gardens reflect moonlight into buildings, and that moon-light on these surfaces creates specific night scenery in the garden. Photography may record the appearance of moon-light in gardens, but prior to our study it had not been used to systematically measure the value of such an ephemeral phenomenon because it is almost impossible to observe a number of gardens under exactly the same moonlight condi-tions, known as 0.2 lux of the intensity of illumination.

From 1998 to 2003, Kayoko Okabe and I studied the effects of the moon on representative Zen Buddhist temple gardens by means of computer-aided rendering. Ryoan-ji and Daisen-in were chosen for study as two temple gardens representative of the Muromachi period (1336-1573), along with three gar-dens from the Edo period (1603-1867): Shoden-ji, Shisen-do and Jisho-ji (commonly known as Ginkaku-ji).

Using the three-dimensional modelling application ‘Form Z’ with ‘radio-city light environment calculation’, we created three-dimensional models and rendered the simulations using existing survey documents of architecture and gar-dens such as Mirei Shigemori's 1930s classic, multi-volume recording of Japanese gardens as well as our own on-site mea surements of details. For quantitative analysis and gradation rendering of brightness, ‘Photoshop’ was used. We did this with great care to ensure the accuracy of texture and value of reflective (or translucent) properties of gravel, rocks, vegetation, and building materials and components.

From these simulations we constructed two types of render-ing for each of the five gardens. The first aimed for represen-tational accuracy and was named ‘View simulation’. The sec-ond, ‘Brightness gradation’ aimed to accurately document subtle differences in the moonlight reflection of each garden and building component.

In the first stage of our study we investigated how much reflected light was gained by white gravel or sand through comparative analysis of a simulation with (as existing in the garden) and without gravel. We were surprised to find that the effects of moonlight reflection are tangible: the brightness of building interiors increased by a factor of 1.9. The ‘View simulation’ showed that white gravel creates an impressive appearance under moonlight, heightening spatial experience.

Moonlight in Japanese Zen Buddhist temple gardens: an analytical simulation toru Mitani

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In the second stage of our study we documented the hourly transition of moonlight in each of the five gardens by track-ing the course of the moon through summer and winter sol-stice nights. Moonlight in the winter months was tracked from 6 in the evening until 5 in the morning. The hours were adjusted for summer, beginning at 8 in the evening and terminating at 3 in the morning. This duration avoids the ambiguous effect of twilight around sunset and sunrise.

To present our findings we created a matrix of five vertical ‘film strips’. While we used colour gradation diagrammat-ically to indicate light intensity, we also prepared images that more closely approximated the actual view under differ-ent moonlight conditions. In these simulations the ‘eye’ and

‘body’ of the viewer remained fixed in the ‘hojyo’ room, as the moon tracks across the sky.

The results provided several insights into how the Japanese might have enjoyed moonlight reflection in the garden late into the night. It became clear that garden and architectur-al design were developed for a better night view. For exam-ple, in the ‘film strips’ of the winter months, we identified an increased integration of interior space, veranda and gar-den of the later Edo period gardens, compared to the previ-ous period. In the earlier Ryoan-ji and Daisen-in, the interi-or remains in darkness while the brightness of the garden is sustained through the night, but in the Edo period gardens the interior has a greater responsiveness to moonlight tran-sitions. The study also revealed that the precise effects of the illumination of interiors were greatly affected by the adapta-tion and use of Shoji, partitions made of rice paper.

Such integration of the garden and interior is clearly ob-served in the summer solstice night sequences. In gardens of the earlier period, the part receiving most moonlight is the veranda rather than the gravel, while in gardens of the later period the white gravel remains the brightest part of the view. The simulations show how, especially in the sum-mer months, the low level of the moon from about midnight until 3 a.m. illuminates the rice paper Shoji, making it seem like a paper lantern. The architectural space appears to share the joy of moonlight with the garden.

At the same time, we observed that the use of pale gravel creates a more expressive gradient of moonlight reflection, showing a richer appearance in Edo period gardens. In charting our quantitative analysis, we observed that brightness peaks immediately after moonrise in the gardens of the earlier period, while it changes gradually in the lat-ter period. For example, the famous truncated cone of white sand known as ‘The Moon Viewing Height’ and ‘Sea of Silver Sand’ at Jisho-ji (The Temple of the Silver Pavilion) show a much richer and more gradual transition of light conditions through the night.

While our studies cannot be regarded as definitive, they nonetheless demonstrate that the poetic associations of lunar light with gardens can to some degree be investigated through carefully constructed simulations based on existing data. It is known that the Japanese had a practice of enjoy-ing moonlight until late into the night, and that they came to give a name to every waxing and waning moon. Our study confirms that the design of gardens and architecture were oriented towards aesthetic, spatial-temporal experiences of transitional moonlight.

Moonlight in Japanese Zen Buddhist temple gardens: an analytical simulation toru Mitani

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Figure 2 ‘Brightness gradation’ analysis in the view of five gar-dens, at the winter solstice, with the moon mid-air.

Through comparative analysis, the gardens of the Edo period are seen to be more successful in creating continuity of light conditions from garden to interior than the Muromachi period gardens.

図−２ 大仙院の景観シミュレーション図

図−２ 大仙院の景観シミュレーション図

Figure 1 Comparative simulation of actual garden at Dais-en-in with white gravel ground, with the hypotheti-cal earth floor garden, at the winter solstice, with the moon mid-air

The ‘view simulation’ shows the white gravel to be physically effective in providing light gain to the building, compared to the hypothetical garden with-out gravel. The quantitative analysis showed 1.9-fold gain in brightness on average for the interior, due to moonlight reflected from the gravel.

Journal of Landscape Architecture / spring 201148

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Figure 3 Brightness transition of the interior ‘fusuma’ screen of Jisho-ji at the winter solstice, with the moon mid-air (‘View simulation’ left, ‘Brightness gradation’ right).

The composition of the garden has a connection with the paintings in the ‘hojyo’ room. This simula-tion of the ‘fusuma’ paintings shows the subtle and beautiful transition of the moonlight reflected from the garden from early evening to midnight.

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Figure 4 The transition of the moonlight in the five gardens through the night of the winter solstice.

The ‘film strips’ indicate two-hourly transitions. The development of better lighting in later gardens is revealed. The view towards the gravel from the build-ing is different in the Muromachi and Edo period gar-dens. For example, the view at Ryoan-ji is restricted while at Shisen-do and Jisho-ji wider views are sup-ported and the continuity of moonlight environment from the garden to the interior is greater, providing soft contrast and variety compared to the sharper con-trast between the interior and exterior at Ryoan-ji.

Journal of Landscape Architecture / spring 2011 51

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Journal of Landscape Architecture / spring 201152

Figure 5 Transition of the moonlight in the five gardens through the night of the summer solstice (left to right: Ryoan-ji, Daisen-in, Shoden-ji, Shisen-do, Jisho-ji) (top to bottom: time of night 20:00, 22:00, 24:00, 24:45, 1:30, 3:00)

The summer moonlight differs from the winter sol-stice. The brightness of the gravel reduces so much in summer that moonlight becomes lost to the gardens of the earlier period. At Shisen-do and Jisho-ji however, the gravel remains the brightest feature of the night view, even in summer. In the gardens of Ryoan-ji and

Daisen-in the veranda becomes the brightest part of the view, disturbing continuity from the garden to the interior. Also notable is that from around midnight until 3 a.m. the moonlight directly illuminates the interior, especially the rice paper ‘Shoji’.

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Figure 6 Overlay of tree shadows on the garden under the summer solstice moonlight (top: Jisho-ji, bottom: Daisen-in).

In the summer months the moon has the lowest aspect and hence creates longer shadows. While at Jisho-ji the surface of the ‘Sea of Silver Sand’ remains the brightest part of the gar-den, at Daisen-in the floor is covered with shadows to the degree that moon-light reflection is almost lost.

Journal of Landscape Architecture / spring 2011 53

Biographical Notes

Toru Mitani, born in 1960 in Tokyo, is a registered landscape architect in Japan, professor at the Graduate School of Hor-ticulture, Chiba University and partner in the'Studio on Site' company (www.s-onsite.com). Mitani holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Gradu-ate School of Design, Harvard Universi-ty, and a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Tokyo. Design projects in-clude Kaze-no-Oka Crematorium (Ohita 1996), Shinagawa Central Garden (Tokyo 2003), Shimane Museum of Ancient Izu-mo landscape (Shimane 2006), Vertical Garden for the Nicolas G. Hayek Center (Tokyo 2007) and the Forest Therapy Trail at Okutama (Tokyo 2010). His pub-lications include Pilgrimage to the Con-temporary American Landscape (Maruzen 1990), What is Modernism in Landscape Design (Kajima Publication 2010), Designing the Field (with Fumihiko Maki,

Shokokusha 2011). Academic articles in-clude “The Simulation Analysis of Zen Buddhism Gardens under the Moon-light Environment”, Landscape Research Japan, Vol. 69 No.5, pp. 407-412, 2005, “A Spatial Study of Japanese Stroll Gar-dens through the Graphical Analysis of Luminous Environment under Tree Canopies”, Landscape Research Japan, Vol. 70 No.5, pp. 501-506, 2006.

Contact

Toru MitaniGraduate School of HorticultureChiba University648 MatsudoMatsudo-CityChiba 2718510Japanmitani@faculty.chiba-u.jp

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