Five Seasons of Scenic Beauty chapter 5

In most of the world there are four seasons, but here at Saihoji Temple, we count the rainy season as a separate season, so we have five seasons. Over the course of over one hundred visits, photographer Nakata Akira has captured the beauty of these five seasons at Saihoji. We hope you will enjoy the distinctively “Saihoji” moments immortalized in his work.

Time to Rest

With the leaves dressed in their vivid fall colors overlaying the velvety green of the moss, the garden in November offered visitors a fiery scene of breathtaking beauty. But as temperatures go down, these fall views slowly fade from our memories, and as we move into December, the moss gradually draws down its activity and takes on a deep green hue. Blanketed in fallen cypress leaves, the entire garden enters its silent slumber.

“As well as us, moss needs time to rest,” says Mr. Miyazaki, the gardener. Only a person who spends all of his days tending to a garden can speak like that. In the winter, he stops sweeping the surface of the moss, instead spending his time maintaining his tools and repairing the things he usually cannot get around to. Despite the frost and frigid temperatures as low as two or three degrees Celsius below freezing, the moss remains alive and well, thanks to the trees around the garden maintaining a certain level of humidity. It stirs the heart to see these small bodies of moss clinging to the ground as they adapt to the harsh environment in which they live.

It is said that the winter solstice (around December 21) marks the turning point of winter, when the harshest times are already behind us, and we look ahead to the coming warmth of spring. In reality, however, it is the most difficult time of the year, when the cold is at its peak. As the days gradually get longer and brighter, and soft light envelops the garden, the 120 or so varieties of moss faintly begin to sense the arrival of spring and awaken one by one. Slowly they become more active, and small, yellow-green sprouts emerge, filling the entire garden with a breath of new life.

This will be the final installment of “Five Seasons of Scenic Beauty.” The aim of this series was to introduce readers to the charms of the five seasons in the moss garden—seasons that repeat themselves in the flows of nature, time, and human activity.

I hope that you, too, will visit Saihoji again in different seasons. Even if it is physically difficult to visit, I'll be happy if my series reminds you of the time you spend in the garden.

Nakata Akira

Born 1951 in Kyoto.
A  member of the Japan Professional Photographers Society (J.P.S). He is a famous photographer of landscapes, gardens and festivals on the theme of “Kyoto culture”, and has published several books.
His main publications are
“SAIHOJI SHIN JYUKKYO” (Saihokai Association),
“Going through the Tale of Genji”, “Kyoto’s Festival Calendar” (Shogakukan),
“KYOTO IMPERIAL PALACE, OMIYA / SENTO IMPERIAL PALACE”,
“KATSURA IMPERIAL VILLA / SHUGAKUIN IMPERIAL VILLA”,
“Kyoto Gion Festival”,
“Kyo Shun Kan” (Kyoto Shimbun Publishing Center),“Japanese Gardens: Kyoto” (PIE INTERNATIONAL), and more

* Unauthorized quotation or reproduction of the text and photographs in this article is strictly prohibited.