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A famous Japanese rock garden is at RyA?an-ji temple in northwest Kyoto, Japan. RyA?an-ji is a temple belonging to the Myoshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of the Zen sect, famous for its Zen garden.

The garden is constructed in Karesansui style. It is 30 meters long from east to west and 10 meters from north to south. There are no trees, just 15 irregularly shaped rocks of varying sizes, some surrounded by moss, arranged in a bed of white gravel/sand that is raked every day.

The rocks of various sizes are arranged on small white pebbles in five groups, each comprising five, two, three, two, and three rocks. The garden contains 15 rocks arranged on the surface of white pebbles in such a manner that visitors can see only 14 of them at once, from whichever angle the garden is viewed. According to legend, only when someone attains spiritual enlightenment as a result of deep Zen meditation can he see the last invisible stone with his mind’s eye.

The garden is not attributed to any single designer, although it is commonly believed that a leading monochrome artist named SA?ami (1480?-1525), in association with Daisen-in, designed and laid out the garden. However the temple records are contradictory and indicate some other makers, and the back of one of the 15 stones is inscribed with the names of Kotaro and Hikojiro, who might have been two of the workers that did the actual construction.

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