Hokoku-ji Temple is a Zen temple of the Kencho-ji school of Rinzai Zen Buddhism, that is located in the northeast area of Kamakura-city, and is known for its beautiful bamboo garden with approximately 2000 Moso-dake bamboo trees.
This dense green bamboo grove attenuates sunlight and sounds with its thick green foliage, and presents the quiet and ethereal space which makes us deeply feel the peaceful and profound beauty of Zen philosophy.
This peaceful green garden must suggest the “Wabi” (the taste for the simplicity and quietness) worldview, which is traditionally inherited in Japanese culture based on Zen Buddhism. Wabi is the essential sense of beauty in Japanese art centered on the acceptance of the transience and imperfection of earthly beings.
In the precincts of the Zen temples of the Rinzai school in Kyoto and Kamakura, there are always thick bamboo groves that produce a essential atmosphere of austere and ascetic serenity.
Bamboo trees are straight, knotty, evergreen and hollow. These virtues are deeply associated with the Zen teachings such as humility, discipline, flexibility, non-attachment and transitoriness.
The sounds of bamboo trees slowly swaying in breezes may suddenly awaken us to the final spiritual enlightenment during harsh and deep meditation.
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