Prof Norris Brock Johnson gives a talk and slide show of his book: Tenryu-Ji: Life and Spirit of a Kyoto Garden

Start: 11/27/2012 7:00 pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Tue 11/27 7pm-8pm

Prof Norris Brock Johnson gives a talk and slide show of his book: Tenryu-Ji: Life and Spirit of a Kyoto Garden

The Temple of the Heavenly Dragon (Tenryû-ji) is a Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple nested within the mountains of western Kyôto. Constructed in the 1340s, the temple and its venerated pond garden were a vital presence in historical events influencing the spiritual beliefs, practices, and aesthetic life of Japan.

This book is an anthropological study of the pond garden aspect of the temple, the heart of Tenryû-ji. Written so as to place the reader within the temple, we witness the pond garden emerge across generations through the designed interrelationship of buildings, nature, and people of influence as well as belief in the participatory presence of deities and ancestors – from Empress Danrin in the 8th century through Emperor Go-Saga in the 12th century to Emperor Go-Daigo, the Ashikaga shogunate, and the priest Musō Kokushi in the 13th century.

Norris Brock Johnson is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology at UNC Chapel Hill. During 1985–86 he was a Fulbright fellow and faculty member at the University of Tōkyō, Komaba, and Waseda University, Tōkyō, Japan. He continues to write about his on-site research on Buddhist temples and gardens in Kyōto and Kamakura as well as on cross-cultural conceptions of the interrelationship of religion and nature.