Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Bonsai mention in the Taiheiki

I was reading The Taiheiki (a 14th century chronicle of medieval Japan) and came across a passage talking about bonsai and suiseki in the garden of Tani-no-do Temple: "The towers of forty-nine cloisters stood above rare trees and curious rocks by a pond, most like to the inner close of the Tusita heaven". Tusita is the Japanese name for Maitreya, an Indian prince nominated by Buddha to be his successor, so Tusita heaven loosely means paradise. By the way, in the book this garden has been destroyed by the bad guys.

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