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context: gardens > dry gardens
Ryoan-ji
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Japan's most famous garden around the world. Its mysterious arrangement of rocks in groups of three, five and seven has become a standard in such gardens. There are various speculations about symbolic meanings, but I think most of the world sees it more as an abstract composition, and so do I.
It was built in the late 15th Century. Some attribute it to the Zen painter Soami, but this is far from certain. The moss around the stones grew naturally, but is now kept trimmed.
An interesting point about this revered garden is that a 1799 woodcut print shows people strolling around in it; this is unthinkable now, but we shouldn't assume that a woodcut picture proves it happened then.