[jules' pics] 7/12/2010 08:46:00 PM

Gardening ballet at Meigetsuin
Originally uploaded by julesberry2001

Dry Zen gardens are usually free of all litter, with gravel raked into straight lines over the expanse, Only at the edges and islands (rocks), do the raked lines follow the coastlines.

Naturally, I had assumed that the gardens were normally raked at dawn by levitating monks, with the task occasionally being set as one of those impossible assignment for student monks. After almost a decade here, we finally caught someone in the act. It looks like, when the monks are occupied elsewhere, it is out of work ballet dancers that act as substitute garden rakers.

Hmm...that is really an insult to the Japanese workmen, whose dexterity is extraordinary. I wonder what big clumsy people do for a living here.

The video only shows the final part of the raking. I was enjoying the gardening ballet so much that I forgot that my pink camera has a video mode until it was almost too late.


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Posted By jules to jules' pics at 7/12/2010 08:46:00 PM