Japan · KyotoMoss Garden
When the rains reach Kyoto, the moss deepens with every shower and the snail comes out.
What you’ll hear
- Soft rain
- Forest breeze
- Birdsong
In the 3D scene you can change the time, season and weather, or follow the local time.
About this place
Kyoto lies in a basin with hills on three sides and gets about 1,520 mm of rain a year, most of it in June and July. Many of its temples keep moss gardens; Saihō-ji, the Moss Temple, has more than 120 kinds, which spread across the garden on their own from the late Edo period. This scene is no particular temple. It simply sets the camera 3 cm above the ground over one patch of moss: cherry petals in spring, hydrangeas in the rains, red maple leaves in autumn, a thin snow in winter.
The lead is a banded snail that covers a little over a millimetre a second and seals its shell with a film to sleep through winter. In the rainy season a tree frog hops up beside it, and at night a firefly may settle on its shell. Spring brings ladybirds and cabbage whites, autumn a red dragonfly, winter a white-eye pecking at the camellias. At dawn and late at night a tanuki sometimes passes in the distance. Behind it all stand a mossy stone lantern and a corner of the temple veranda.
Through the year
Scaled from Japan Meteorological Agency normals for Kyoto, 1991–2020.
Month by month
- JanuaryColdest month; now and then a thin snow
- FebruaryCamellias bloom; white-eyes come for nectar
- MarchCherry blossom opens late in the month
- AprilFull bloom early on; petals fall on the moss
- MayFresh green; fireflies from late in the month
- JuneThe rains begin; hydrangeas bloom
- JulyThe wettest month; the rains end mid-month
- AugustHottest month; afternoons often above 33°C
- SeptemberMore rain again as the heat eases
- OctoberCooler and drier
- NovemberMaples redden; first frost late in the month
- DecemberMaples at their reddest; first snow mid-month
Four seasons
Early April · Cherry blossom
Tender green moss, cherry petals scattered across it and a fine afternoon rain.
June · Rainy season
Blue-violet hydrangeas, beads of water on the moss tips and fireflies after dark.
Late November · Maple leaves
Dry, clear days, red maple leaves all over the moss and a canopy of red and orange.
Late January · Light snow
A thin snow on the moss, the snail sealed in its shell and camellias in red flower.
Best moments
Spring rain
Spring · Afternoon
A spring day of fine rain on the moss as the snail ventures out from under the mushroom.
Hydrangeas in the rains
Rainy season · Afternoon
In the rainy season the hydrangeas behind bloom blue-violet and the rain comes down thicker.
Fireflies in the rains
Rainy season · Night
A rainy-season night: the stone lantern lit and fireflies drifting over the moss.
Lantern on a spring night
Spring · Night
After dark the garden dims to the single warm light of the stone lantern.
Autumn leaves at dawn
Autumn · Dawn
An autumn dawn with red maple leaves on the moss and the snail inching past them.
Camellias in winter
Winter · Afternoon
In winter a thin snow lies on the moss, the camellias are red and a small bird sits on a branch.
Snow at night
Winter · Night
The winter garden at night is all blue, snow still falling, the camellias red in the dark.
Not a particular temple but a miniature set modelled on Kyoto’s temple moss gardens. The snail rests at night by design, to keep you company as you fall asleep; real snails are most active after dark. The birdsong was recorded in Tokyo.
In the 3D scene you can change the time, season and weather, or follow the local time.
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