Ryōan-ji in the context of "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto"

Hosokawa Katsumoto (細川 勝元; 1430 – June 6, 1473) was one of the Kanrei, the deputies to the Shōgun, during Japan's Muromachi period. He is famous for his involvement in the creation of Ryōan-ji, a temple famous for its rock garden, and for his involvement in the Ōnin War, which sparked the 130-year Sengoku period. His childhood name was Sumiakamaru (聡明丸).

His conflicts with his father-in-law, Yamana Sōzen, who resented the power Hosokawa had as Kanrei, were among those that ignited the Ōnin War in 1467. When the Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa had a son in 1464, Yamana took this as an opportunity to oppose Hosokawa further, supporting the child as heir to the Shogunate. Hosokawa had always worked closely with the Shōgun's brother Ashikaga Yoshimi and supported his claim to the shogunate.

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘び寂び) centers on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. It is often described as the appreciation of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". It is prevalent in many forms of Japanese art.

Wabi-sabi combines two interrelated concepts: wabi (侘) and sabi (寂). According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, wabi may be translated as "subdued, austere beauty", and sabi as "rustic patina". Wabi-sabi derives from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印, sanbōin), which include impermanence (無常, mujō), suffering (苦, ku), and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空, kū).

Daisugi (台杉) is a Japanese technique related to pollarding, used on Cryptomeria (sugi) trees. The term roughly translates to "platform cedar".

When applied in a silviculture context, the daisugi method requires trunks to be pruned every 2–4 years in order to maintain the straight, clear grain that they are coveted for.