Ryōan-ji

This guide to Ryoan-ji in Kyoto starts with a simple challenge from the veranda: count the fifteen rocks arranged in the raked gravel, and you will only ever find fourteen from any seat. It traces the temple back to 1450 and its founder Hosokawa Katsumoto, through the Onin War that burned the grounds and the rebuilding that followed by his son. No document mentions a rock garden here until more than a century after that rebuilding, leaving historians to argue over who actually placed these stones.