Nishida Kitarō's (西田幾多郎 1870-1945) famous poem is immortalized in stone on the path. It is an angry retort to blind nationalism.

people are people,
and I will be myself.
regardless,
the path I follow
I will follow on…
人は人吾はわれ也とにかくに吾行く道を吾は行くなり

Towards the middle of April parts of the canal beside the Philosopher's Path (哲学の道) become a river of petals.
The phrases 'hana-no-ukibashi' (花の浮橋 'floating bridge of flowers') and 'hanaikada' (花筏 'flower raft') both describe water thick with petals.

First opened in 1890 (lengthened in 1912), the irrigation channel that the Philosopher's Path (哲学の道) follows is fed by water from the Lake Biwa Canal. The 2km course (which takes about 30 minutes to walk) is lined with over 500 sakura trees.

there’s a single stem-
I thought-of chrysanthemum, yet
at Ōsawa
pond, within there is another;
who planted it, I wonder?

ひともとと
思ひし菊を
大沢の
池の底にも
誰か植ゑけむ

Ki-no-Tomonori's (紀友則 850-904) well-known poem references Ōsawa's famed chrysanthemum.
#大覚寺 #Kyoto

Along with Nara’s Sarusawa-ike (奈良・猿沢池) and Shiga’s Ishiyama-dera (滋賀県・石山寺), Ōsawa-no-ike was counted 1 of the Heian period's 3 famed Moon-Viewing Spots.

Nowadays the pond is most famed for the sakura and momiji trees (around 650 in total) that line the banks.

During Emperor Saga's time a terrible epidemic struck. Kūkai (空海) advised him to copy out the Heart Sutra, and sure enough the plague was ended. The original is displayed every 60 years (next in 2078).

In 876 Saga's daughter, Princess Masako, turned the palace into Daikaku-ji.

though the sound
of the cascade
long since has ceased
we still hear the murmur
of its name

滝の音は
絶えて久しく
なりぬれど
名こそ流れて
なほ聞えけれ

Fujiwara-no-Kintō's (大納言公任 966-1041) poem (55 of the Hyakunin Isshu 百人一首) was inspired by the gardens.
#百人一首 #Kyoto

Designed by the court painter Kose-no-Kanaoka (巨勢金岡) or possibly the artist Kudara-no-Kawanari (百済河成 782-853), the pond was inspired by Dongting Lake (洞庭湖) in China.

The entire gardens were landscaped to be enjoyed from boats on the pond.

Ōsawa-no-ike was most probably dug some time from 814, when Emperor Saga (嵯峨天皇 786-842) began work on a sprawling palace that would act as his seat of power in retirement.

The pond was part of "Saga-in's" (離宮嵯峨院) vast garden, intended primarily as a boating lake.