During the Edo period, the large promenade garden became the dominant style of Japanese garden, but zen gardens continued to exist at zen temples. A few small new rock gardens were built, usually as part of a garden where a real stream or pond was not practical.
In 1880, the buildings of Tōfuku-ji temple in Kyoto, one of the oldest temples in the city, were destroyed by a fire. In 1940, the temple commissioned the landscape historian and architect Shigemori Mirei to recreate the gardens. He created four different gardens, one for each face of the main temple building. He made one garden with five artificial hills covered with grass, symbolizing the five great ancient temples of Kyoto; a modern rock garden, with vertical rocks, symbolizing Mount Horai; a large “sea” of white gravel raked in a checkboard pattern; and an intimate garden with swirling sand patterns.[12]
In the last century, zen gardens have appeared in many countries outside Japan.