What was the purpose of dry landscape gardens?
Many, with gravel rather than grass, are only stepped into for maintenance. Classical zen gardens were created at temples of zen buddhism in kyoto during the muromachi period. They were intended to imitate the essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid for meditation. zen gardens are structured around seven guiding principles: austerity (koko), simplicity (kanso), naturalness (shinzen), asymmetry (fukinsei), mystery or subtlety (yugen), magical or unconventional (datsuzoku) and stillness (seijaku). Your zen garden should promote most or all of these concepts.