GINKAKU-JI TEMPLE

Introduction and Background

Ginkaku-ji (Temple of the Silver Pavilion) was built by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490). There Yoshimasa gathered a group of artists and created Higashiyama Culture (Higashiyama bunka). Ginkaku-ji’s understated, almost severe, canon of taste came to form the highest standard in all subsequent Japanese aesthetics. It is a Zen temple, associated with the Shokoku-ji branch of Rinzai Zen, whose name is Jisho-ji.

Yoshimasa was made shogun at the age of three and never had an interest in ruling.  He had named his brother as his successor, but when his wife, Hino Tomiko (1440-1496) gave birth to a son, she pressured him to change the succession. A dispute broke out between powerful factions in Kyoto, which resulted in the Ōnin War.  The Ōnin War (1467-1477) devastated Kyoto and reduced the city from hundreds of thousands to about forty thousand. 

Yoshimasa was never much of a ruler but instead chose to devote his life to aesthetics. Yoshimasa had already rebuilt the Hana-no-Gosho, or Flower Palace, considered one of the great architecture creations of the times. During the Ōnin War, Yoshimasa created his own separate world to escape from the devastation that was going on around him. He spent his time in the pursuit of arts and planning Ginkaku-ji.

Ginkaku-ji was originally built to serve as a place of rest and solitude. During his reign, Yoshimasa inspired a new outpouring of traditional culture, which came to be known as Higashiyama Bunka (the Culture of the Eastern Mountain).

Ginkaku-ji was the site of the height of Higashiyama Culture of the Muromachi Period. At Ginkaku-ji, Yoshimasa assembled a great number of the leading artists. The area was dedicated to such pursuits as moon-gazing, poetry composition, incense appreciation, and flower-viewing.

Higashiyama Bunka artists’ artistic ideal and aesthetics were heavily influence by Zen Buddhism with the concept of wabi-sabi (beauty in simplicity). They furthered the development of chadō (Japanese tea ceremony), ikebana (flower arranging), Noh, sumi-e (ink wash painting) and renga (linked verse). Much of what is commonly thought of as Japanese culture originated or developed during this period. The grounds and gardens of The Silver Pavilion were the scene of the contemplation and creative activity of men celebrated in several fields of art– Noami, Geiami, Soami, Kanze, and Sesshu. Sesshū Tōyō (1420 –1506) was the most prominent Japanese master of ink and wash painting. The Ami family, who had originally been sponsored by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun, continued to play a great role in arts.  Noami was a companion of Yoshimasa during Yoshimitsu’s rule. Geiami (1431-85), the son of Noami, and Sōami (1455-1525), the grandson of Noami, continued as the arbiters of taste for the shogun.

In tribute to his grandfather, Yoshimitsu, who covered Kinkaku-ji with gold leaf, Yoshimasa intended to finish his with silver. As the Ōnin War dragged on, construction was halted. Despite Yoshimasa’s intention to cover the structure with a silver-foil overlay, this work was delayed for so long that the plans were never realized before Yoshimasa’s death. The present appearance of the structure is understood to be the same as when Yoshimasa himself last saw it. This “unfinished” appearance illustrates one of the aspects of “wabi-sabi” quality.

Yoshimasa had retired to become a Zen Buddhist monk. After his death, the villa and gardens became a Buddhist temple complex, renamed Jishō-ji after Yoshimasa’s Buddhist name.

Ginkaku-ji is also culturally significant for its architectural achievements and garden design. Ginkaku-ji had many innovations. The Tōgudō building includes a shoin-style room called the Dōjinsai, which is considered the earliest extant room designed to be used as a tea room. Another was the tokonoma, a small alcove in a room in which scrolls are hung and flowers or other small decorative pieces are placed to enhance the aesthetic feel of the room.

Features:

Togudo Hall was Yoshimasa’s residence and contains a study built with tatami floor, paper window, and tokonoma (alcove area) – this new style became standard for Japanese housing. The hall also comprises a tearoom, which was one of the first specially designed for tea ceremony and the prototype for later models

The Silver Pavilion is quiet and restrained and simple. It contains a shrine and rooms for rest and recreation with views over the garden. The two-storied Kannon-den (Kannon hall), is the main temple structure. The structure’s design sought to emulate the golden Kinkaku-ji. It is popularly known as the “Silver Pavilion” because of the initial plans to cover its exterior in silver foil. The double roof is in the Hōgyō style, square and decorated with a metal ball called a hōju at its peak. The second story is a butsuma (Buddhist altar room) housing a statue of Kannon.

Ginkaku-ji was built on the edge of a miniature lake, whose steppingstones, islets, and bridges consist of stones contributed by the aristocracy from all over Japan. There is a temple in the grounds and near it a mound of white sand piled up in a regular, conical form to make a “moon-viewing platform” And just beyond the temple is a small building of four and a half mats which claims the distinction of being the first tea ceremony room in Japan.

The tea ceremony developed during this period into a simple Zen inspired ceremony under Yoshimasa’s tea master, Murata Shuko or Juko.  Murata (1423-1502) saw potential in the Way of Tea in which spiritual development would be furthered by subjugating the ego. Under Juko, the tea ceremony evolved into a simple ritualized and disciplined ceremony performed in a hut, the 4 ½ mat tearoom. The utensils were simple, often imperfect pots to express wabi-sabi aesthetics, which also celebrated the charm of such objects. His ideas were later refined by Sen no Rikyū, at Daitoku-ji.

The view from the teahouse reveals no flowers, no bright colors, not even a glimpse of water, but only pine trees and underneath them undulating stretches of moss on the ground. The Japanese call this shibui, “astringent.”

Garden

Kōgetsudai – a white sand cone designed to reflect moonlight and make the garden appear more beautiful at night. Yoshimasa’s original vision had been of a silver-coated pavilion gleaming in the moonlight. Here was to be the moon-viewing heart of the moon-viewing capital. The pond garden of Yoshimasa later supplemented by a Sea of Silvery Sand designed to reflect the rays of the moon. Ginshadan is an area of white sand representing a Chinese lake.

The special bamboo framework supporting the hedge on either side of the approach to the temple is unique to Ginkaku-ji and is known as Ginkaku-ji-gaki.