KINKAKU-JI TEMPLE (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)
Kinkaku-ji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) is one of seventeen UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kyoto. It was built by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358 – 1408) the third Ashikaga shogun in 1397. Yoshimitsu was a devout Buddhist and at the age of 37 he retired as shogun and entered the priesthood. Yoshimitsu built a retirement villa, which he covered with gold leaf (hence, the Golden Pavilion).
Yoshimitsu’s retirement villa was located in the Kitayama (“North Mountain”) region of Kyoto. There he sponsored arts and artists. The artist community formed a culture called Kitayama Culture (“north mountain culture” or in Japanese, Kitayama Bunka). During the Kitayama Culture arts such as the tea ceremony, renga or linked verse in poetry, Noh, flower arrangement and ink painting were advanced. In 1408, the emperor stayed there. It was the first recorded stay of an emperor in the house of a non-aristocrat
Along the entrance to complex, there is a tree shaded path leading to a beautiful garden and to the Golden Pavilion. The pavilion is topped by a bronze phoenix and Mt. Kinugase forms the background. It is a combination of Shinden, Buke, and Chinese Zen styles.
Shinden style refers to a building complex laid out as three sides of a square with the shin-den (main hall) in the center of the middle side, and the garden, pond, and streams in front. Shinden style was typical for emperors and nobles in the much earlier Heian Era. Buke style refers to the austere style favored by the buke (samurai or warriors) in the Kamakura Era, with stables and servants quarters that had no extra decorations, sometimes described as “unadorned functionality.”
The roof is in the hyōgō–zukuri style. It is square and is decorated with a metal ball called a hōju at its peak. And, of course, Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) has gold leaf on the inside and outside of the second and third stories. Its lower floors are residential shinden style. The upper floor is Chinese. It was a retreat for meditation and the tea ceremony.
The pond named Kyōku (“mirror lake”) because of the way the pond reflects the villa. Attached to the pavilion is Tsuridono or “fishing pier” that nicely breaks up the square outlines of the villa.
The garden is a superb example of Muromachi Period garden design. The word “basara” which means exquisite licentiousness is used to describe it.
After Yoshimitsu died, the retreat was turned into a temple. Its formal name is Rokuon-ji and it is affiliated with the Shōkoku-ji school of Rinzai Buddhism. Only the Golden Pavilion survives of the original retreat.
Kinkaku-ji is often compared to Ginkaku-ji (The Temple of the Silver Pavilion). Kinkaku-ji was built in 1397 at the peak of the Muromachi Shogunate. The building’s façade is excellent example of rich and extravagant culture of the age. Yoshimitsu was a strong military leader who took Zen orders and established the monastery of Shōkoku-ji, which became an important center of fine arts. For retirement he built the Golden Pavilion, intended to reflect the greatness of its maker. Ginkaku-ji was built 92 years later in 1489, when civil war had turned Kyoto into a burnt out wasteland and the people, despairing for the future, had turned to religion in hopes of happiness in the after-life. Ginkaku-ji was built by Yoshimitsu’s grandson, Yoshimasa, who in the midst of the Ōnin War, decided to abandon governing and direct his life towards aesthetics. The mood of the times is reflected in each of these buildings.
Like other sights in Kyoto, it is not the original. The entire retreat was burnt down during the Ōnin War, a ten year civil war that destroyed Kyoto. It was rebuilt after the war. In 1950 a young priest set fire to the building and destroyed it. He was so entranced by the beauty of the pavilion that he entered the priesthood just to be near it. He became obsessed with the idea that the only thing that could bring his aesthetic senses to perfection would be the sight of the building in flames. The pavilion was rebuilt in an exact replica in 1953 and this is what is seen nowadays.