A novice monk burned it down in 1950: today's gold is from 1987, 200,000 leaves and twenty kilos.
The pavilion you photograph is not the one from 1397: on 2 July 1950 a novice monk at the temple, twenty-one years old, set fire to it, and this is the 1955 reconstruction. The gold is recent too: between February 1986 and October 1987 about two hundred thousand leaves were applied, twenty kilos in all, five times thicker than normal. The three floors are in three different styles, and the pond in front reflects all three.
Its real name is Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺), literally ‘temple of the deer park’: the Golden Pavilion is the building that makes it recognisable, not the whole temple. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, head of the Muromachi military government, began building it in 1397, diverting water from the Kamo River for the pond. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994 as part of the ‘Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto’.
ℹ️ Paid admission, with set opening hours; the route is one-way and you cannot go back.
🚉 Kinkakuji-michi (Kinkakuji Temple) · 5 min walk
Holidays in Japan? Plan them with us.Over 2,000 real places, a day-by-day itinerary.FreeOpen the map →You and I Are Polar Opposites
A stop on the school trip in the eleventh episode.
Sources: libert.co.jp · seichi-shioricho.com · shokoku-ji.jp · ja.wikipedia.org
Nearby
Kitano Tenman-gū1.1 kmphoto by z tanuki · CC BY 3.0
Ryoan-ji1.2 kmphoto by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 3.0
Funaoka Onsen1.4 kmphoto by iloverjoa · CC BY 3.0
Kamishichiken1.4 kmphoto by 今紫 · CC BY-SA 4.0