Kinkakuji

Kinkakuji, also known as Golden Pavilion, locates in Kyoto. It's construction was started in 1397 to become residence for the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Kinkakuji was later converted into a Zen temple after death of Yoshimitsu. The current version of Kinkakuji is a carefully made replica, since the original one was burnt by monk in 1950. Yukio Mishima's fiction The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956) suggests one possibility of this monk's motive.

The idea of Kinkakuji was to resemble image of the Seven Treasure Pond - Buddhist paradise. The pond where it stands is designed beautifully to symbol paradise of nature. Several stones and designed islands symbol the Buddhist creation story.

The first floor of Kinkakuji is called Hosui-in (Chamber of Dharma Waters). This floor was used as reception hall for welcoming guests in the days of Yoshimitsu. First floor also contains beautiful veranda.

The second floor resembles style of samurai house. Here, Yoshimitsu invited his guests for meetings. This floor has many paintings of Kano Masabu, and also has beautiful image of Bodhisattva Kannon.

Third floor, known as Kukyocho, has only little space, and was used for tea ceremonies and less formal meetings. On the roof, there is bronze statue of a phonix which is also leafed in gold.

It is hard to crasp the dimensions of Kinkakuji. It stands 12.8 meters high and is 10.0 meters wide, and 15 meters long. Kinkakuji is perhaps the hardest thing to photograph in Japan - it is somehow aligned so that framing is hard against the landscape.

Kinkakuji has also inspired Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion, also located in Kyoto.

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