Yet another beautiful temple…
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion is to be found in Kyoto. We had the priviledge of being able to visit this place on the lovelist sunny day! I just could not staring and taking pictures of the building.
Again – did not read much about it before we arrived…
The Lonely planet guidebook told us:
“ Kinkaku-ji, the famed ‘Golden Temple’, is one of Japan’s best known sights. Also known as Rokuon-ji, it belongs to the Shokokuji school.The original building was constructed in 1397 as a retirement villa for shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. His son, complying with his father’s wishes converted it into a temple.
The three storey pavilion is covered in bright gold leaf and features a bronze phoenix on top of the roof. The mirror like refection of the temple in the Kyo-ko pond is extremely photgenic, especially when the maples are ablaze in autumn. In 1950 a young mink consummated his obession with the temple by burning it to the ground. The monk’s story is fictionalised in Mishima Yukio’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. In 1955 a full reconstruction was completed, which followed the original design exactly, but the gold foil covering was extended to the lower floors.”
The helpful guide we were given said a little more but strangely enough did not mention any monks…
So we looked and stared and took lots of photographs…
Then afterwards we sat down for a cup of tea and a Japanese sweet – very calming.
Experience: priceless
The girl in the bubble 
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