1 Fuji-san (Mount Fuji)
2 Hagi
3 Hiroshima
4 Iriomote-jima
5 Kamakura
6 Kanazawa
7 Kinkakuji Temple, Kyoto
8 Miyajima
9 Todaiji Temple, Nara
10 Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo
One of Japan's best-known sights, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion is resplendent in its beautiful garden setting.
Kyoto has so many temples and gardens that it is perhaps invidious to single out any particular ones among them; but there are one or two that have achieved, for various reasons, particular fame, and Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, is chief among these.
Located in the northwest of the city, it was originally built in 1397 as a country retirement villa for Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun, whose son later converted it to a temple. It has clearly exerted a grip on the Japanese ever since; so much so that it was burned to the ground in 1950 by a monk obsessed with its gilded charm. Reconstruction of the pavilion began in 1955. Covered in gold leaf five times the original thickness, the reborn pavilion was completed only in 1987. Although to the layman it is an exquisite example of classical Japanese architecture, the pavilion is actually in three styles. The first floor is 'palace' style, representing the Heian period, the apogee of courtly elegance; the second is 'samurai house' style, like a temple hall, with a statue of Kannon Bosatsu; and the third is austere, bare 'Zen temple' style, with a statue of Amida, the Buddha of the Pure Land. The Golden Pavilion - the most beautiful among a number of pavilions on the site - sits on the edge of a lake dotted with islets and surrounded by woodland, which, on still days, perfectly mirrors it in its waters.Address: Kinkakuji-michi, Kyoto
Hours: Daily 9-5
Bus: 59, 205
Accessible: None
Admission: Cheap
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