Kinkaku-ji Temple

Timeline

1. c. 1220

   Saionji Kintsune Acquires the Land

   Around the second year of the Joukyu era, the courtier Saionji Kintsune exchanges his estate in Owari Province with the Hakuo royal house to acquire the Kitayama site.

2. 1224

   Kitayama-dai Villa Built

   Kintsune builds the Saion-ji temple and the lavish Kitayama-dai mountain villa with formal gardens; his Saionji descendants hold the land for generations.

3. 1397

   Yoshimitsu Builds Kitayama-dono

   Ashikaga Yoshimitsu trades estates in Kawachi for the Saionji property and rebuilds it as the Kitayama-dono, moving the seat of his political power to the villa.

4. 1399

   Kinkaku Reliquary Completed

   The first three-story pavilion — direct prototype of today's Kinkaku — is completed and, with the Shokoku-ji seven-story pagoda finished the same year, symbolizes the Kitayama culture.

5. 1420

   Renamed Rokuon-ji

   Following Yoshimitsu's will, his son Yoshimochi converts the villa into a Zen temple and renames it Rokuon-ji after Yoshimitsu's posthumous title Rokuon-in-dono.

6. 1467-1477

   Onin War Damage

   The temple becomes the Western Army camp during the Onin War; most halls burn, but the Kinkaku itself miraculously survives the flames.

7. 1649

   Edo-Era Major Repair

   Under Saisho Jotai's abbacy and Tokugawa patronage, principal halls are rebuilt and the Kinkaku receives a major Edo-period repair in Keian 2.

8. 1929

   Old National Treasure Designation

   Under the new National Treasure Preservation Law, the Kinkaku is designated an (old) National Treasure and placed under formal cultural property protection.

9. July 1950

   Kinkaku-ji Arson Incident

   A 21-year-old novice monk, Hayashi Yoken, sets fire to the pavilion; it burns entirely along with ten Buddhist images, later inspiring Yukio Mishima's novel.

10. 1955

    Kinkaku Rebuilt

    Construction begins in 1952 and the dedication ceremony is held on 10 October 1955, restoring the pavilion to its founding-era form from prewar dismantling drawings.

11. 1986-1987

    Showa Restoration

    The pavilion is re-leafed with roughly 20 kg of 0.5-micrometer gold leaf — the brilliance visitors see today dates from this restoration.

12. December 1994

    UNESCO World Heritage Inscription

    Inscribed as one of the seventeen constituent properties of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto'.

Detailed History

Rokuon-ji's history reaches back to the Kamakura period. Around 1220 Saionji Kintsune acquired the site, and in 1224 he built the Saion-ji temple and the lavish Kitayama-dai villa here. The Saionji served the court as kanto-moshitsugi, intermediaries between the imperial court and the Kamakura bakufu, holding the land for generations. In 1335 the head of the house Saionji Kinmune was found plotting Emperor Go-Daigo's assassination and executed; the estate was confiscated and the villa decayed. In 1397, the third Ashikaga shogun Yoshimitsu traded estates in Kawachi for the Kitayama site and raised his new mountain villa, the Kitayama-dono. Though he had passed the shogunate to his son Yoshimochi in 1394, Yoshimitsu retained real power and ruled from this villa on a scale said to rival the imperial palace. The Kinkaku was completed around 1399, and with the Shokoku-ji seven-story pagoda finished the same year — at roughly 109 m the tallest Buddhist pagoda in Japanese history — formed the architectural emblem of Kitayama culture. After Yoshimitsu's death in 1408, Yoshimochi followed his father's will and in 1420 converted the villa into a Zen temple, naming it Rokuon-ji and making it a satellite of Shokoku-ji in the Rinzai school, with Muso Soseki nominally as founding abbot. During the Onin War (1467-77) the temple was the Western Army camp and most halls burned, but the Kinkaku escaped. In the Edo period Saisho Jotai was installed as abbot under Ieyasu, halls were rebuilt, and the Kinkaku received a major repair in 1649. The Meiji haibutsu kishaku stripped most of the land, but the twelfth abbot Kanshu Joichi began charging admission in 1894 to secure income. The pavilion was designated a Specially Protected Building in 1897 and elevated to old National Treasure in 1929. On the predawn of 2 July 1950, a 21-year-old monk Hayashi Yoken set fire to the Kinkaku, destroying it with ten Buddhist images. Hayashi survived a suicide attempt while his mother took her own life next day at Hozukyo Gorge — events that became Mishima's novel (1956). Reconstruction began 1952 and was dedicated on 10 October 1955 from the 1904-06 drawings. The 1986-87 Showa restoration re-leafed the pavilion, Sekka-tei was restored in 1997, and the Hojo in 2005-07. In December 1994 the temple was inscribed under the UNESCO World Heritage 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto'.

Cultural Significance

Rokuon-ji, popularly Kinkaku-ji, is one of the seventeen constituent properties of the UNESCO World Heritage Site 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto', inscribed in December 1994. Its gardens were designated Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty on 8 October 1925, and elevated to Special Historic Site and Special Place of Scenic Beauty on 19 July 1956. The garden preserves Kamakura-era Saionji landscape elements and is internationally regarded as a model Muromachi Zen pond garden. The popular name Kinkaku-ji comes from the reliquary's gold-leaf cladding, while the formal name Rokuon-ji (Hokuzan Rokuon Zen-ji) derives from the posthumous title of the founder Yoshimitsu. As the heart of Kitayama culture the villa served as Yoshimitsu's political seat, patron of Zeami and the rise of Noh and Kyogen, and a hub for Ming-trade — a cultural high point of the Muromachi bakufu. The 1950 arson left a deep mark on postwar Japanese letters: Mishima's 1956 novel has been translated into many languages as a classic of world literature. With Kawabata Ryushi's painting Kinkaku in Flames and Mizukami's two novels, the fire drew one of the largest artistic responses to a single postwar event. Today around four million visitors come each year, and with Ginkaku-ji the Silver Pavilion the two form the gold-and-silver pairing of Kyoto Zen-temple tourism.

Architectural Details

The reliquary hall Kinkaku is a three-story wooden tower facing south on Kyokochi Pond. Its roof is hokkei-zukuri (pyramidal) in kokera-buki cypress shingles topped by a bronze phoenix; with no eaves between the first and second floors, it is formally 'two-tiered, three-story'. The first floor is bare timber, while the second and third are sheathed in gold leaf on outer faces and railings; the third floor interior is also gilded except for the boards. The first two floors share a five-by-four plan; the third is a smaller three-by-three square. Each floor shows a distinct style: the first, Hosui-in ('Chamber of Dharma Waters'), is shinden-zukuri of Heian aristocracy; the second, Choon-do ('Tower of Sound Waves'), is buke-zukuri of the Kamakura warrior class; the third, Kukkyo-cho ('Cosmic Summit'), is karayo Zen-hall style — a rare integration of three traditions, considered a culmination of early Muromachi building. The Kukkyo-cho tablet was first by Emperor Go-Komatsu (today's is a copy). The 1955 rebuild used the 1904-06 drawings plus a surviving gold-leafed second-floor corner timber preserved as a vase — that fragment justified re-gilding the second floor, though Miyaue Shigetaka argues it was never originally gilded. The 1986-87 Showa restoration applied around 20 kg of 0.5-micrometer gold leaf, five times traditional thickness.