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From Wikipedia:
Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, lit. 'Temple of the Golden Pavilion'), officially named Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺, lit. 'Deer Garden Temple'), is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the most popular buildings in Kyoto, attracting many visitors annually. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape and is one of 17 locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which are World Heritage Sites.
From Wikipedia:
Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, lit. 'Temple of the Golden Pavilion'), officially named Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺, lit. 'Deer Garden Temple'), is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the most popular buildings in Kyoto, attracting many visitors annually. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape and is one of 17 locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which are World Heritage Sites.
From Wikipedia:
Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, lit. 'Temple of the Golden Pavilion'), officially named Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺, lit. 'Deer Garden Temple'), is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the most popular buildings in Kyoto, attracting many visitors annually. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape and is one of 17 locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which are World Heritage Sites.
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
Part of the site: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
Description: "Built in A.D. 794 on the model of the capitals of ancient China, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan from its foundation until the middle of the 19th century. As the centre of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illustrates the development of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening the world over."
Year of inscription: 1994
Reference: whc.unesco.org/en/list/688/
If you have ever been to Japan, you have held Byodo-in in your hand, even if you didn't realise it. The thousand-year-old Pheonix Hall is proudly displayed on the back on the 10¥ coin. Byodo-in's buildings were repeatedly lost to fires over the centuries; however, the Phoenix Hall was never destroyed, making it one of the few original wooden structures to survive from the Heian Period.
The illuminations at Toji light up the autumn trees of the impressive pagoda in this UNESCO listed world heritage site in Kyoto.
Kiyomizudera, literally Pure Water Temple, is a celebrated Buddhist temple that overlooks the ancient city of Kyoto.
Last day of our Japan Autumn Workshop, it has been amazing. Watch this space for more photos to come.
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera in early autumn.
Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺), or the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion”, located at the food of Kyoto’s eastern mountains, Higashiyama, was originally built by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (足利 義政) in 1482 as a retirement villa. Yoshimasa, the 8th Ashikaga shogunate during the Muromachi period, modeled the Ginkaku-ji after Kinkaku-ji, the retirement villa commissioned by his grandfather, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogunate. After Yoshimasa’s death in 1490, Ginkaku-ji was converted to a zen temple, Jishō-ji (慈照寺), or the "Temple of Shining Mercy," which, today, is associated with the Shokoku-ji branch of Rinzai Zen.
As the retirement villa of an art obsessed shogun, Ginkakuji became the center of Higashiyama Bunka (東山文化), or Higashiyama Culture or the Culture of the Eastern Mountain, which unlike the Kitayama Bunka (北山文化) of his grandfather’s times, had a broad impact on the entire country. Based largely on the ideals and aesthetics of Zen Buddhism and the concept of wabi-sabi (beauty in simplicity), it was during Higashiyama Bunka that much of what is commonly seen today as traditional Japanese culture originated and developed, including chadō (Japanese tea ceremony), ikebana (flower arranging), Noh drama, and sumi-e ink painting.
The two-storied Kannon-den (観音殿), or Kannon hall, is the temple’s main structure and lends its popular name, Ginkaku, or the Silver Pavilion, to the temple. This name dates back, only, to the early Edo period, and its origin is is disputed. Some believe it is owed to Yoshimasa's initial plans--halted during the Onion War--to cover the pavilion's exterior in silver foil; others claim its due to the silvery appearance created by moonlight reflecting on the formerly black lacquered exterior. It is one of only two buildings, along with the Tōgudō, on the grounds to have survived intact over the years. The property also features wooded grounds, a Japanese garden designed by the great landscape artist Sōami, and a well known sand garden known as the "Sea of Silver Sand."