Kinkaku-ji
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Historic Monuments Of Ancient Kyoto (1994); Garden A Special Historic Site And Special Place Of Scenic Beauty · Kyoto, Kyoto
The Golden Pavilion, a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are covered in gold leaf, reflected in the Mirror Pond in front of it. Officially Rokuon-ji, it began as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who died in 1408, and was turned into a temple after his death. Each of the three floors is built in a different style: a palace style on the ground floor, a samurai house style on the second, and a Zen hall on the top, crowned by a golden phoenix. The building you see is a reconstruction; a young monk burned the original down in 1950, an event retold in Yukio Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and it was rebuilt in 1955 and regilded in the 1980s. The visit follows a one-way path around the pond and through the garden, past a teahouse and a small shrine, and you cannot enter the pavilion. It is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site. It is one of the most crowded sights in the city; go at opening. Snow on the gold roof in winter makes a rare and famous view.
1 Kinkakujicho, Kita Ward, Kyoto, Kyoto, 603-8361, Japan
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: open daily all year from morning, usually around 9 am, to late afternoon, around 5 pm, with the ticket window closing just before; there are no regular closing days. Traps: the visit takes under an hour but getting there by bus from Kyoto station can take forty minutes or more; after heavy snow some paths may close; typhoons can shut the temple for a day. Confirm times before relying on them.