The Golden Pavilion 2, Rokuon-Ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
The Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku) was made into a Zen temple on the death of its owner, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, in the early 15th century. It had originally belonged to a nobleman and was converted by Yoshimitsu in 1397 into a villa for his retirement. The Pavilion that exists today is actually a copy of the original, which was destroyed in a fire started by a monk in 1950. Each of the three floors incorporates a different architectural style and the 2nd and 3rd floors are covered in gold-leaf on Japanese laquer. The Pavilion is surrounded by a pond named Kyōko-chi, or Mirror Pond. The Rokuon-Ji site was given World Cultural Heritage status in 1994.
Size: 5615px × 3662px
Photo credit: © Nicola McAteer / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: belief, buddha, buddhist, east, faith, garden, golden, horizontal, island, japan, japanese, kinakaku, kyōko-chi, lake, orient, oriental, pavilion, pond, religion, rokuon-ji, sacred, temple, travel, water, zen
