Kinkaku-ji

On 2nd July 1950 the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺, Kinkaku-ji) was destroyed in a fire started by a 21 year-old troubled monk. It was not the first time the temple had been lost: the Onin War (1467-1477) and the suceeding century of turmoil saw much of Kyoto lost to fire, including the Golden Temple. (Berry observes that "Before the modern era, war was unusual in Japan"). Yukio Mishima portrays fictional events leading to the 1950 fire in his novel "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion". By 1955 the Temple had been rebuilt, and additional gilding was carried out in the mid-eighties. This picture shows that earlier Kinkaku-ji, resplendent from age, use and a measure of decay. The three levels are in different architectural styles: the ground floor, the Chamber of Dharma Waters, in open Heian style, surmounted by the Tower of Roaring Waves in Samurai house style, and the final floor in Zen style. (It is a Rinzai temple). Each level is now gilded (with 48 kg of gold) and lacquered. The upper level houses an Amida triad and 25 Bodhisattvas, while below is the Buddha hall of the Kannon Bodhisattva. A Chinese fenghuang (鳳凰) tops the building.
I found the photograph in the Museum of Photography in Nara, sought out because of my interest in the architect Kisho Kurokawa. It's a bit off the regular trail, out of town - even the taxi driver had to ask directions.
Today Kinkaku-ji is difficult to view with fresh eyes. More intriguing is the unseen interior, which the guide books show to be of breathtaking beauty. I like the idea of making something beautiful that you cannot see at will, as it were, enjoyed only by the silent Bodhisattvas measuring time and bearing witness.

Copyright prevents me showing these beautiful photographs of Kinkaku-ji here, but they are among the best I have seen.

Incidentally, should you use a taxi, it is easy to arrive at The Silver Temple, Ginkaku-ji. The more you try to distinguish Gi- and Ki-, the more likely is the taxi driver to hear the opposite. "Ah so desu! Kinkaku-ji", and you go to Ginkaku-ji. Like "ice" and "eyes", easy when you know how!

Refs.
"The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto", Mary Elizabeth Berry, University of California Press, 1994
"The Temple of the Golden Pavilion", Yukio Mishima, trans. Ivan Morris, Penguin Twentieth Century Classics, 1987