Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion)

Overview:

The Gold­en Tem­ple, the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple stands as an incred­i­ble Zen Tem­ple dat­ing back to 1397 con­ceived by the for­mer Japan­ese mil­i­tary leader Yoshim­it­su which fea­tures three stun­ning sto­ries, each set in its own unique archi­tec­ture rep­re­sent­ing an ele­ment of Japan­ese cul­ture — and for which the top two floors are cov­ered in pure gold leaf, which sparkles in the reflect­ing pris­tine lake and glo­ri­ous maple trees that frame the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple – mak­ing it not just an embod­i­ment of Japan’s fas­ci­nat­ing cul­ture but also a tru­ly unique and stun­ning won­der of the world.

Also known as the tem­ple of fire – due to the temple’s shim­mer­ing reflec­tion in the lake below it, the 12-metre-high tem­ple has faced its share of hard­ship and fire relat­ed mishaps, burn­ing down twice in the Japan­ese Civ­il war and again when it was set ablaze by a mad Monk who lived with­in it and attempt­ed to com­mit Sep­puku – lead­ing to the tem­ple being re-built and revar­nished in Gold in 1955.

Although access to the tem­ple is for­bid­den, the three floors of the stun­ning tem­ple and the Gold­en Phoenix stat­ue that sits atop it are view­able from numer­ous van­tage points and the exquis­ite Japan­ese gar­dens that sur­round the Kinkaku­ji tem­ple – with vis­i­tors also encour­aged to receive their for­tune as they exit the tem­ple, mean­ing that a vis­it to this incred­i­ble won­der will not just be some­thing that enthrals you in the present, but could even play a key role in dic­tat­ing your future.

Where:

The Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple sits in the north of the major Japan­ese city of Kyoto and is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble by pub­lic trans­port, bike or car.

Get­ting there: Hav­ing made your way to Kyoto – either by bul­let train from Tokyo of through direct flight, you’ve got a cou­ple of options to reach the won­der of Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple.

First­ly giv­en the tem­ple lies in the north of Kyoto, it might be eas­i­er for those with a decent wal­let to grab a taxi there first thing in the morn­ing, to allow your­self to be one of the first into the com­plex.

For those with­out Taxi or who want to expe­ri­ence the incred­i­bly Japan­ese pub­lic trans­port sys­tem, start­ing from Kyoto sta­tion found in the heart of Kyoto – you can take either the 101 or 205 bus – or take the under­ground on the Kara­suma Line from JR Kyoto Sta­tion to Kitao­ji sta­tion, and then take a taxi or bike to the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple – just make sure to plan your trav­el times in advance to avoid peak tourists time at the won­der.

Best time to Visit:

When­ev­er you go to the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple you’re guar­an­teed two things, an incred­i­ble won­der – and large crowds, with the tem­ple being one of the top tourism spots in the coun­try.

For this rea­son we’d sug­gest vis­it­ing on a week­day, prefer­ably Mon­day at either first thing or two hours before the tem­ple clos­es at 5 – with bus­loads of tourists tend­ing to be dropped off between 11 and 2 dur­ing the day.

For the best sea­son to vis­it, if you can time your vis­it for autumn, you’ll get to see the mag­nif­i­cence of the tem­ple against the back­drop of the autumn leaves from the stun­ning trees that frame the tem­ple, which com­bined with the incred­i­ble reflec­tion in the lake and the fact that autumn is con­sid­ered off peak sea­son for tourism makes for a stun­ning and enjoy­able time to explore the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple.

Explore:

The Tem­ple itself, while not allow­ing explores inside is best viewed and explored from mul­ti­ple angles, with the tem­ple incor­po­rat­ing three dis­tinc­tive styles of archi­tec­ture on each floor – which sup­pos­ed­ly rep­re­sents dif­fer­ent ele­ments of the Kitaya­ma cul­ture from the Temple’s con­struc­tion in 1397 and at the wish of Yoshim­it­su.

While it’s incred­i­bly impor­tant to get to Kinkaku­ji either at it’s open­ing or before it’s clos­ing hours for max­i­mum enjoy­ment, the below are the key sites to observe and explore when vis­it­ing the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple:

Gateway and Viewing Platform

The first site you’ll pass through upon get­ting your tick­et for the Tem­ple is the Somon – the main gate of the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple – itself a stun­ning exam­ple of Shin­to archi­tec­ture, as you fol­low the path­way in front of you you’ll pass a series of trees, which are espe­cial­ly beau­ti­ful in Autumn and lead you down the path­way to the main view­ing point of the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple.

From here you’ll need you cam­era had­ny as you snap some incred­i­bly pho­tos of the won­der and from where you’ll be able to see the beau­ty of the Gold Tem­ple reflect­ing in the lake – and the three floors of the tem­ple all with their own unique sto­ry.

Shariden Kinkaku (First Floor)

The First floor of the Tem­ple, known as the Shari­den Kinkaku floor, was built in the Japan­ese style of Shin­den-Zukuri, it’s notable that despite the Tem­ple being called the Gold­en Tem­ple, this floor is absent Gold and is con­struct­ed entire­ly from wood­en beams which echoes it’s pur­pose as being used as a recep­tion hall in the days when the Yoshim­it­su occu­pied the tem­ple.

Aloong­side the open nature of this floor, those with good eye­sight (or Binoc­u­lars) will be able to peak through the open win­dows on the floor to view the numer­ous stat­ues of Bud­dha and the lord Yoshim­it­su that were kept and which are now archived on this floor in lieu of it being used for offi­cial func­tions. Although absent of Gold the first floor is renowned as an incred­i­ble archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty

and it is well worth tak­ing a few moments appre­ci­at­ing its splen­dour before turn­ing your atten­tion to the gold floors that reign above it.

Chou-on-dou – The Second Floor:

Cov­ered in pris­tine Golf from the Temple’s Revamp in 1955, the Sec­ond Floor is nick­named both the The Tow­er of Sound Waves and Chou-on-dou and was con­struct­ed in the style of tra­di­tion­al Samu­rai Hous­es (buke-zukuri style) – with the addi­tion of the stun­ning Gold.

Look­ing past the stun­ning Gold, you’ll notice fur­ther stat­ues relat­ed to Bud­dha and Bud­dis­ihm and that this floor has tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese slid­ing wood­en doors – with the inside of this floor, which is sad­ly not avail­able for pub­lic view­ing con­tain­ing not just stat­ues of the four gods but also a series of meet­ing rooms and halls – with it known to be the place where Yoshim­it­su held his pri­vate meet­ings with vis­i­tors.

Kukkyou-chou – The Third Floor:

The Stun­ning third floor, which comes com­plete with a pure gold 4 foot phoenix stat­ue on its roof, was built in the style of a Chi­nese Zen hall and is not only pure Gold out­side but also inside and was con­struct­ed and designed by Yoshim­it­su to reflect both his wealth and pow­er.

Also known as the ulti­mate floor, it is also the small­est of the three floors of the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple and was used as both pri­vate res­i­dences and for tea cer­e­monies by Yoshim­it­su, with it also believed to con­tain the prized pos­ses­sions – includ­ing mul­ti­ple Bud­dha stat­ues – of Yoshim­it­su and the Monks that have called the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple home.

Upon observ­ing and appre­ci­at­ing the beau­ty of all three floors, and grab­bing those stun­ning pho­tos of the Tem­ple reflect­ed in the lake and framed by the stun­ning accom­pa­ny­ing trees, it’s time to explore the rest of the Tem­ple Com­plex fur­ther, fol­low­ing the one way path that guides explor­ers through the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple.

Hojo:

First up on explor­ing the rest of the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple is Hojo, which is the monks for­mer liv­ing quar­ters – includ­ing the mad monk who burned the tem­ple, while again not open to the pub­lic, you’ll see the famous slid­ing doors that allowed access to the monks and which are believed to be a throw­back to the design of Yoshim­it­su – it’s well worth stop­ping here to take in the stun­ning sites of the doors before explor­ing the gar­dens of the tem­ple.

Sekkatei Teahouse

As the path winds round the tem­ple you’ll find your­self in the stun­ning gar­dens of the tem­ple, with the gar­dens being home to the incred­i­ble Sekkatei Tea­house – which dates back to 1874 and which was unsur­pris­ing­ly used for tea cer­e­monies. The tea­house itself is stun­ning stand­ing in the mid­dle of the gar­dens with an ancient stone lantern and an intact series of seats – giv­ing a real chance to expe­ri­ence how Yoshim­it­su would spend his days in his tem­ple.

Anmintaku Pond

Along­side the Sekkatei Tea­house, you’ll find the fabled Anmintaku Pond in the gar­dens of the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple, with the pond sur­round in the leg­end that no mat­ter what hap­pens it will nev­er run or water and that the many stat­ues that dot the pond will bring vis­i­tors luck – so long as they drop a 5 yen coin into the Pond.

As you car­ry on the path­way round the tem­ple, we’d advise tak­ing one last look and pho­to of the won­der, and for those who feel lucky grab­bing a for­tune from the for­tune telling vend­ing machines that dot the exit, before grab­bing a cup of tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese tea in the small gar­den out­side the tem­ple and reflect­ing on the beau­ty of the won­der that is the Kinkaku­ji Tem­ple.

How long to stay:

While the Tem­ple is open 9 ‑5, we’d rec­om­mend allo­cat­ing 2 hours in either the ear­ly morn­ing or from around 3pm to best explore it, you’ll find that tourists cram in from around 11-am – 2pm and while the Tem­ple is mag­nif­i­cent at any time your enjoy­ment of it can be less­ened if you’re jostling for posi­tion with oth­er peo­ple.

Top Tip:

Although Kinkaku-ji Tem­ple comes with a big rep­u­ta­tion, it’s impor­tant to know you can’t actu­al­ly enter the tem­ple – and any vis­it to it should come in the off peak sea­sons and either at ear­ly morn­ing or just before clos­ing – as you’re enjoy­ment in vis­it­ing the won­der will be off put by the many crowds that flock to see the Tem­ple.

Along­side this, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend com­bin­ing your vis­it to see the Kinkaku-ji Tem­ple with the oth­er incred­i­ble sights of Kyoto, includ­ing:

- A hike Through Torii Gates at Fushi­mi Inari Shrine

- A vis­it to Gion and Yasa­ka Pago­da.

- A vis­it to oshi­da Hill Tem­ple.

- A vis­it to Kiy­omizu-dera Tem­ple.

- A walk along the Philoso­phers Path at Sunet.

For more on the best things to see and do in Kyoto (Click Here)

Cost:

Entrance to the Kinkaku-ji Tem­ple comes in at 400 Yen (4 USD) with the jour­ney there from Kyoto com­ing in at rough­ly 300 Yen if done by pub­lic trans­port – mak­ing the Kinkaku-ji Tem­ple an incred­i­bly afford­able won­der to Vis­it.

Fun Fact:

Along­side the firey his­to­ry of the Tem­ple – we’d encour­age any vis­i­tor to take their chances in get­ting a for­tune from one of the For­tune Dis­pens­ing Vend­ing Machines that dot the exits of the Tem­ple.

Best photo spot:

As touristy as it may seem – grab­bing a pho­to of the Gold Reflec­tion of the Kinkaku-ji Tem­ple in the main pond against the back­drop of the Autumn Leaves from the main view­ing point in the Tem­ple Com­plex is the best way to cap­ture the splen­dour