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KYOTO TOURS

Kyoto Highlights Day Tour

The best of Kyoto in one day.
Kinkakuji Temple - Golden Pavilion
Kiyomizu Temple
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Nijo Castle
Heian Shrine
Sanjusangendo Hall
Kyoto Handicraft Center

Himeji Castle Day Tour

Experience Japan's best castle!
World Heritage site.
Includes trip on bullet train
Plus tour sake brewery museum

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GINKAKU-JI - SILVER PAVILION

Ginkaku-ji - Silver Pavilion Kyoto Japan. The Silver Pavilion is one of the highlights of any visit to Kyoto. Ginkaku-ji - Silver Pavilion was built in the style of the Golden Pavilion.

Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺, Ginkaku-ji), the 'Temple of the Silver Pavilion,' is a Buddhist Japanese Temple in the Higashiyama District of Kyoto, Japan. The temple's official name is Jishō-ji (慈照寺). It was built in 1474 by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who sought to emulate the Golden Pavilion Kinkakuji Temple commissioned by his grandfather Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Ginkakuji Temple - Silver Pavilion

Ginkaku-ji is part of the The Philosopher's Walk in Eastern Kyoto.

The Kannon hall is the main building at the temple. It is popularly known as Ginkaku, the Silver Pavilion. The intention was to cover it in silver, but due to the increasing severity of the Onin War, which broke out several years earlier in 1467, construction was halted, and the silver covering never placed on the pavilion. The building, originally intended to be a monument to ostentation, is now taken as an example of Japanese refinement and restraint.

Like Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji was originally built to serve as a place of rest and solitude for the Shogun. During his reign as Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa inspired a new outpouring of traditional culture, which came to be known as Higashiyama Bunka, the Culture of the Eastern Mountain. Having retired to the villa, it is said Yoshimasa sat in the pavilion, contemplating the calm and beauty of the gardens as the Onin War worsened and Kyoto was burned to the ground. In 1485, Yoshimasa became a Zen Buddhist monk, and after his death the villa became a Buddhist temple, renamed Jishō-ji.

Of all the temple buildings once standing, only the Silver Pavilion remains.

In addition to that building, the temple features wooded grounds covered with a variety of mosses, and a Japanese garden, supposedly designed by the great landscape artist Soami. The rock and sand garden of Ginkaku-ji is particularly famous, and a pile of sand said to symbolize Mount Fuji has now come to be a part of the garden.

Ginkakuji Temple Pictures

Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	View of Kyoto - Ginkakuji Temple
Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Water Fall - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Gravel representation of Mt Fuji - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)
Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)
Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)	Ginkakuji Temple (Silver Pavilion)
Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Japanese Garden - Ginkakuji Temple	Temple Gate Ginkakuji Temple Silver