Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) / Jisho-ji Gardens - Kyoto, Japan
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S5280ft
N 35° 01.610 E 135° 47.897
53S E 572821 N 3876309
Located in northeastern Kyoto, Japan. You can take a tourbus from Kyoto's main train station. The entry fee is 500JPY (less than US$5).
Waymark Code: WM258J
Location: Japan
Date Posted: 09/06/2007
Views: 163
From Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkaku-ji):
Ginkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion," is a Buddhist temple in the Sakyo ward of Kyoto, Japan. The official name is Jisho-ji (???, "Temple of Shining Mercy"). It was built in 1474 by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who sought to emulate the golden Kinkaku-ji commissioned by his grandfather Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. 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 Jisho-ji. 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.
Name: Jishō-ji
City: Kyoto
Fees: yes
Designer: Soami
Date of Creation: 1474
Garden Website: http://www.shokoku-ji.or.jp/english/e_ginkakuji/index.html
Location (specific park it is located within): Not listed
Parking Coordinates: Not Listed
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Visit Instructions:
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