Ginkaku-ji
Unfinished retirement villa turned Zen temple, its bare wood pavilion and moon-viewing sand garden left just as its shogun founder saw them.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Ginkaku-ji in Kyoto follows Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth Ashikaga shogun, as he abandons a capital tearing itself apart in the Onin War to build a retirement villa in the Higashiyama hills in the 1460s, modeled on his grandfather's gold pavilion but meant to be covered in silver. It traces the decades-long construction and the tea room where Yoshimasa spent his final years. Beside the pavilion, look for the raked cone of white sand built to catch moonlight.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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