Kinkaku-ji
Gilded three-story Zen pavilion mirrored in a still pond, rebuilt after a shocking nineteen fifty arson.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto opens on a night in July 1950, when a young novice monk named Hayashi Yoken set fire to the pavilion, destroying a centuries-old statue of its builder, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It follows what drove him to it, his trial and short life afterward, and how his act became the basis for Yukio Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Look at the building's three stacked, differently styled floors as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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