General Facts: The Golden Palace is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. In English it is called the Golden palace, but in Japanese it is known as Kinkaku-ji. It was built and founded in 1397, in the Muromachi period. The Muromachi is considered to be the classical age of Japanese garden design. The palace was built to integrate structure within the beautiful landscape in an artistic way. It was founded by Asikaga Yoshimitsu. It is on mountain Hokuzan, and set on a lake. It is designate as a National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape. Today, it is one of the most popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors annually.

History: The Golden Palace was originally purchased by a shogun named Ashikaga Yosimitsu and was transformed in the Kinkak-Ji complex. When Yoshimitsu died, his son turned into a zen temple. During the Onin war, all of the buildings except the palace were burned down. Much, much later in 1950, it was burned down by a monk who latter attempted suicide. During the fire, the statue of the founder and the shogun was burned down. In 1955, it was rebuilt.

The Building:  This building consists of three floors using three types of architecture. The first floor is called Shinden-Zukuri. It is a fancy, elegant palace style. The 2nd floor is Buke-Zukuri. It is a samurai house style/ The 3rd floor is Kukkyo-Cho. It is zen temple style. Both the 2nd and 3rd floors are covered with gold leaf/ The roof is all shingles. Recently, the leaf decayed and it was replaced with much thicker, more beautiful ones in 1987.  There is also a beautiful painting on the ceiling and a new statue if Yosimitsu was put up.

Around the building: The name of the pond is Kyoko-chi, in English called the mirror pond. The pond contains many small and large islands. If you climb up a few steps, you will stand at another pond called Anmintaku. There is a small stone pagoda on the island called Hakuja-no-tsuka. There is also a classic tea house called Sekka-tei. In side, there is a celebrated pillar of a nandin, The house was restored very recently in 1997 and is used today.