A pavilion covered in gold leaf, then a walled garden of raked gravel and fifteen stones. Two temples, twenty minutes apart, and opposite ideas of what beauty is for.
Kinkaku-ji began in 1397 as the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and became a Zen temple after his death. Its upper floors are sheathed in gold leaf, and on a still morning the whole building hangs upside down in the pond.
The pavilion you see is a copy. In 1950 a young monk set fire to the original and it burned to the ground; the rebuilding was finished in 1955, and the story later became Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
A twenty-minute walk along the Kinukake-no-michi road brings you to Ryoan-ji, where the famous dry garden of around 1500 sets fifteen stones in a rectangle of raked white gravel. From wherever you sit on the veranda, one of them is always hidden.
Nobody knows exactly who made it or what it means, which is rather the point. Sit down, stop counting, and give it ten minutes.
Gold first, while the crowds are thin, then the garden.
Be at Kinkaku-ji's gate at opening. The classic view across the pond comes first, so linger there before the tour groups arrive.
The one-way route loops behind the pavilion, past moss, a small waterfall and the Sekka-tei teahouse, to a little hall where you can light a candle.
Walk southwest along the "silk-draped road" at the foot of the hills to Ryoan-ji.
Take your shoes off, sit on the veranda and count the stones. Behind the hall, look for the stone water basin carved with a Zen riddle about contentment.
Walk round Ryoan-ji's quiet pond, then continue to Ninna-ji and its pagoda, and take the little Randen tram towards Arashiyama.
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Buses from Kyoto station and the city centre stop at Kinkakuji-michi. Ryoan-ji is on foot from there, or a short ride on the same routes.
Kinkaku-ji opens at 9am and is busiest late morning. Ryoan-ji opens a little earlier, so you could also do it the other way round.
Keep your voice down on the Ryoan-ji veranda; people are there to sit quietly. No tripods on the narrow paths.
Kyoto practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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