Kinkaku-ji — the Golden Pavilion — is the most famous sight in Kyoto and the one that appears on every postcard and tourism poster: a three-storey wooden retirement villa sheathed in gold leaf, mirrored perfectly in the still pond in front of it. It was built in 1397 by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and converted to a Rinzai Zen temple after his death. Come as early as you can (the gates open at 9 am), or on a rainy day when the crowds thin and the gold reads more vividly against grey sky. The visit itself is short — a single one-way path around the pond — but the image will stay with you. Raku Bus 101 from Kyoto Station runs directly here.
Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)
Gold-leafed Zen pavilion mirrored in a still pond
A story
The present pavilion is a 1955 reconstruction — the original survived almost six centuries before being burned to the ground in 1950 by a 22-year-old novice monk of the temple, an event Yukio Mishima turned into his 1956 novel *The Temple of the Golden Pavilion*.