The layout of the castle comprises two concentric rings within an outer and inner moat. Visitors enter over the outer moat and through the eastern gate, passing before a guardhouse with figures dressed in period costume. A Chinese-style gate brought from Fushimi Castle gives onto the Ninomaru Palace, highlight of the visit. It consists of five connected buildings, made almost entirely from cypress, which are arranged in staggered form like the formation of geese in flight. The Nightingale Corridors, popular with tourists, have an inbuilt alarm system by which the floorboards squeak when anyone approaches.
The Ninomaru Palace buildings extend in zig-zag form towards the pond garden n structures that seem separate but are connected by corridors. In the distance, the Shiro Shoin once housed the private rooms of the shogun.
The Seiryu-en Garden on the north side of the castle was created in 1965 and has over a thousand rocks in all.
There are 33 rooms in all, with over 800 tatami mats, and in keeping with the rigid ranking of Tokugawa society there is a strict hierarchy. The first building was for reception of imperial messengers and the second for reception of feudal lords by shogunate ministers. The third was for meetings of the shogun with the so-called Outer Lords, while the fourth was for trusted allies of the shogun known as Inner Lords. (It was in one of the rooms here that the fifteenth Tokugawa shogun, Yoshinobu, signed his resignation in 1867, bringing to an end the shogunate form of government and marking the birth of modern Japan.) The fifth and final area was the shogun’s private area, in which only female attendants were allowed.
The decor throughout is tailored to the room: intimidating images in the outer chambers, large-scale pines to suggest grandeur in the audience rooms, gentle landscapes in the residential quarters. The painters were directed by Kano Tanyu, top artist of the age, and in one famous picture a hawk surveys its surrounds as if the eyes of the shogunate were surveying the land. (Over 1,000 paintings are currently being replaced by replicas. The originals are occasionally displayed in a special gallery.)
To the southwest of Ninomaru Palace lies a garden attributed to the primary landscape architect of early Tokugawa times, Kobori Enshu. A three-tiered waterfall feeds a pond that has a central Horai Island (Chinese symbol of Eternal Happiness), together with Crane and Turtle Islands representing good luck. The starkness of the rock arrangements lends the garden a rugged feeling, in keeping with the military might of the shogunate. According to tradition, Iemitsu did not want anything to remind him of life’s transience, so there were originally no deciduous trees or plants, which would have heightened the effect.
The route back to the entrance leads past the Honmaru, an 1847 building from the Imperial Palace grounds donated by Prince Katsura. The Seiryu-en is a modern garden built by the city in 1965 for official events, with two teahouses and over 1,000 stones. Each cherry blossom season there is a special evening illumination, while in early June and November tea masters perform ceremonies for the public. A castle that was built to satisfy a shogun now serves the pleasure of the people.
The Honmaru Garden and Villa lie within the innermost compound of the castle. The building stood originally in the former Imperial Park and belonged to Prince Katsura, but was relocated here in 1893.
A turret guards the southeast corner of the castle, though the fortress was more of a shogunate showcase than a military base.
The Ninomaru Garden was designed specially for the visit of Emperor Go-Mizunoo in 1626, with a carp pond enhanced by careful rock placement and islands representing auspicious symbols.
KINKAKU-JI
THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION
KINKAKU-JI AT A GLANCE
FEATURES Zen temple with pavilion and pond garden. Formal name Rokuon-ji (Deer Garden Temple).
ACCESS From Kyoto JR stn, bus 101/205 (40–50 mins) to Kinkakuji-michi bus stop, then 5 mins walk or subway line to Kitaoji stn and 10 mins taxi ride.
PRACTICALITIES 9.00–17.00. ¥400. Temple tel. (075) 461-0013. Allow about 1 hour to visit.
DATELINE
1397—Founded by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
1477—Golden Pavilion survives Onin War
1950—Pavilion burnt down
1955—Recreation completed
Kinkaku-ji is one of Japan’s iconic images, and the silhouette of its golden pavilion is famous the world over. Many are surprised to learn that it is part of a functioning Zen temple, though not those familiar with Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956). The novel is based on a real-life incident when a novice monk burnt down the pavilion, and the present building is a painstaking reconstruction, completed in 1955. Now it is a must-see tourist sight whose radiant beauty is reflected in the pond in front of it.
The temple’s origins lie with a powerful shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), the third of his family to hold power. He took early retirement in order to pursue the arts, and in 1397 transformed a villa on the northern hills into an expansive estate which included a palace and the Golden Pavilion. Under his patronage, artists flourished, and the so-called Kitayama (Northern Hills) Culture developed in which potters, swordsmiths and other craftsmen produced goods of superlative quality (Noh was also first created at this time).
At his death, Yoshimitsu willed that the estate be turned into a Zen temple, but during the Onin War (1467–77) it was almost entirely wiped out—all except the Golden Pavilion. The three-storey structure is unusual in combining three distinct styles into a harmonious whole. The first floor is in the aristocratic style of the Heian Period, known as shinden-zukuri, and has a viewing area with verandas, unpainted wood and white plaster. When its shutters are opened, the room displays statues of Buddha and of Yoshimitsu, faintly visible from across the pond.
Kinkaku-ji’s pond garden, originally filled with lotus plants, was intended to evoke a Buddhist paradise on the other side of the watery divide.
The first floor of the Golden Pavilion comprises a reception area in the style of palace architecture. The second floor, for meetings, is in the samurai house style, while the third is in the Zen style with bell-shaped windows.
The second floor and third floors, intended to be more religious in orientation, reflect samurai and Zen styles. On the second floor is a Buddha Hall and shrine to Kannon, while on the third floor, gilded on the inside as well as the outside, are housed relics of the Buddha.
In contrast to the plain wood of the first floor, the upper floors are lacquered and covered in gold leaf, the golden glow of which was thought to be spiritually purifying. (The effect was intensified by a 1984 restoration in which thicker gold leaf was added.)
Winter snow sets off the lacquered gold leaf of the pavilion’s upper storeys, which stand in contrast to the plain wood of the first floor.
The shingled roof of the building has a pyramid form, at the top of which is a bronze phoenix,