Jisho-ji temple (Ginkaku-ji temple)

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[temple name] Jishou-ji temple (the temple of the Silver Pavilion) [address] Ginkaku-ji-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fu [Kaizan] Musou Soseki [origin] Known as the representative of the Higashiyama culture. Ginkaku-ji temple is the villa which Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the 8th Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate built in 1482. Yoshimasa cultivated many cultures such as the tea ceremony and the art of flower arrangement. [where to see] Ginkaku-ji temple is designed very frugally but nobly, and the "Togu-do" is preserved as a national treasure, for being the oldest building in Japan built in the Shoin-zuruki style. The "Ginsyadan" which has white sand heaped up and the "Kogetsudai" in the garden, reflect the moonlight and lighten up the Silver Pavilion.

	Brief Explanation
	About the Buildings
	**	Kannon-dono (the national treasure)
	**	Togu-do, Dojinsai (national treasure)
	**	the initiative of the Shoin-zukuri style, Togu-do
	**	Ginkaku-ji temple shaped Chozu-bachi
	about the garden
	Background History
	**	Muromachi era (Kitayama and Higashiyama culture)
	**	the 8th shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate Ashikaga Yoshimasa
	**	Doboshu and Imperial properties of Higashiyama
	**	Yoshimasa's Chinese collection

Brief Explanation


Ginkaku-ji temple is an alias for "Higashiyama Jisho-ji temple", and is a temple of Rinzai Buddhism. Yoshimasa built his villa called the Higashiyama-dono in 1482, following his grandfather, Yoshimitsu's Golden Pavilion. After Yoshimasa's death, the villa became a temple of the Rinzai Buddhism according to his will, and was renamed as Jisho-ji temple after Yoshimasa's Buddhist name. Ginkaku-ji temple is the ruins of the villa Yoshimasa built. Some buildings and rare treasures have been lost in the war, but the Silver Pavilion which represents the Higashiyama culture, Togu-do, and the garden still remains. The Silver Pavilion is built frugally and plainly, while the Togu-do is said to be the oldest building built in the Shoin-zukuri style and the original form of a four-and-one-half-mat tea-ceremony room. The Ginkaku-ji temple was named in contrast to the Kinkaku-ji temple, built by the 3rd Shogun Yoshimitsu. Another theory of how the Silver Pavilion was named, comes from the surface's whitish color of the Kannon-dono (the Silver Pavilion) because the varnish has mostly worn off.

Yoshimasa, who had secured the greatest power in his hands at a young age, proposed this plan of building a villa and living there in absolute peace. This villa is the Ginkaku-ji temple. Spending eight years, projecting his whole aesthetic sense into it...Yoshimasa built a villa reflecting the beauty of refined simplicity: the essence of the Higashiyama culture. There is no trace of silver leaves pasted on the building, as gold leaves were pasted on the Golden Pavilion. The garden surrounding the building and the buildings were constructed at the same time, and it is said that Yoshimasa was also involved in the construction of the garden. The Ginkaku-ji temple is said to be his only existing work of the Higashiyama culture.

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About the Buildings

**Kannon-dono (the national treasure)
This building Kannon-dono is the Silver Pavilion. Kannon-dono is the symbolic building of the Ginkaku-ji temple. The first floor of this building, which Yoshimasa entrusted his religious beliefs into is called the "Shinkuden", built in the Shoin-zukuri style. The second floor, built in the Butsuden style is called the "Chouonkaku", and enshrines the Kannon (the God of Mercy) inside. From this, the building is called the Kannon-dono. Same as the Golden Pavilion, the building is built like a Buddhist temple, but in this case, the building is rich in elegance and gives out the Zen Buddhism's peculiar quietness. The Ginkaku-ji temple is famous for being the representative architecture of the Muromachi's "many-story building with a garden". The roof is made in the Hogyo-zukuri style, and has the ornament of a Chinese pheonix on the top. (Construction began in 1489 and finished in 1496)

**Togu-do, Dojinsai (national treasure)
Dojinsai, a four-and-one-half-mat tea-ceremony room, located in the Togu-do, is said to be the original form of the Soan style tea-ceremony room. It is also famous for being the oldest of the existing rooms built in the Shoin-zukuri style. Yoshimasa used to invite priests talented in art to this room (used for both study and tea) and add new things to his art collection. Also, he enjoyed tencha here with Murata Jyuko, the founder of the tea ceremony.

**the initiative of the Shoin-zukuri style, Togu-do
Togu-do was built in 1485, and Yoshimasa named it himself from a tradition, "People of the East, pray to Buddha and wish to be reborn in the West (Jyodo), while people of the West, pray to Buddha and wish to be reborn in some other country". This means, "People of the East, that is Japanese people, pray to Buddha to be reborn in Jyodo (the Land of Happiness). Then, where do people of the West wish to be reborn?" Togu-do was originally built as a Jibutsu-do. The building consists of four rooms: the room where the Amida (Buddha) is placed, the four-and-one-half-mat study room called Dojinsai, and two other rooms. The building faces a Jyodo style garden with a pond called "Hakuren no ike". Dojinsai is said to be the first of the four-and-half-mat tea-ceremony room, however, it is more splendid as a Shoin. The Tsukesho-in and Chigai-dana is the oldest among the existing ones.

**Ginkaku-ji temple shaped Chozu-bachi
It is placed in the west side of the Togu-do. It is so elegant and refined that even the famous Sen no Rikyu made a duplicate of it. If you see Rikyu's elegant tea-ceremony room, you will probably understand why he was fond of it.

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about the garden

The garden designated as a scenic and historic spot, was laid out under instructions from Yoshimasa and the Zen Ami group, imitating the garden of the Saiho-ji temple (Koke-dera temple). Yoshimasa, first compulsorily collected famous rocks and trees such as the pine tree of the Toji-in, the Niwaishi of the Rokuon-ji temple, the tree and rock and the lotus from the To-ji temple, and started his work. The garden was divided into two: the upper garden was the Karesansui garden, and the lower garden was the Chisen Kaiyu style garden with the Kinkyo-chi pond in the middle.

The same as the famous Kinkaku-ji temple, the Ginkaku-ji temple's garden is also a Jyodo style garden. However, if you'd visit Ginkaku-ji temple, you'd probably notice that the temple itself is very small and tight compared to the Kinkaku-ji temple. It is a bit different from the other Jyodo style gardens: the pond has a complicated shape. To begin with, Ginkaku-ji temple was not built referring to Kinkaku-ji temple. Saiho-ji temple was its model. Except the Ginkaku-ji temple's clubs called Kaisho and Yoshimasa's sitting rooms called Tsune-no-gosho was Teikaku architecture, and most of the Teikaku architecture corresponds to Saiho-ji temple's no longer existing Sho Teikaku architecture. The pond of Ginkaku-ji temple also imitated the pond of Saiho-ji temple.

Only the Golden Pavilion shows "gokuraku jyodo (the Land of Happiness)" in Kinkaku-ji temple, but as for Ginkaku-ji temple, besides the Silver Pavilion, Togu-do also shows this. It expresses two "jyodo" for one pond. The garden view from the Golden Pavilion and the garden view from the Togu-do are almost the same. For both gardens, there is an island in the middle of the pond, and between the temple and pond is a rock. The bridge connected to the island is different from the normal gardens; both bridges are built sideways across the pond. We still do not know whether silver leaves were pasted on the Silver Pavilion. However, because there is no trace of silver leaves being pasted, it is said that they were not pasted. Plus, Saiho-ji temple, not Kinkaku-ji temple, is the model for Ginaku-ji temple, and Gokuraku Jyodo (the Land of Happiness) can only be expressed with gold. There is also a historical fact that after Yoshimasa's death, because of the bad economy ,there were not enough money to paste any silver leaves.

Ginkaku-ji temple is famous for the two heaped up mounds of sand called Ginsadan and Kogetsudai in front of the main temple. Kogetsudai is shaped like Mt. Fuji, and this helps reflecting the moonlight and brightening up the garden at night. Next to the Kogetsudai, there is the Ginsadan, flat, with lines drawn on it. It is a mystery why such a thing was made. The strongest theory is, that the sand removed from the pond when people were cleaning the pond, was accumulated to be like that shape. At any rate, what the Ginsadan is showing, is the "in and yo". The idea of the "in and yo" came from China, explaining that all phenomenon consists of "in and yo". "In" means negative while "Yo" means positive. The Chinese astrology is structured from this idea, and even developed to a learning of "On myo do". Fortune tellers of the famous word, "The prediction may or may not come true" is also "On myo do". The Chinese kanji for the word "fortune teller (ekisha)" is a combination of the kanjis sun (hi) and moon (tsuki). Other words which have the "in and yo" relationship are for example, the moon and sun, woman and man, winter and summer, ice and hot water, blue and red, and so on. "In" and "yo" is just like the front and back side of things. In China, they even made the opposite of the Hokuto-shichisei (the Great Bear), named Nanto-shichisei, just to keep the balance of "in and yo". Therefore, if we heaped up sand (Kogetsudai), we needed to make the opposite to balance the "in and yo". Naturally, there became a sea (Ginsadan) when there was the mountain (Kogetsudai). The idea of "in and yo" is everywhere in the Japanese gardens.

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Background History

**Muromachi era (Kitayama and Higashiyama culture)
We call each culture, flourished in Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa's time, Kitayama culture and Higashiyama culture. Compared to the gorgeous Kinkaku-ji temple's Kitayama culture, the Ginkaku-ji tempel's Higashiyama culture is the world of "wabi sabi". In the former ages, temple constructions were vigorous in the Yamato region centering around Nara, but in Muromachi era, the center moved to Kyoto. The Chinese style architecture attained the highest stage of prosperity, compromised architecture also developed greatly. Also, multi-layered pagodas were built vigorously. In temples' reading and lecture rooms, alcoves, board shelves, and Shoin style windows were made, and the original form of the Shoin-zukuri style was founded.

**the 8th shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate Ashikaga Yoshimasa
Yoshimasa is the grandson of the 3rd shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. He is famous for becoming a shogun when he was only eight years old. Because his father, a dictator, got assassinated, his older brother died young, and the society was changing rapidly and needed a militarist, Yoshimasa, a literary boy engaged in the position of power. Actually though, because he was still young, his mother and his close associates held the power. However, even after he grew up, he couldn't administer the affairs of the country as he liked because he permitted his wife to intervene in politics, or he couldn't stop his followers oppose against each other. The country started to get confused. Also, because no children were born between his legal wife for a long time, he had promised to hand over his position to his younger brother by adopting him. Unfortunately, the next year, his wife gave birth to Yoshihisa. Of course, Yoshimasa changed his mind and decided to hand over his position to his real son. And so, a dispute about the succession occurred. Then to this, the dispute about who would become the Kanryo added, the influential Shugo feudal lords came in, and finally grew into a civil war dividing the whole country into two. This civil war is called the Onin no Ran. In this Onin no Ran, the Shogunate lost all its power, and after this the age of rival chiefs continued for a hundred years. This age is called the Sengoku era.

Yoshimasa tried to distract his irritation of not being able to administer the affairs of the country as he liked, by joining dinner parties every night or constructing new temples and gardens. Finally, to get away from the political world and live peacefully, he built a villa on the ruins of the Onin no Ran. Even when the Civil war broke out, it is said that Yoshimasa was calmly drinking alcohol. In those days, dinner parties were held quite often, and many ways for drinking alcohol such as the Uguisu-nomi became popular. There were even followers who couldn't work because they had sold their clothes to buy alcohol. At that time, to make matters worse, the economy of the Shogunate was aggravating and the Shogunate had almost no power. To make up the deficiency of construction expenses, the Shogunate levied extraordinary taxes on each country in Japan. To this, some feudal lords of Harima, Mino, Echizen, and Aki obeyed, but that wasn't enough, so the Shogunate specially levied money from court nobles and temples of Yamashiro which were under the control of the Shogun. Also, they compulsorily made them come to work or give out building materials. The construction was delayed, because some farmers asked not to work during the appointed time or some feudal lords and temples were dissatisfied with the construction. The next year, in 1483, the first building, Tsune-no-gosho was completed. Yoshimasa moved there right away, called himself Higashiyama-dono, and continued the construction until he died ten years later.

Yoshimasa was half responsible for the Onin no Ran and other civil wars, plus, his administration was a continuity of failures, but his subtle and profound cultural life in his villa gave great influence to the samurais and populace during the prosperity afterwards. Yoshimasa collected rare vessels or enjoyed theatrical performances, and he is said to be a person with first-class interests. He exceptionally liked Noh, and is said that he used to take along feudal nobles with him to Tadasugawara, and enjoy the populace's entertainment, Noh. Higashiyama culture flourished around the Higashiyama villa built by Yoshimasa, and has an individuality in the fact that the feudal nobles' culture, samurais' culture, the culture of Sou (China), and the prospering Populace's culture fused to make it.

**Doboshu and Imperial properties of Higashiyama
Yoshimasa lived to enjoy his hobbies elegantly within the Zen and Jyodo-like atmosphere in his villa. He was not a specialist in art, but positioned many priest artists called "Doboshu" close to him, and contributed to the completion of Noh, floral arrangement, tea ceremony, painting, and renga. On the other hand, he collected many Chinese tea-things and kakemonos, and set Imperial properties of Higashiyama. By making Higashiyama the cultural base and Yoshimasa the patron, Higashiyama culture marked an epoch in the history of Japanese culture.

**Yoshimasa's Chinese collection
Yoshimasa treasured a couple hundred kakemonos of Chinese painting, and quite a lot of tea-things in his Higashiyama villa. These contain Ashikaga Takauji, Yoshinori and Yoshimitsu's Chinese collections, but Yoshimasa still collected a lot by himself. Even after Yoshimasa's death, the ones which didn't get either lost or burnt were passed down to new feudal lords or rich merchants, and then were valued highly by Oda Nobunaga.

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