The Golden Pavilion by wysiwig

Photography • Architecture • posted on Aug 12, 2010

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Description

Kinkaku-ji ("Golden Pavilion Temple") is the common nickname of Rokuon-ji ("Deer Garden Temple"), a beautiful Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan. Kinkaku-ji was built in 1393 as a retirement villa for Shogun Yoshimitsu Ashikaga (1358-1409). The exterior is covered in gold leaf. After his death, his son converted the building into a Zen temple of the Rinzai School named Rokuon-ji, in accordance with Ashikaga's wishes. Being raised in the United States I came to Japan with certain ingrained stereotypes about Asians. They were a hard working, very business oriented and humorless people. As mentioned before I was quickly educated by the young Japanese I met but what about the older generation? While at Kinkaku-ji I sat down on a large rock to change the film in my camera. Three elderly Japanese men approached and as they walked by me one spoke to me in slow but excellent English. “How…are…you?” he asked. I began to answer in English with “Fine, thanks”, but caught myself and answered in the Japanese equivalent. “Genki desu”, I replied. Well you would have thought I was the funniest person in Japan. All three greeted my answer with hearty laughs. They seemed to be quite amused. Once again I was reminded to never judge a book by its cover.