Kinkaku-ji

Both the layout and rockwork of the Saiho-ji and Tenryu-ji temple gardens were to provide models for the palace gardens of the Ashikaga shoguns, rulers concerned to emphasize their cultural interests just as much as their political power. They collected Sung paintings and other works of Chinese art and were seen as active patrons of "modernism". They were keenly interested in the newly-arrived Zen Buddhism and, following their abdication of political and military power, took to retiring to palatial villas outside the city in order to live the monastic life. As variations upon the Heian pond-and-island prototype, however, the gardens accompanying these shogunal villas are far too lavish in both their overall design and individual detail to pass for the austere retreat of a Zen monk.

Kitayama dono, the "Villa of the Northern Hills" dating from Kamakura times, was originally built by Saionji Kintsune in the Shinden style. It was subsequently converted in the early 1390s into a personal retreat for sho-gun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who renamed it Rokuon-ji, "Temple of the Deer Park", after the famous deer park near Benares where Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon after his enlightenment. Today the palace is called Kinkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Golden Pavilion", a name inspired by the gilded roofs of one of its pavilions. The golden pavilion which can be seen today is a rebuilt version of the original, destroyed by fire in 1950.

This elegant, three-storeyed wooden pavilion is clearly based on models from southern China. The ground floor comprises a reception room for guests, the second floor a study and the third a private temple for zazen meditation. While the open plan of the ground floor looks back to the Shinden-style palaces of the Heian era, the bell-shaped windows on the top floor herald a new style, that of Zen temple architecture.
Although a small path winds its way around the pond, the garden was designed to be appreciated from the water rather than on foot, as revealed by contemporary records of the boating parties and festivities organized in honour of Emperor Gokoma-tsu, who visited the garden in 1408. The garden could also be admired from the three storeys of the Golden Pavilion, from where it was framed within a rectangular architectural structure of harmonious proportions. The pond is subdivided into an inner and an outer zone. The inner zone lies directly in front of the lavishly-decorated pavilion, virtually cut off from the outer zone by a large peninsula and the pond's main island. The outer zone contains just a few small rock islands; its banks are lined with stones. To the viewer in the pavilion, this outer zone appears to lie a great distance away. Directly in front of the Golden Pavilion to the south lie small-scale versions of the traditional turtle and crane islands. Opposite the small boat jetty to the west are two larger turtle islands of particular iconic significance: the "arriving turtle", whose rock head looks towards the pavilion, and the "departing turtle", who faces away from it.

Two springs rise at the foot of the hills to the north of the Golden Pavilion, each marked by rock compositions. The Dragon Gate waterfall nearby features the legendary carp stone inherited from the original Kama-kura garden built by Saionji Kitsune. After Yoshimi-tsu's death, the palace complex which had been his home in retirement was converted into a Buddhist temple.