Kyoto · Northwest Kyoto
Kinkaku-ji Temple
The temple's official name is Rokuon-ji, and it is a branch of the Zen temple Shokoku-ji. The Golden Pavilion, the reason everyone calls the place Kinkaku-ji, is actually a hall built to keep relics of the Buddha. The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu began building a villa here in 1397, and after his death in 1408 it became a temple according to his will.
Each floor of the pavilion has its own style: the lowest in the style of a Heian period aristocratic palace, the second in the style of a samurai house, and the top in the style of a Chinese Zen temple. The two upper floors are covered in pure gold leaf, and a gilded phoenix stands on the roof. The pavilion you see today was built in 1955, after a young monk from the temple set fire to the original in July 1950, and the lacquer and gold were renewed again in the autumn of 1987.
The garden covers about 92 thousand square meters of the complex's roughly 132 thousand, and the pond in front of the pavilion, Kyoko-chi, the Mirror Pond, spreads over about 6,600 square meters with islands and stones. After the pavilion the path climbs through the woods to Sekka-tei, an Edo period teahouse named after the sunset seen from it above the pavilion, and to the Fudo-do hall, whose doors open only on Setsubun and on 16 August.
Good to know
- The path is one-way, and there are steps after the pavilion. If you use a wheelchair, have a stroller or find walking hard, you go back from the pavilion to the entrance. You can get a wheelchair at the entrance without booking.
- The temple has no lockers and no luggage storage, and there is nowhere to eat in the garden. If you come with a suitcase, leave it at Kyoto Station before the bus.
- In winter the temple refers anyone who wants to know whether it has snowed to the live camera on its website.
- Since 28 September 2026 you can also pay at the ticket desk without cash.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Kinkaku-ji Temple.
- HereKinkaku-ji Temple
- 1 min
Kinukake-no-michi Street
A road of about 2.5 km that links Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji and Ninna-ji: about 18 minutes on foot to Ryoan-ji and from there about 11 more to Ninna-ji. The name, 'the road of hanging silk', was chosen in 1991 after a legend about Emperor Uda, who covered the mountain in silk to see snow in summer.
- ~5 min
Ajari Mochi Honpo Mangetsu Kinkakuji Shopping
The branch near Kinkaku-ji of the maker of ajari-mochi, a soft cookie filled with azuki bean paste from Tamba. The shop sells only four kinds of sweets.
- ~6 min
Gontaro Kinkakuji Food
A soba and udon restaurant in a hundred-year-old townhouse on Kinukake-no-michi. Soba with herring ¥1,600, and the house hot pot, udon-suki, from ¥5,000.
- ~9 min
Wara Tenjin-gu (Shikichi Shrine) More to see
A shrine that pregnant women visit for a blessing for the birth. The amulet contains straw, and tradition says that straw with a joint foretells a boy and without a joint a girl. The shrine moved to its current location in 1397, when Yoshimitsu built the villa that became Kinkaku-ji.
- ~12 min
Kyoto Prefectural Insho-Domoto Museum of Fine Arts More to see
A museum that the painter Domoto Insho designed himself, from the outside down to the furniture, and that opened in 1966. It is closed for a change of exhibits until 14 October 2026, and from 15 October to 20 December 2026 it shows its 60th anniversary exhibition, at a price separate from regular admission.
More in Northwest Kyoto
Appears in: Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Nijo Castle and Nishiki Market: the north and the center