Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)

Timeline

1. 1482–1483Foot of Higashiyama, Kyoto (former Jodo-ji site) · KyotoKyoto lay in ruins after the Ōnin War; the retired Ashikaga Yoshimasa began construction of the retirement villa Higashiyama-dono in 1482 at the foot of Mount Tōgetsu in Higashiyama, on the former Jodo-ji site. After the main residence was completed the following year, Yoshimasa moved there and the villa became the center of his cultural patronage and Zen practice. Zen monks of the Shokoku-ji school participated in planning, and the garden followed precedents such as Saihō-ji.
2. 1485–1489Higashiyama-dono · KyotoIn 1485 Yoshimasa took tonsure with the dharma name Zaisan Dōkei; in 1486 the family chapel Tōgū-dō was completed, housing the Dōjō-sai. In 1489 the Kannon hall (later called the Silver Pavilion) held its roof-raising ceremony, its form deliberately echoing his grandfather Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's Golden Pavilion but smaller in scale and more restrained in decoration. Yoshimasa died of illness in early 1490 before seeing the Silver Pavilion fully completed.
3. 1490Ginkaku-ji · KyotoAfter Yoshimasa's death in 1490, the villa was converted into a Zen temple according to his will, taking his dharma name Ginkaku-ji and belonging to the Shokoku-ji branch. The Silver Pavilion, Tōgū-dō, and the Ginkaku-jishi and Ginshadan gardens became material symbols of Higashiyama culture, influencing later tea ceremony, shoin architecture, and dry landscape aesthetics. The temple is now part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage site, and the Kannon hall and Tōgū-dō are designated National Treasures of Japan.