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Kinkaku-ji
, officially named , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan and a tourist attraction. It is designated as a World Heritage Site, a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape, and one of the 17 Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. The temple is nicknamed after its reliquary (''shariden''), the , whose top two floors are coated in 0.5 μm gold leaf. The current pavilion was rebuilt in 1955 after being destroyed in an arson attack. History The site of Kinkaku-ji was originally a villa called ''Kitayama-dai'' (北山第), belonging to a powerful statesman, Saionji Kintsune. Kinkaku-ji's history dates to 1397, when the villa was purchased from the Saionji family by ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and transformed into the Kinkaku-ji complex. When Yoshimitsu died the building was converted into a Zen temple by his son, according to his wishes.Scott, David (1996). ''Exploring Japan''. Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc. . The original Golden Pavilion is believed ...
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Kinkaku-ji Arson Incident
In the , on 2 July 1950, the novice monk Hayashi Yoken almost destroyed Kinkaku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and the statue of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu within it. The arson was taken as an incident as serious as the fire in Hōryū-ji in 1949 by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. Hayashi later attempted suicide, while his mother killed herself in shame. That December, Hayashi was sentenced to seven years in prison, although he was released due to his deteriorating mental condition and tuberculosis. He died on 7 March 1956. Kinkaku-ji was rebuilt from 1952 to 1955. Background Kinkaku-ji The site of Kinkaku-ji was originally a villa called ''Kitayama-dai'' (北山第), belonging to a powerful statesman, Saionji Kintsune. Kinkaku-ji's history dates to 1397, when the villa was purchased from the Saionji family by shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and transformed into the Kinkaku-ji complex. The original Golden Pavilion is believed to have been constructed in 1 ...
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The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion
is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It was published in 1956 and translated into English by Ivan Morris in 1959. The novel is loosely based on the burning of the Reliquary (or Golden Pavilion) of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto by a young Buddhist acolyte in 1950. The pavilion, dating from before 1400, was a national monument that had been spared destruction many times throughout history, and the arson shocked Japan. Plot The protagonist, Mizoguchi, is the son of a consumptive Buddhist priest who lives and works on Cape Nariu on the north coast of Honshū. As a child, the narrator lives with his uncle near Maizuru. Throughout his childhood he is assured by his father that the Golden Pavilion is the most beautiful building in the world, and the idea of the temple becomes a fixture in his imagination. His stammering and poverty cause him to be friendless. A neighbour's girl, Uiko, becomes the target of his hatred. After she is killed by her deserter boyfriend, Mizoguchi b ...
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Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the List of cities in Japan, ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe. Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan, having been chosen in 794 as the new seat of Japan's imperial court by Emperor Kanmu. The original city, named Heian-kyō, was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang. The emperors of Japan ruled fro ...
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Gold Leaf
upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 μm thick) by a process known as goldbeating, for use in gilding. Gold leaf is a type of metal leaf, but the term is rarely used when referring to gold leaf. The term ''metal leaf'' is normally used for thin sheets of metal of any color that do not contain any real gold. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat yellow gold. Pure gold is 24 karat. Real, yellow gold leaf is approximately 91.7% pure (i.e. 22-karat) gold. Traditional water gilding is the most difficult and highly regarded form of gold leafing. It has remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years and is still done by hand. History Mycenaean neckla ...
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Historic Monuments Of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji And Otsu Cities)
The UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) encompasses 17 locations in Japan within the city of Kyoto and its immediate vicinity. In 794, the Japanese imperial family moved the capital to Heian-kyō. The locations are in three cities: Kyoto and Uji in Kyoto Prefecture; and Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture; Uji and Ōtsu border Kyoto to the south and north, respectively. Of the monuments, 13 are Buddhist temples, three are Shinto shrines, and one is a castle. The properties include 38 buildings designated by the Japanese government as '' National Treasures'', 160 properties designated as '' Important Cultural Properties'', eight gardens designated as '' Special Places of Scenic Beauty'', and four designated as ''Places of Scenic Beauty''. UNESCO listed the site as World Heritage in 1994. Selection criteria Kyoto has a substantial number of historic buildings, unlike other Japanese cities that lost buildings to foreign invasions and w ...
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Kyoto Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture to the east, Mie Prefecture to the southeast, Nara Prefecture and Osaka Prefecture to the south, and Hyōgo Prefecture to the west. Kyoto, the capital and largest city, accommodates 57% of the prefecture's total population, with other major cities including Uji, Kameoka, Kyoto, Kameoka, and Maizuru. Kyoto Prefecture is located on the Sea of Japan coast and extends to the southeast towards the Kii Peninsula, covering territory of the former Provinces of Japan, provinces of Yamashiro Province, Yamashiro, Tamba Province, Tamba, and Tango Province, Tango. Kyoto Prefecture is centered on the historic Imperial Court in Kyoto, Imperial capital of Kyoto, and is one of Japan's two "Fu (administrative division), prefectures" using the designation ' ...
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Muromachi Period
The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ''shōgun'', Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kenmu Restoration (1333–1336) of imperial rule was brought to a close. The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga. From a cultural perspective, the period can be divided into the Kitayama and Higashiyama cultures (later 15th – early 16th centuries). The early years from 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period are known as the or Northern and Southern Court period. This period is marked by the continued resistance of the supporters of Emperor Go-Daigo, the emperor behind the Kenmu Restoration. The Sengoku period or Warring States period, which begins in 1465, largely overlaps ...
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Reliquary
A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported or actual physical remains of saints, and may comprise bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or with other religious figures. The authenticity of any given relic is often a matter of debate; for that reason, some churches require documentation of a relic's provenance. Relics have long been important to Buddhism, Buddhists, Christianity , Christians, Hinduism , Hindus, and to followers of many other religions. These cultures often display reliquaries in shrines, churches, or temples to which the faithful make pilgrimages to gain blessings. The term is sometimes used in a looser sense to mean a container for the remains of any important figure, even non-religious ones. In particular, the kings of France often spe ...
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Yukio Mishima
Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist, and the leader of an attempted coup d'état that culminated in his ''seppuku'' (ritual suicide). Mishima is considered one of the most important Postwar Japan, postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature#1960%E2%80%931969, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s—including in 1968, when the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. Mishima's works include the novels ''Confessions of a Mask'' and ''The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'', and the autobiographical essay ''Sun and Steel (essay), Sun and Steel''. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and mod ...
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Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
was the third '' shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (). Yoshimitsu was appointed ''shōgun'', a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten; at twenty he was admitted to the imperial court as Acting Grand Counselor (''Gon Dainagon'' ). In 1379, Yoshimitsu reorganized the institutional framework of the Gozan Zen establishment before, two years later, becoming the first person of the warrior (samurai) class to host a reigning emperor at his private residence. In 1392, he negotiated the end of the Nanboku-chō imperial schism that had plagued politics for over half a century. Two years later he became Grand Chancellor of State ('' Daijō daijin'' ), the highest-ranking member of the imperial court. Retiring from that and all public offices in 1395, Yoshimitsu took the ton ...
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Ōnin War
The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bunmei era. A dispute between a high official, Hosokawa Katsumoto, and a regional lord, Yamana Sōzen, escalated into a nationwide civil war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of in many regions of Japan. The war initiated the Sengoku period, "the Warring States period." This period was a long, drawn-out struggle for domination by individual ''daimyō'', resulting in a mass power-struggle between the various houses to dominate the whole of Japan. Origin The ''Ōnin'' conflict began as a controversy over who would succeed ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimasa. In 1464, Yoshimasa had no heir. He persuaded his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, to abandon the life of a monk, and named him heir. In 1465, the unanticipated bi ...
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Kita-ku, Kyoto
is one of the eleven Wards of Kyoto, wards in the Municipalities of Japan, city of Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Its name means "North Ward." As of 2020, the ward has an estimated population of 117,165 people. Hiragino typeface is named after an area in the ward. Demographics Education Universities *Bukkyo University *Kyoto Sangyo University *Ritsumeikan University, Kinugasa Campus *Otani University Primary and secondary schools The community previously had a Chosen gakko, North Korean school, Kyoto Korean No. 3 Elementary School (:ja:京都朝鮮第三初級学校, 京都朝鮮第三初級学校).ウリハッキョ一覧


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