Ashikaga Shoguns: Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji and Muromachi Kyoto

Ashikaga Takauji became shogun in 1338, and Emperor Go-Daigo died the next year. Takauji then had the Zen monk Musō Soseki build a temple for his memorial service. Its name, "dragon of the sky", is said to come from a dream of a golden dragon over the Ōi River, and two trading ships launched in 1342 paid for it. A ceremony in 1345 marked its completion. Fires took the original buildings; most of what stands today is Meiji-era reconstruction, but Musō Soseki's garden still shows traces of his design.

訪問のヒント: An active temple in western Kyoto; the garden is the main draw.

In 1378 the third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, established the Hana no Gosho, the "Flower Palace", near today's Imadegawa and Muromachi streets. It became the political and cultural centre of the country, and the Muromachi district gave the shogunate and the whole period their name. The palace is long gone. A stone marker commemorates the southwest corner of the block, and relics from the excavations are held in the Kanbai-kan at Dōshisha University.

場所の精度: The palace no longer stands; it stood near Imadegawa and Muromachi streets, and no pin was verified for the site.

訪問のヒント: A stone marker commemorates the palace's southwest corner; Dōshisha University's Kanbai-kan holds excavated relics.

Yoshimitsu began Shōkoku-ji in 1383 and dedicated the whole complex in 1392 with a great banquet for the court's officers and the military leaders of the day. Fire destroyed it in 1394, and he paid for the rebuilding. Later rulers kept restoring it. The Hattō (Dharma Hall) was rebuilt in 1605 and is now the oldest building of its type in Japan.

訪問のヒント: A working temple complex in Kyoto.

In 1397 Yoshimitsu bought a villa from the Saionji family and turned it into the Kinkaku-ji complex. The Golden Pavilion is believed to have been built in 1399, and after his death his son made the place a Zen temple, as he had wished. Only the pavilion survived the Ōnin War. In 1950 a novice monk burned it down, an event Yukio Mishima fictionalised in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The three-storey, 12.5-metre building seen today dates from 1955.

訪問のヒント: Open to visitors in northern Kyoto; the pavilion is viewed across its pond.

Hosokawa Katsumoto acquired this land in 1450 and founded Ryōan-ji. A succession dispute began after Yoshimasa's son was born in 1465, and in 1467 it became the Ōnin War, with Katsumoto leading the Eastern Army against Yamana Sōzen's Western Army. The temple was destroyed in the fighting; both leaders died in 1473, and Katsumoto's son rebuilt it in 1488. Its famous rock garden is disputed: the garden seen today is dated to about 1799.

訪問のヒント: Open to visitors in northwest Kyoto.

Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun, built a retirement villa meant to rival his grandfather's Golden Pavilion; work on the Kannon hall began in February 1482. While Kyoto burned in the Ōnin War he was planning it, and the silver foil was never applied before his death in 1490. The nickname "Silver Pavilion" dates only from the Edo period. The villa became the temple Jishō-ji and gave its name to Higashiyama culture. Its sand garden has a pile said to symbolise Mount Fuji.

訪問のヒント: Garden and temple complex are open to the public, at the foot of the Higashiyama hills.