In 1397 during the Muromachi Period (1336-1573, 室町時代, Muromachi-jidai), the villa was purchased by the shogun (将軍), Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (足利 義満) and was used as a personal villa until his death in 1408 after which it was converted into a Zen Temple as per his wishes.
Today’s pavilion is a reconstruction from 1955, a three-story structure that stands 12.5m tall, each floor features a distinctly unique design style. The first floor, called The Chamber of Dharma Waters (法水院, /Hōsui-in/), uses the Shinden-zukuri (神殿造, Palace-style architecture) style used in palace and shrine buildings of the Heian Period, identified by its white plaster walls held together by wood pillars. The second floor, called The Tower of Sound Waves (潮音洞, /Chō-on-dō/), uses the Buke-zukuri (武家造り, Samurai residence-style architecture) style that is used in samurai residence, and is covered in gold leaf. The third floor, called the Cupola of the Ultimate (究竟頂, /Kukkyō-chō/), uses a style similar to that of a Zen Hall from the Chinese Tang Dynasty and is also covered in gold leaf. The restoration works in 1987 used around 200,000 sheets of 0.5 μm gold leaf that weighed around 20kg.
Within the pavilion itself, multiple statues including that of the Buddha and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu are stored. It is not possible to enter the pavilion, however, the sliding doors are usually left open, allowing for a peek into the interior. From the back, you can also see a /tsuri-dono/ (釣殿, fishing deck), a small pier that allows a small boat to dock or to fish from.
While much of the temple’s buildings had been burnt down and rebuilt multiple times over the ages, the pavilion itself persevered up till 1950. The pavilion consisted of three floors, with only the second and third floor being covered in gold lead. By 1950 though, much of the gold leaf had deteriorated over time, with only part of the third floor’s gold leaf remaining.
In 1950, an apprentice monk named Hayashi Yoken committed arson, burning down the pavilion, a National Treasure at the time, alongside multiple statues within that were also considered National Treasures. His motives have never been clearly identified, and he also suffered from schizophrenia, but it is said that some of the unhappiness arose from the temple becoming a tourist attraction and that monks ended up doing more paperwork than monastic work. After committing arson, he attempted suicide on the hill behind the temple, but was saved by first responders on the scene. He was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison, and his life was eventually claimed by tuberculosis before the end of his term. The truth behind this incident has often been shrouded in mystery, and has been the subject of multiple literary works in Japan.
