Ginkaku-ji: the “Silver” Pavilion

Remember the gold-plated building?  That one was Kinkaku; this one is Ginkaku.  It was built as a counterpart to the gold one and was originally intended to be covered in silver foil.  Despite this never actually being accomplished, it remains known as “the Silver Pavilion”.  And in the freshly fallen snow, it was sublime!

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up to the main event, some elegant snow-covered scenes.  I especially like the partially-buried Zen garden.

This is what would have been covered in silver.  By the way, it was built in 1482 and has survived intact to the present day.

The temple complex was built at the height of Japan’s artistic blossoming, and, rather ironically, the lack of the planned silver foil fits very nicely with the then-developing Japanese aesthetic sense.  The unfinished nature of the temple illustrates a quality that the Japanese call “wabi-sabi”.  Derived from the Buddhist idea of the transience and impermanence of things, wabi-sabi focuses on the beauty of the imperfect.  And on a day like this, why gild the lily?

   The surrounding gardens were gorgeous.

And the view pretty incredible too.

Sometimes the smallest details are the most stunning though.

Continuing with the wabi-sabi theme, in case this post is too perfect, I’ll bring you back down to earth.  While I was nursing Naomi in the bathroom, Logan was outside playing in the snow and making friends.  Japan isn’t keen on public breastfeeding, but they are excellent about providing comfortable nursing facilities and baby/child care spaces.  And where there weren’t dedicated nursing areas, there were at least heated toilet seats—a nice feature considering the cold weather.  There now, doesn’t that knowledge just add to your Zen contemplation of this post?