Ginkaku-ji temple

Ginkaku-ji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, is a Rinzai Zen complex in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto, founded as a retirement villa by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in 1482 and converted to a Buddhist temple after his death. Despite the name, the pavilion was never silvered; the building presents dark timber against white plaster, set within a garden that includes the raked sand cone known as Kogetsudai and the sand expanse Ginshadan. Prints of Ginkaku-ji typically frame the two-storey pavilion among pine and maple foliage, with the pond in the foreground or the garden's geometric sand forms providing structural counterpoint. Mokuhanga renders the architecture through fine key-block linework for eaves, lattice windows, and railings, with broader color blocks for the roof, plaster walls, and surrounding planting. Bokashi gradients carry the transition between sky, foliage, and water surface. As a meisho-e subject, Ginkaku-ji places Maeda Toshiro's print within the tradition of Kyoto temple imagery in Japanese woodblock printing.