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](/glossary/bokashi) gradients carry the transition between sky, foliage, and water surface. As a [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) subject, Ginkaku-ji places Maeda Toshiro's print within the tradition of Kyoto temple imagery in Japanese woodblock printing.