ABSTRACT
This Ginkakuji Temple, or "Silver Pavilion" as it has been called by foreign visitors, is the birthplace of Japanese flower arrangement. Cha-no-yu, the tea ceremony, also originated here. When the mountain was the seat of the Ashikaga Shogun's villa long, long ago, a small house of four and a half mats in size was 38-
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dedicated to the memory of Buddha for the purpose of family worship, and this became, we are told, the first tea house in Japan. The temple itself was built by the eighth Ashikaga Shogun, or Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who was a representative of the aristocracy of that time, as he was the head of the samurais as well as chief government administrator. But being tired of mundane affairs, and having abdicated his seat in the government to his son Y oshihisa, he retired to this place and built a villa which included a beautiful garden and a three-storied temple, the ceiling of which he ordered to be plated with silver. Hence it came to be known as the Ginkakuji, or the" Silver Pavilion." The villa served the purpose of viewing the mountains afar, the gardens around, or the flower arrangement within; gatherings for the tea ceremony and incense-burning were also held there. The incense-burning was called kodo in Japanese, ko meaning incense and do way, the object of which was to burn incense and to enjoy its fragrance. The men who gathered here enjoyed themselves in these games-they are, indeed, hardly to be called games, so quiet is their nature,-for they loved so quiet a life. This was about the year 1478, or four and a half centuries ago.
