KYOTO: The Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) which was orginally built in 1397 for the retired Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and turned into a temple by his son. Yukio Mishima's famous novel The Golden Pavilion tells the true story of the monk who burned the original down in 1950. The present building, reconstructed in 1955, is even more golden than the original, which had only its upper story covered in gold leaf. May 16, 1998