KYOTO: View across a moss garden from one wing of the temple to another. Like other temples, this was originally built as a villa, for the retired Emperor Kameyama; but upon his death in 1291 it was converted to religious uses. Emperors used to be required to retire upon the birth of an heir, which kept the imperial family safely weak and led to a large leisured class of reasonably young retirees. The present buildings are a 17th-century reconstruction, the headquarters of the Rinzai school of Zen. May 26, 1998