Kinkaku-ji Temple (The Golden Pavilion), Kyoto

Built in 1397 a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Kinkaku-ji was converted into a Rinzai Zen temple after Yoshimitsu's death. The main hall was burnt to the ground by a deranged monk in 1950 and rebuilt five years later, an incident that provided inspiration for Yukio Mishima's novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The upper floors of the pavilion are covered with gold leaf.