The Crazed Monk

November 11, 2025

"Tomorrow the Golden Temple would surely burn down. That form which had been filling the space would be lost... And the Golden Temple itself, which had until then been constrained by its form, would be freed from all rules and would drift lightly here and there, scattering a faint light on the lake and on the waters of the dark sea."

• Yukio Mishima, from The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Their are 3 certain truths about Japan.  The first is, the trains always run on time.  The second truth is fried chicken is better here than back home.  The final great truth is school children never actually go to a building to attend school.

We have now been a lot of places in this country.  And, almost without exception, each site had a long line of charming school children in smart uniforms and colored hats in attendance.  It did not matter what time of the day or what day of the week they were always there as if every child was on a perpetual field trip.  Despite every day seeming a trip to the zoo, Japanese children consistently outperform American school children in performance metrics so what do I know?

We are in Kyoto, perhaps the crown jewel of tourism here in the country.  This ancient capitol boasts endless temples, stunning scenery, and epic street food.  We plan to be here for several days so lets let started.

This is Kinkaku-Ji, or The Golden Pavilion.  It was built in 1397 originally as a home to a noble and was later converted to a place of worship for Zen Buddhism.

The gold had special significance other than the ostentatious show of wealth.  The gold employed was intended show purity and ward off death.

1930's era travel poster

The building  has been lost and rebuilt several times.  One of the most famous incidents is what The Lonely Planet Guidebook describes as the action of a “Crazed Monk”.  Early in the morning of July 2, 1950, a 22 year old novice monk named Hayashi Yoken decided to set fire to the place.  Despite the gold, it is largely made of wood.  He felt he was mistreated and this was his way of obtaining revenge.  Afterwards, he tried to commit suicide but was stopped.  He was jailed for 6 years and later released.  Eventually he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died around the same time from tuberculosis.

After the fire in 1950

Despite the best efforts of Master Yoken, the temple was rebuilt using original techniques and real gold leaf.

Today, it is one of the most popular and stunning places to visit in the city.

Despite the snow currently back home, the weather continues to favor us here.  The Fall colors we have been chasing finally arrived and what better place than Kyoto?

We left The Golden Pavilion for a short walk to Ryoan-Ji, another Zen Buddhist temple.  This house of meditation is home to a inscrutable astute Rock Garden that is designed to promote meditation and soul searching.

The Rock Garden

The grounds were quite lovely, but it was a challenge to enjoy with the busloads of high school students each posing for Instagram and TikTok glory all around the garden.

We left in search of another garden.  There are so many here, but this one was special.

This is Saiho-Ji.  It is a lush moss garden laid out in 1339 by Muso Kokushi, a Buddhist Monk.

There are over 120 varieties of moss here and the effect creates a Lilliputian-like wonderland. You have expect tiny gnomes to out gardening the dense green landscape.

We walked down a back street towards our final stop of the day.  We passed elegant old style Japanese homes, rice fields, flower beds, and numerous shrines.  There seems to be no end to them.

We were making our way to Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.  This ethereal grove of Bamboo trees is one of the most photographed spots on the planet.  We appeared to have come in on it from the back way by accident and our good fortune.

Normally, the place is filled with wall to wall cell phone clinging tourists each battling for a place to shoot a picture.  Although it was crowded, it was quite manageable and we easily walked down from the top to the bottom of the grove.

That was when we saw them.

Hundreds of people were marching up the narrow street towards the entrance.  There were flags from the numerous tour guides and so many school children.  It seemed all the westerners in Japan were climbing up to us at that moment.

We felt fortunate to have taken the route we did and avoided the crush of this sea of humanity.  We made our way to the river to see an old bridge and eventually the train station back to our hotel.

We are just getting started in Kyoto.  We are scheduled to be here several more days so more to come.