A villa becomes a temple

Kinkaku-ji is often remembered as a single bright image. Its story begins with another use: the estate was the retreat of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu before it became the Zen temple Rokuon-ji after his death.

In the photograph, the pavilion occupies one part of the view and the pond makes room for another. Water repeats the architecture without reproducing it exactly; slight changes in the surface belong to the image as much as the building does.

I am drawn to the relationship between these two appearances. The well-known pavilion is still there, yet the eye can move between structure and reflection. The place becomes less like an isolated icon and more like a landscape.