Kinkaku-ji was originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa
for Shogun Yoshimitsu, his son converted it to a temple. In 1950
a monk became obsessed with the temple and burnt it to the ground.
Yukio Mishima wrote a novel "The Golden Pavilion" about this incident.

The temple was rebuilt in 1955 but the gold foil was extended to the
lower floors.