Golden walls inside the Honmaru Goten Palace

The traditional technique of producing gold leaf has a long history in Japan. The gold leaf was used to ornate a large variety of objects, from ceramic tableware and statues to entire walls, as in this photo, taken inside the Honmaru Goten Palace, in Kumamoto.

The cost of gold leaf is not as big as it first seems, because the thickness is only between 0.1 to 0.125 millionths of a meter, so a quantity as small as 10 yen coins can cover the size of a tatami mat, 95 by 191 centimeters...