The temple that gets burnt down is an iconic building in Japan. It is Kinkaku-ji in Japanese which is often translated as The Golden Pavillion. It was built by one of the Ashikaga shoguns as a retreat but later became part of a temple. It survived through WWII but was really burnt down by a crazy monk in 1950. Another Japanese author, Mishima, wrote a novel based on this incident.
The author Tsutomu Minakami (on whose novel the movie is based) had actually been a priest in a Buddhist temple. He left and went on to become a writer.He was dissatisfied with the temple system and this shows through the movie.