Nanzen-ji

The massive two-story wooden gate at Nanzen-ji stands tall enough that visitors can see the Kyoto skyline through its upper balcony. Originally a retirement villa for Emperor Kameyama in the late thirteenth century, the site became a Zen temple after he dedicated his home to the monk Mukan Fumon. During a seventeenth-century rebellion, the legendary thief Ishikawa Goemon supposedly climbed to the top of this very gate to admire the view, famously declaring the spring blossoms were worth a thousand gold pieces.