Nanzen-ji

When the emperor and the court left for Tokyo in 1869, Kyoto lost a third of its population and much of its purpose. The response was the Lake Biwa Canal: a scheme to bring water over the mountains from the lake to power mills, float cargo boats up an inclined railway, irrigate the city and — from 1891 — drive Japan's first commercial hydroelectric plant, which in turn ran the country's first electric tram.

One branch of it crosses the Nanzen-ji precinct on a brick arcade, the Suirokaku, built in 1888 in a deliberately Roman idiom by an engineer barely out of university. It was controversial then and is now the single most photographed thing on the site: red brick arches under maples, with water still running along the top, and the path up beside it leading to the Nanzen-in grounds.

You can walk under it and up beside it for nothing, at any hour. The Philosopher's Path follows the same canal system north.

The gate, and the thief on the balcony

The Sanmon, rebuilt in 1628 as a memorial to soldiers killed at the siege of Osaka, is one of the largest temple gates in Japan. For $3.75 (¥600) you climb an extremely steep internal staircase to a wooden balcony under the eaves. The kabuki play Sanmon Gosan no Kiri puts the bandit Ishikawa Goemon up here declaring the view "magnificent, magnificent" — which it is, in a modest, treetop-level way.

The staircase is not for anyone unsteady on their feet.

The Hojo, the abbot's quarters, holds a dry landscape garden attributed to Kobori Enshu and known as Toranoko-watashi — "the tiger cubs crossing" — from the arrangement of its rocks. The building's sliding screens include tiger paintings by the Kano school, and there is a small tea room where matcha is served for an extra charge. It costs $3.75 (¥600), takes half an hour, and is almost always calmer than the grounds outside.

Around the main precinct sit a dozen sub-temples, most of them closed to the public and opened occasionally for seasonal viewings. Konchi-in, near the main gate, keeps its own charged garden — another Enshu attribution, this one a crane-and-tortoise composition. Nanzen-in, behind the aqueduct, is the one visitors most often ask about, and it is closed: the temple's notice is dated 8 January 2026 and no reopening date has been published.

Keage station on the Tozai subway line is about ten minutes' walk away, through the old inclined-railway cutting — itself worth the detour in blossom season, when the abandoned rails are lined with cherry trees. That makes Nanzen-ji unusually easy to reach from Nijo Castle or downtown without touching a bus.

On foot it is the southern end of the Philosopher's Path: about 40 minutes down the canal from Ginkaku-ji, which is how most visitors arrive and the right direction to do it in. Gion is a further 25 minutes south-west, which makes a natural end to the day.

City buses 5 and 100 stop at Nanzenji-Eikando-michi, five minutes from the gate.

The eastern day runs downhill: Ginkaku-ji at 08:30, the canal, Honen-in, and Nanzen-ji at about midday. From here it is 25 minutes on foot to Gion or ten minutes on the subway back to the centre, which makes it the natural hinge between a morning of gardens and an afternoon of anything else.

It is also the wet-weather option on that side of the city: the aqueduct is at its best in rain, and the Hojo garden is under a roof. The two-day plan uses the same spine.