Zenkoji Temple in Nagano is one of Eastern Japan’s most impressive wooden complexes, its vast main hall recalling the scale of Nara’s great temples. Visitors enter through the Niomon Gate, guarded by fierce wooden deities, and the towering Sanmon Gate, whose upper floor reveals statues of the Monju Bodhisattva and Four Heavenly Kings, as well as views across Nakamise street. Among the temple’s most intriguing buildings is the Kyozo, where a complete set of sutras is stored in a revolving octagon