Tofuku-ji

Tofuku-ji is a major Zen temple in southeastern Kyoto, celebrated above all for its autumn foliage. The wooden Tsutenkyo bridge spans a wooded ravine that fills with red and orange maples in November, drawing crowds who watch from the covered walkway. The temple also preserves one of the oldest and largest surviving Zen main gates in Japan, a designated National Treasure. Its modern rock gardens, laid out in the 1930s, arrange moss and stone in bold checkerboard patterns that feel strikingly contemporary.