Beomeosa Temple

This guide to Beomeosa Temple in Busan starts at its wooden Iljumun gate, an optical trick finished in 1614 that appears to rest on a single post when you line up with its face, though it actually stands on four columns. It follows what that illusion was meant to teach about seeing versus understanding, and traces the temple's history through Japanese forces burning it down in the 1590s and the generations of monk artisans who rebuilt the halls and pagoda from memory and salvage. Look up at the Daeungjeon's carved eaves, joined without a single nail, on your way through.