Myouryuji (Ninja Temple)

Myouryuji Temple is often called the Ninja Temple, though it has no connection to the secret agents of legend. You can pick it out by its modest two-story exterior, which hides a complex, four-story, seven-layer structure built to defy seventeenth-century building regulations. Founded in sixteen forty-three by Lord Maeda Toshitsune, the building was designed to serve as a secret military outpost for the Kaga Domain during a time of intense pressure from the Tokugawa shogunate.