Stitching is indeed a solution, but you will have to deal with lots of ghosts (i.e. moving people in front of buildings or in gardens). I am not even sure that a long exposure of several minutes would totally get rid of them in some crowded places such as the Arashiyama bamboo grove.
Having had a look at the lenses used in my last trip, it was a mix of 21 mm and 35 mm (on a FF camera) for buildings, coupled with details photographed with a 55 mm and 90 mm. I found the 21 mm useful for some pictures where stitching would have been impractical, due to the afore mentioned ghosts or due to the presence of moving water in the ponds of some gardens (Daigoji and Byodoin in Uji come to my mind). Long exposure could mitigate this but obviously wouldn't work in places where tripods are forbidden. A wide lens was also essential for shots at Fushimi Inari Taisha.
Kinkakuji is certainly worth a visit but be prepared to stand your ground against groups of selfie stick wielding people
. Every person visiting Kyoto is likely to go there at least once and place is scarce where the iconic view can be seen, right after the entrance. Tripods are absolutely forbidden at this location for safety reasons.
But the glowing gold of the pavilion is irresistible, even when the sky is heavily overcast.
Also, it seems that cameras larger than FF are forbidden at some temples, according to
this older article. So Bernard's suggestion to downsize could also help in such cases.
Cheers,
Fabien