The vermillion torii gate standing over the approach to Heian Jingu is one of the largest in Japan — tall enough to see from several blocks away in the Okazaki neighborhood — and yet the shrine itself is younger than some of Kyoto’s guesthouses. Built in 1895 to mark the 1100th anniversary of the city’s…
Unlike almost every other major shrine or temple in Kyoto, Yasaka Shrine has no opening hours, no admission fee, and no ticket window — it simply never closes. Sitting right at the boundary between Gion and the Higashiyama temple district, it is less a planned stop on most visitors’ itineraries than a place they pass…
If you’ve ever handled a Japanese 10-yen coin, you’ve already seen Uji’s most famous building. The Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in has been stamped on the back of that coin since 1951, and the temple itself — along with the tea fields that have made Uji synonymous with matcha for centuries — makes for one of…
Ryōan-ji’s rock garden is famous for a single trick of design: fifteen stones are arranged across a rectangle of raked gravel, and no matter where you stand on the viewing veranda, you can only ever see fourteen of them at once. Whether that’s a deliberate lesson about the limits of human perception or simply a…
Most of Kyoto’s famous temples give you one thing to look at: a garden, a pavilion, a view. Sanjusangendo gives you 1,001 of them, standing in ten rows down a hall 120 meters long, and the effect of walking the length of that room is unlike anything else in the city. It’s also one of…
Pontocho is a single narrow alley, about 490 meters long, wedged between the Kamo River and Kiyamachi Street — and after dark, when its lanterns come on and its wooden machiya restaurants open their doors, it’s one of the most atmospheric streets in Kyoto. It’s also one of the city’s five remaining hanamachi, or geisha…
A two-kilometer stone path running alongside a cherry-lined canal, connecting two of Kyoto’s most-visited temples — the Philosopher’s Path is less a single sight than a very pleasant way to get between two of them. The name comes from Nishida Kitarō, a 20th-century philosopher who reportedly walked this route daily on his way to Kyoto…
Most Kyoto temples ask you to imagine what a Zen retreat used to feel like. Nanzen-ji doesn’t have to — a working nineteenth-century brick aqueduct still carries water straight through its grounds, arches and all, a few minutes’ walk from a rock garden that hasn’t changed in centuries. Once the retirement villa of Emperor Kameyama,…
For most of its history, actually seeing inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace meant filling out paperwork days in advance. That changed in 2016, and most visitors still don’t seem to know it: you can now walk up and go in, no reservation, no forms, same day, most days of the year. The palace sits inside…
Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka are the two stone-paved slopes that connect Kiyomizu-dera to the rest of Higashiyama, and they’re arguably as photographed as the temple itself. Wooden machiya line both sides, most of them now shops and teahouses, and the streets curve and step down the hill in a way that keeps the whole scene from…