Explore Kyoto

Heian Shrine was built in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of Heian-kyō, the old name of Kyoto. Its vermilion halls with green roofs reproduce the state hall of the ancient imperial palace at reduced scale, and it enshrines the emperors Kanmu and Kōmei. Behind the halls lies a stroll garden laid out by Ogawa Jihei VII.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the residence of Japan's emperors until the capital moved to Tokyo in 1869. Visitors follow a set route through the walled grounds in Kyoto Gyoen and see the halls, among them the Shishinden ceremonial hall, from outside; the present buildings date from 1855, and guided tours run several times a day.

Nijō Castle is a flatland castle in central Kyoto, begun in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun. Inside two rings of moats and stone walls stand the Ninomaru Palace, with painted sliding doors and 'nightingale' floors that squeak underfoot, the Honmaru Palace and several gardens.

Nanzen-ji is the head temple of the Nanzen-ji branch of Rinzai Zen, founded in 1291 by Emperor Kameyama on the site of his detached palace in eastern Kyoto. Visitors climb the 22-metre Sanmon gate of 1628, view the dry landscape garden of the Hōjō, the abbot's quarters, and pass under a brick aqueduct built in 1890 to carry water from Lake Biwa.

Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist temple on the slopes of Mount Otowa in eastern Kyoto, dedicated to the eleven-faced Kannon and founded in 778. Its main hall, rebuilt in 1633, juts out over the hillside on a wooden stage held up by tall pillars; below it, visitors catch water from the three streams of the Otowa Waterfall.

The Kyoto National Museum in the Higashiyama ward collects and shows pre-modern Japanese and Asian art: paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, ceramics and textiles. It opened in 1897 in the red-brick Meiji Kotokan designed by Katayama Tōkuma; exhibitions are now held in the Heisei Chishinkan wing by Yoshio Taniguchi, opened in 2014.

Sanjūsangen-dō, officially Rengeō-in, is a Tendai temple in eastern Kyoto founded in 1164 for the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. Its wooden main hall of 1266, about 120 m long, houses 1,001 standing statues of the thousand-armed Kannon around a large seated Kannon, with the wind and thunder gods Fūjin and Raijin.

Kyoto Tower, officially Nidec Kyoto Tower, is a 131-metre observation tower opposite Kyoto Station, completed in 1964 to a design by Mamoru Yamada. Built of stacked steel rings clad in white-painted steel plate rather than a lattice, it sits on a nine-storey building with a hotel and shops; its observation deck at 100 metres looks out over the city.

Ginkaku-ji, officially Jishō-ji, is a Zen temple at the foot of the Higashiyama hills in Kyoto. The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa began it in 1482 as a retirement villa, and it became a temple after his death in 1490. A path leads past the two-storey Kannon-den, called the Silver Pavilion, a raked sand garden and a moss garden on the hillside.

Tō-ji is a Shingon Buddhist temple founded in 796, soon after Kyoto became the capital, and entrusted to the monk Kūkai in 823. Its five-storey wooden pagoda, rebuilt in 1644, is about 55 metres tall, the tallest in Japan. The Kondō and Kōdō halls hold Buddhist statues, and a market fills the grounds on the 21st of every month.

Kinkaku-ji, officially Rokuon-ji, is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto built as the villa of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and turned into a temple after his death in 1408. Its Golden Pavilion, with the upper two floors covered in gold leaf, stands by a pond in a stroll garden; the present building was rebuilt in 1955 after an arson fire in 1950.

Ryōan-ji is a Zen temple of the Rinzai school in northwest Kyoto, founded in 1450. Its dry landscape garden sets fifteen rocks in islands of moss on raked white gravel, enclosed by a low clay wall and viewed from the veranda of the abbot's hall; the grounds also hold a large pond garden.

Tenryū-ji is the head temple of the Tenryū-ji branch of Rinzai Zen in Arashiyama, western Kyoto. The shogun Ashikaga Takauji founded it in 1339 in memory of Emperor Go-Daigo, with Musō Soseki as first abbot; most present halls were rebuilt after fires in the 19th century. Musō's Sōgen pond garden uses the Arashiyama hills as a backdrop.