Kyoto Autumn Leaves

The places

Park · Kyoto Station Shosei-en Garden Higashi Hongan-ji's own pond garden, a few blocks east of the temple. It began in 1653 as a retirement villa for the temple's 13th head, the layout is credited to Ishikawa Jozan, and it's been a national Place of Scenic Beauty since 1936. You'll also hear it called Kikoku-tei, after the trifoliate orange hedges planted round it.

Temple · Kyoto Station To-ji When Heian-kyo became the capital in 794, the only temples allowed in it were To-ji and its twin, Sai-ji, built either side of the main gate, Rashomon. Sai-ji and the gate are long gone, and To-ji is all that still stands of Heian-kyo. In 823 Emperor Saga handed it to Kukai, and his Kodo hall holds a three-dimensional mandala of statues. The pagoda, about 55 m tall, is the fifth on the spot, rebuilt in 1644.

Park · Kyoto Station Umekoji Park Umekoji Park is 13.7 hectares of lawns, play areas and woods a 15-minute walk west of Kyoto Station, open since 1995, with the aquarium in its grounds and the railway museum next door. Its Suzaku no Niwa garden was built for the capital's 1,200th anniversary. Its pond is just 1 cm of water over black granite, so the whole pond works as a mirror, and its 6 m waterfall is the biggest in central Kyoto.

Temple · Gion Kodai-ji Toyotomi Hideyoshi's widow, Kita-no-Mandokoro (Nene), founded Kodai-ji in 1606 to pray for him. Both are enshrined in the Otamaya, whose altar and shrine are decorated with the gold lacquer work known as Kodai-ji maki-e. The paid garden takes in a pond garden credited to Kobori Enshu and a bamboo grove, and Minder, an android Kannon, recites the Heart Sutra in its own hall.

Temple · Higashiyama Kiyomizu-dera Kiyomizu-dera was founded in 778 on Mount Otowa, and its main hall, rebuilt in 1633, juts out over the slope on a wooden stage about 13 metres high. Eighteen zelkova pillars hold it up, and the joints don't use a single nail. The grounds have about 1,500 cherry trees and 1,000 maples, and they've been part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto World Heritage site since 1994.

Viewpoint · Higashiyama Shogunzuka Seiryuden Shogunzuka is the mound on the Higashiyama ridge where Emperor Kanmu is said to have buried a clay general in armour to guard his new capital in 794. Beside it, Shoren-in's Seiryuden has a wooden stage of 1,046 square metres, 4.6 times the size of Kiyomizu-dera's, looking over the whole city, and from the west viewpoint you can see as far as the towers of Osaka. The National Treasure Ao Fudo painting is kept in its inner hall, and you pray before a detailed copy.

Temple · Okazaki Eikan-do Eikan-do, formally Zenrin-ji, has been a temple for more than 1,100 years and still goes by its old nickname, Eikan-do of the maples. Its main image is the Mikaeri Amida, a Buddha who turns his head to look back, and its grounds fill up with visitors for the leaves in late November.

Temple · Okazaki Konchi-in Konchi-in is a Nanzen-ji subtemple, moved to this spot in 1605, whose Crane and Turtle Garden by Kobori Enshu is a Special Place of Scenic Beauty, with a crane island and a turtle island facing each other behind a bed of white gravel. Its Toshogu shrine, built in 1628, has a dragon on the worship hall ceiling painted by Kano Tan'yu.

Temple · Ginkakuji Konkai Komyo-ji Known as Kurodani, this is where Honen built his first hermitage in 1175 after coming down from Mount Hiei, and it's now a head temple of the Jodo sect. In 1862 Matsudaira Katamori, lord of Aizu, made it his Kyoto headquarters with 1,000 men, and the men who became the Shinsengumi had their audience with him here. The Aizu cemetery up the hill remembers 237 who died in Kyoto from 1862 to 1867 and 115 killed at Toba-Fushimi.

Neighbourhood · Ginkakuji Philosopher's Path A stone path that follows a branch of the Lake Biwa Canal for about 1.8 km, from near Nyakuoji Bridge in the south to Ginkaku-ji in the north. It's named after Kitaro Nishida, the Kyoto University philosopher who's said to have walked here deep in thought. In 1922 the painter Hashimoto Kansetsu gave 360 cherry trees for the banks, which is why they're known as Kansetsu's cherry trees.

Temple · Ginkakuji Shinnyo-do A Tendai temple founded in 984, when the priest Kaisan brought an Amida statue down from Mount Hiei. The main hall was rebuilt in 1717 and the three-storey pagoda, about 30 m tall, in 1817. The Nehan garden, laid out in 1988, shows the dying Buddha ringed by his disciples and animals in stones, with white sand for the Ganges and the Higashiyama hills, Mount Hiei and Daimonji behind it.

Temple · Ginkakuji Shisen-do The retreat where the poet Ishikawa Jozan (1583 to 1672) spent his last years, now a temple under Eihei-ji of the Soto Zen sect. At its heart are portraits of 36 Chinese poets by Kano Tanyu, each with a poem above it in Jozan's hand. Out in the garden you'll hear the knock of a bamboo shishi-odoshi, a device Jozan is credited with inventing.

Temple · Arashiyama Gio-ji Gio-ji is a small thatched nunnery hidden in bamboo and maples, with a story straight out of The Tale of the Heike. Gio, a dancer favoured by Taira no Kiyomori, was pushed out when he tired of her and became a nun here with her mother and sister. In the hut, a big round window glows with the colours of the garden outside, and the temple calls it the rainbow window.

Temple · Arashiyama Hogon-in Hogon-in is a subtemple of Tenryu-ji that only opens in spring and autumn. Its Shishiku garden, laid out by the Zen monk Sakugen Shuryo, borrows Arashiyama as a backdrop and centres on a huge lion rock under a canopy of maples. The temple was founded in 1461 and moved to this site in 2002.

Temple · Arashiyama Jojakko-ji Jojakko-ji climbs the lower slope of Mount Ogura in flights of stone steps under the maples. The priest Nisshin founded it in 1596, and its main hall was the guest hall of Fushimi Momoyama Castle, moved here with help from Kobayakawa Hideaki. The thatched Niomon gate, built in the 1340s and brought here in 1616, is the oldest building on the grounds, and its guardian statues are attributed to Unkei.

Viewpoint · Arashiyama Kameyama Park Kameyama is the hillside section of Arashiyama Park, upstream from Togetsukyo on the north bank, a slope of red pines, cherries and maples with wild azaleas underneath. Paths wind up through it to rest spots and a viewing deck.

Temple · Arashiyama Nison-in Nison-in is named for its two main images, a Shaka who sends souls off and an Amida who welcomes them, a gilded pair carved in the mid-Kamakura period. Past the gate, the Momiji no Baba approach runs about 100 m between alternating maples and cherries. The temple dates to the 830s or 840s and sits at the foot of Mount Ogura.

Park · Arashiyama Okochi Sanso Okochi Denjiro, a period-film star of the early Showa years, fell for the view from Mount Ogura and spent 30 years building this hillside garden at the far end of the bamboo path. Its paths wind through cherries and maples to views of the Hozu River, Mount Hiei and the city. Four of its structures, the Daijokaku house among them, are registered cultural properties.

Landmark · Arashiyama Sagano Romantic Train This slow, old-style train covers about 7 km of the Hozu River gorge in 25 minutes, from Torokko Saga next to JR Saga-Arashiyama Station to Torokko Kameoka. It runs on track left over when the JR line was double-tracked, and it's been carrying sightseers since 1991. Car 5, the Rich, has no window glass, so you get the wind and the river noise.

Landmark · Arashiyama Togetsukyo Bridge The 155 m bridge over the Oi River, with wooded hills rising right behind it, is the picture most people carry of Arashiyama. A monk named Dosho first bridged the river near here in the 830s or 840s, and the bridge you walk across today was finished in 1934. Its name, the moon-crossing bridge, comes from the retired Emperor Kameyama, who watched the moon move over it.

Landmark · Nijo Nijo Castle Tokugawa Ieyasu built Nijo Castle in 1603 to guard the Imperial Palace and to lodge the shogun on his visits to Kyoto. Its Ninomaru Palace, six buildings lined with Kano school paintings, is the only palace complex still standing inside a Japanese castle. In 1867 the 15th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced the return of power to the emperor in its great hall.

Park · Imperial Palace Kyoto Gyoen Kyoto Gyoen is the park around the Imperial Palace, 1.3 km long and 700 m wide. More than 140 princely and noble houses stood here in the Edo period, and what's left is lawns, woods more than a century old and the remains of a few old gardens, among about 100,000 trees. It never closes and it's free.

Park · Demachiyanagi Kyoto Botanical Gardens Opened in 1924, this is Japan's oldest public botanical garden, 24 hectares with about 10,000 kinds of plants, 7,000 of them garden varieties. The glass conservatory, one of the largest in the country, holds about 4,500. About 500 cherry trees flower in spring, and in autumn the maples, sweetgums and ginkgos turn.

Shrine · Fushimi Jonangu Jonangu was founded in 794, with the new capital, to guard its southern approach, and people still come to pray for protection from unlucky directions and for safe travel. Its garden, Rakusuien, covers about 30,000 square metres, and the weeping plums and camellias from mid February to March are the big draw.

Temple · Fushimi Tofuku-ji Tofuku-ji is a Rinzai Zen head temple, built over 19 years from 1236 and named after Nara's two great temples, Todai-ji and Kofuku-ji. From the covered Tsutenkyo bridge you look down into the Sengyokukan valley of maples, and the Hojo is ringed by four gardens Shigemori Mirei made in 1939.

Shrine · Kitano Kitano Tenmangu Kitano Tenmangu is the head shrine of the roughly 12,000 Tenjin shrines across Japan, founded in 947 for Sugawara no Michizane, the scholar students still pray to before exams. Toyotomi Hideyori built the main hall in 1607 and it's a National Treasure. About 1,500 plum trees of 50 varieties flower here from January to late March.

Temple · Kinkakuji Ninna-ji Emperor Uda finished Ninna-ji in 888, and imperial princes served as its head priests until 1867. The Kondo main hall is the oldest surviving Shishinden, the ceremonial hall of the Imperial Palace, moved here between 1624 and 1643 and now a National Treasure. The five-storey pagoda went up in 1644, and in early to mid April the low, late-blooming Omuro cherries flower inside the middle gate.

Temple · Kinkakuji Toji-in Ashikaga Takauji founded Toji-in in 1341 at the foot of Mount Kinugasa, and it became the family temple of the Ashikaga shoguns. The Reikoden hall holds wooden statues of the shoguns, and one of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Takauji's grave is a stone pagoda behind the abbot's hall. The Fuyo pond, in a garden said to be by Muso Soseki, is shaped like a lotus flower.

Temple · Daigo Daigo-ji Daigo-ji climbs from the foot of Mount Daigo to its summit, and its five-storey pagoda, finished in 951, is the oldest wooden building in Kyoto Prefecture. Toyotomi Hideyoshi threw his famous cherry blossom party here in 1598, planting 700 trees for it, and he designed the Sanbo-in garden. Kamidaigo, the original temple on the summit, is about an hour's steep climb from the trailhead.

Temple · Takao Jingo-ji Jingo-ji is a Shingon temple in the Takao hills north-west of the city. Kukai, who brought Shingon to Japan, was its abbot for 14 years from 809, and the temple took its present name when it was handed to him in 824. From the lookout you can throw small clay discs called kawarake into the valley to get rid of bad luck, and it's a popular spot for autumn leaves.

Day trip · Kurama and Kibune Kurama and Kibune Two mountain villages north of the city, joined by a hiking trail over the ridge. Kurama-dera is where, legend says, the young Ushiwakamaru learned swordsmanship from the tengu, and the path to its inner sanctuary crosses the Ki-no-ne Michi, a stretch of ground covered in cedar roots. In the next valley, Kifune Shrine honours the god of water, and in summer the restaurants along the Kibune River serve meals on platforms over the water.

Day trip · Ohara Ohara Ohara is a valley in the hills north-east of Kyoto, and the main sight is Sanzen-in, a Tendai temple. Its Yusei-en garden is moss under cedar and cypress, with small stone jizo figures grown over with the same moss. The Ojo-gokuraku-in hall has a ceiling shaped like the bottom of a boat, raised to fit the big Amida triad inside.

Landmark · Shugakuin Shugakuin Imperial Villa Retired Emperor Gomizuno-o built Shugakuin Imperial Villa on the slopes of Mount Hiei between 1656 and 1659. It's three gardens on three levels, joined by pine-lined paths through rice paddies. From the Rinuntei pavilion at the top you look across the Yokuryuchi pond to the whole of Kyoto and the western mountains.

Autumn light-ups and garden openings

• 1 Oct to 13 Dec Rurikoin Autumn Special Opening Rurikoin Rurikoin, at the foot of Mount Hiei in Yase, opens for the autumn season and gets very busy. From 13 Nov to 6 Dec you have to book ahead on the temple's site, and junior and senior high school students pay ¥1,000. Official site Hotels nearby
• 3 Oct to 6 Dec Hogon-in Autumn Opening and Night Viewing Hogon-in This Tenryu-ji sub-temple opens its Shishiku garden, which borrows Arashiyama as a backdrop, round a lion-shaped rock under heavy maples, and for an extra ¥500 you can see Tamura Noriko's paintings in the main hall. From 13 Nov the garden is also lit at night (17:30 to 20:30, ¥1,000). Official site Hotels nearby
• 10 Oct to 7 Nov Kyoto City Zoo Autumn Night Opening Kyoto City Zoo On seven autumn days the zoo stays open until 20:00 and is lit after dark, with keeper talks at 17:30, 18:00 and 18:30 and an outdoor film at 19:00 from 12 Oct. Entry is the usual ¥750, free for junior high school students and younger, and gorillas, monkeys and some birds aren't on show at night. Official site Hotels nearby
• 23 Oct to 13 Dec Entoku-in Autumn Exhibition and Night Viewing Entoku-in Nene spent her last 19 years at this Kodai-ji sub-temple, and its north garden, a dry landscape later reworked by Kobori Enshu, is lit at night while the Toyotomi family's Teikan-zu screens are on show. A ¥1,200 ticket covers both Entoku-in and Kodai-ji, and it's closed on 11 and 12 Dec. Official site Hotels nearby
• 23 Oct to 5 Dec Nijo Castle Autumn Light-up (NAKED meets Nijo-jo 2026) Nijo Castle For the 400th anniversary of the Kan'ei imperial visit, the castle's night light-up is an art show by NAKED built around Tokugawa Masako and Kan'ei-era design, with maples, ginkgo and cherry trees lit along the way. Tickets are ¥2,000 Monday to Thursday and ¥2,400 Friday to Sunday and on holidays (¥400 less if bought by 22 Oct), and children up to junior high school get in free. Official site Hotels nearby
• 24 Oct to 13 Dec Ninna-ji 'Sea of Clouds' Autumn Light-up Ninna-ji Ninna-ji lights its autumn maples above a 'sea of clouds', with a 528 Hz 'healing sound garden' playing. It runs on Fridays, weekends and holidays only, not on 8 or 28 Nov, and high school students and younger get in free. Official site Hotels nearby
• 24 Oct to 29 Dec Sagano Romantic Train Autumn Light-up Sagano Scenic Railway From late afternoon the trains run past lit maples and illuminations in the Hozu gorge between Torokko Arashiyama and Torokko Kameoka. The railway says it's the last autumn light-up you'll see from the current carriages, and there's no service on 16 Dec. Official site Hotels nearby
• 31 Oct to 6 Dec Kitano Tenmangu Momiji-en Maple Garden Kitano Tenmangu About 350 maples grow on the Odoi, the earth rampart Toyotomi Hideyoshi built round Kyoto, and the garden opens for the season with a light-up after dark from 13 Nov. Look out for the vermilion Uguisu Bridge over the Kamiya River, and the ticket comes with a sweet based on fu-no-yaki, said to have been devised by Sen no Rikyu. Official site Hotels nearby
• 31 Oct to 6 Dec NAKED GARDEN NIGHTS at Higashi Honganji and Shosei-en Higashi Honganji and Shosei-en NAKED lights Higashi Honganji and its detached garden Shosei-en for an evening walk through five scenes. Adult tickets are ¥2,100 Monday to Thursday and ¥2,300 Friday to Sunday and on holidays (¥200 less in advance), and from 6 to 8 Nov and on 25 Nov only Shosei-en is open. Official site Hotels nearby
• 31 Oct to 13 Dec To-ji Autumn Light-up and Night Viewing To-ji About 200 maples round the five-storey pagoda are lit and reflected in Hyotan Pond, and the Kondo and Kodo halls, with the Kodo's 3D mandala of statues, open after dark. By day over the same dates, the pagoda's richly painted first floor is open too (8:00 to 17:00). Official site Hotels nearby
• 7 to 8 Nov Arashiyama Momiji Matsuri Oi River above Togetsukyo Bridge Boats on the river above Togetsukyo Bridge re-create the boating parties of Heian nobles, with imayo songs, court music and dance on the water and the banks. It's called off if it rains. Official site Hotels nearby
• 7 Nov to 6 Dec Chishaku-in Night Viewing Chishaku-in Chishaku-in lights the approach to its Kondo hall and the bell tower among the autumn leaves. The treasure house, with the Hasegawa Tohaku school's National Treasure wall paintings, stays closed at night, and children 12 and under go free. Official site Hotels nearby
• 7 to 24 Nov Kifune Shrine Autumn Light-up Kifune Shrine The main approach to Kifune Shrine is lit through the maple season, from sunset to 20:30, and it's free. The amulet office stays open until 20:00. Official site Hotels nearby
• 7 Nov to 6 Dec Shoren-in Autumn Night Viewing Shoren-in Shoren-in's main image is a Buddha wrapped in light, so the whole temple is lit as an artwork, from inside the halls to the pond garden, the bamboo grove and the giant camphor trees. Its hilltop sister site, Shogunzuka Seiryuden, isn't holding a night viewing in 2026. Official site Hotels nearby
• 10 Nov to 10 Dec Enko-ji Autumn Leaves Opening Enko-ji Northern Kyoto's cold gives Enko-ji strong autumn colour, and for this season you need a timed ticket, bookable online from 20 Oct. Walk-ins get in only if there's space left on the day, and the car park is closed. Official site Hotels nearby
• 11 Nov to 6 Dec Eikan-do Autumn Treasure Exhibition Eikan-do (Zenrin-ji) Eikan-do brings out Important Cultural Properties from its collection while its roughly 3,000 maples turn. The ¥1,500 ticket includes the garden, and the nearest bus stop, Nanzenji Eikando-michi, closes at the busiest times. Official site Hotels nearby
• 13 Nov to 6 Dec Kurodani Konkai Komyo-ji Autumn Night Viewing Konkai Komyo-ji (Kurodani) Konkai Komyo-ji lights its Goeido hall and the Shiun garden, where the maples reflect in the pond, shows Ito Jakuchu's rooster screens in the great abbot's hall, and lights next-door Eisho-in too (¥1,600 for both). Koto and shinobue players give 20-minute sets at 17:45, 18:30 and 19:30, included in the ticket. Official site Hotels nearby
• 13 to 29 Nov Umekoji Park Autumn Leaves Light-up Suzaku Garden, Umekoji Park Umekoji Park lights the maples and pines of its Suzaku Garden, where a still pond mirrors the trees and one path runs under leaves you can almost touch. Tickets are ¥600, ¥100 less with a same-day stub from the aquarium, the railway museum or VIVA SQUARE KYOTO, and it's closed on 16 and 24 Nov. Official site Hotels nearby
• 17 Nov to 6 Dec Chion-in Autumn Light-up Chion-in Chion-in lights the Yuzen-en garden, the huge Sanmon gate, the Otoko-zaka steps and the Miedo hall. This year the gallery round the Sanmon's upper floor is open at night too, so you can look out over the city. Official site Hotels nearby
• 20 Nov to 6 Dec Daigo-ji Autumn Night Viewing Daigo-ji Daigo-ji lights the maples of the Rinsen pond area, where the red Bentendo and the trees reflect in the water, and the temple buildings round them. Day and night visitors are fully separated, so you'll need a night ticket. Official site Hotels nearby
• 20 Nov to 6 Dec Reikan-ji Autumn Special Opening Reikan-ji Reikan-ji, a convent founded in 1654 whose abbesses were imperial princesses, opens its moss and maple garden, a study moved from Emperor Gosai's palace with Kano-school paintings, and its main hall, with guides explaining the buildings. It's better known for spring camellias, so autumn is the rarer chance. Official site Hotels nearby
• 21 to 30 Nov Kiyomizu-dera Autumn Night Viewing Kiyomizu-dera Kiyomizu-dera stays open until 21:30 while about 1,000 maples below the wooden stage are lit, and a blue beam standing for Kannon's compassion sweeps over the city. You don't need to book. Official site Hotels nearby
• 21 to 30 Nov Joju-in Garden Special Opening at Kiyomizu-dera Joju-in, Kiyomizu-dera Joju-in, where the monk Gessho and Saigo Takamori are said to have met in secret before the Meiji Restoration, opens its 'Moon Garden', an early Edo garden that borrows Kodaiji-yama hill as its backdrop. It's a national Place of Scenic Beauty, open by day and again in the evening. Official site Hotels nearby
• 28 Nov to 1 Dec Kyoto State Guest House Autumn Evening Opening Kyoto State Guest House For four days the State Guest House stays open into the evening, when its shoji screens glow like big lanterns over the central pond. There's no booking or guide, children of primary school age and younger can't enter, and you'll want a torch for the dark walk through the Imperial Park. Official site Hotels nearby
• 22 Oct to 12 Dec (dates to be confirmed) Autumn Night Viewing at Kodai-ji Kodai-ji Kodai-ji stays open after dark through the autumn season, with the grounds lit from 17:00. One ticket covers day and night, ¥800 for adults in 2026, but you can't go back in once you've left. Official site Hotels nearby
• 22 Oct to 5 Dec (dates to be confirmed) Nijo-jo Matsuri and Autumn Light-up Nijo Castle Nijo Castle's autumn festival, with a Kyoto specialty goods fair and other events by day, and an evening light-up and art show in the grounds. In 2026 the night ticket was ¥2,000 Monday to Thursday and ¥2,400 Friday to Sunday, separate from day entry, and free for junior high students and under. Official site Hotels nearby
• 23 Oct to 12 Dec (dates to be confirmed) Autumn Cloud-sea Light-up at Ninna-ji Ninna-ji Ninna-ji lights its autumn maples on Friday to Sunday and holiday evenings, with mist rolling through the grounds like a sea of clouds and music played in the garden. It was ¥2,800 in 2026, free for high school students and under. Official site Hotels nearby
• 30 Oct to 12 Dec (dates to be confirmed) Autumn Light-up and Night Opening at To-ji To-ji To-ji lights up its autumn maples and opens the Kondo and Kodo halls, with their Buddhist statues, after dark every night of the season. It was ¥1,000 in 2026. Official site Hotels nearby

Every Kyoto event on the calendar

More collections

Kyoto Cherry Blossom Map Where to see sakura in Kyoto, and the nights they're lit Free Things to Do in Kyoto Big sights that cost nothing, and when to catch them Rainy Day Kyoto Where to go when it pours Kyoto Early in the Morning The city before the crowds arrive Kyoto with Kids Places to break up the temples