What's on in Kyoto

Kyoto events in January 2027

11 events in January 2027: 6 exhibitions, 3 festivals and 2 anime and games events, from headline festivals to neighbourhood fairs. 3 of them are annual events whose 2027 dates are still to be confirmed, listed with their usual window.

The year's coldest weeks, with mornings averaging under 2°C. The first days of January fill the shrines for hatsumode, the first visit of the year. The Tenjin-san market at Kitano Tenmangu on the 25th is one of the two biggest of the year. More on the season in Things to do in Kyoto.

Map

The big dates in January 2027

Day by day

What's on each day of January 2027, events starting that day first. Annual events still waiting for their 2027 dates aren't listed here.

Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen · Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai · New Year Feature: All About Sheep and 4 more
Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi and 2 more
Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi and 2 more
Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi and 2 more
Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi and 2 more
Nitten Kyoto Exhibition · New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi and 2 more
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? · Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi · The Children Who Grew Up with Manga: 40 Years of Manga Culture in Europe and 1 more
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · The Children Who Grew Up with Manga: 40 Years of Manga Culture in Europe · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · The Children Who Grew Up with Manga: 40 Years of Manga Culture in Europe · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu
New Year Feature: All About Sheep · Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu

Dated events in January

Anime and games On now ¥

The Children Who Grew Up with Manga: 40 Years of Manga Culture in Europe

「Mangaと育った子どもたち：ヨーロッパにおけるManga文化の40年」展

17 Sept to 19 Jan Kyoto International Manga Museum, Shijo-Karasuma

Time 10:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30) Station Karasuma Oike (Karasuma Line, Tozai Line), 2 min walk

How Japanese manga was translated, read, criticised and taken up over 40 years in France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany, ending with work by Europeans who grew up on it and now draw manga themselves. It's included in the museum ticket, and the museum is closed on Wednesdays.

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The former school building of the Kyoto International Manga Museum behind its lawn ESU, CC BY 3.0
Exhibition On now ¥1,500

Shapes of Love: The Lost Shunga Scroll Chigo no Soshi

「愛のカタチ－幻の春画《稚児草紙》公開－」

19 Sept to 17 Jan Fukuda Art Museum, Arashiyama

Time 10:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30) Station Arashiyama (Randen), 4 min walk

The museum shows the early 14th-century Chigo no Soshi scroll in public for the first time, with painted shunga by Tsukioka Settei and others, Hokusai's Nami Chidori, made in his 70s, and paintings about love by Uemura Shoen and Kaburaki Kiyokata. Nobody under 18 is admitted, and you may be asked for photo ID.

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The glass and dark steel front of the Fukuda Art Museum in Arashiyama, with its name plate on the stone wall 運動会プロテインパワー, CC BY-SA 4.0
Exhibition Starts in 5 days ¥1,000

Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu

「円山応挙と伊藤若冲」

17 Oct to 20 Jun Shokoku-ji Jotenkaku Museum, Imperial Palace

Time 10:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30) Station Imadegawa (Karasuma Line), exit 3, 8 min walk

Okyo's Peony and Peacock (first half of the autumn period) and his Great Waterfall, over 3.6 m tall (second half), hang alongside all 50 of Jakuchu's ink panels from the great study room of Kinkaku-ji, where he shows what he could do without colour. It's closed for New Year from 27 Dec to 8 Jan.

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The paved path through a green garden to the entrance of the Jotenkaku Museum at Shokoku-ji 663highland, CC BY 2.5
Exhibition Starts in 12 days ¥2,000

Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of?

ジュエリーは、誰を夢みる

24 Oct to 17 Jan The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Okazaki

Time 10:00 to 18:00, Fridays to 20:00 (last entry 30 minutes before) Station Higashiyama (Tozai Line), 10 min walk

About 350 pieces trace contemporary jewellery in postwar Japan, from the Japan Jewellery Designers Association's founding in 1964 to artists working now, including works from Germany shown here for the first time in about 50 years. It's closed on Mondays (open 23 Nov and 11 Jan), 24 Nov, 12 Jan and from 29 Dec to 3 Jan.

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The grey stone and glass front of the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Wiiii, CC BY-SA 3.0
Anime and games ¥1,600

The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai

令和6年能登半島地震復興祈念 不滅の力 永井豪 -永井豪記念館リバイバル-

28 Nov to 11 Jan Museum of Kyoto, Shijo-Karasuma

Time 10:00 to 18:00, Fridays to 19:30 (last entry 30 minutes before) Station Karasuma Oike (Karasuma Line, Tozai Line), 3 min walk

When the 2024 Noto earthquake burned the Go Nagai Memorial Museum in Wajima, 108 original drawings and figures by the creator of Mazinger Z, Devilman and Cutie Honey were found intact inside. They're shown here with original manuscripts and a new manga he drew for the show, and the museum is closed on Mondays (open 11 Jan) and from 28 Dec to 4 Jan.

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The red brick annex of the Museum of Kyoto, a former bank building on Sanjo-dori Photograph by Mike Peel www.mikepeel.net., CC BY-SA 4.0
Exhibition ¥1,700

Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen

「スタジオジブリ企画制作 白隠さんの禅」京都展

17 Dec to 11 Jan Higashiyama Cube, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Okazaki

Time 10:00 to 18:00 (last entry 17:30) Station Higashiyama (Tozai Line), 8 min walk

The follow-up to Zen and Ghibli shows paintings and calligraphy by the Zen monk Hakuin Ekaku alongside video that Studio Ghibli made to put his teaching in today's terms. It's closed on Mondays (open on holidays) and from 28 Dec to 2 Jan.

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The 1930s facade of the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art in Okazaki そらみみ, CC BY-SA 3.0
Exhibition ¥

Nitten Kyoto Exhibition

第119回 日展京都展

19 Dec to 16 Jan Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Okazaki

Time 10:00 to 18:00 (last entry 17:30) Station Higashiyama (Tozai Line), 8 min walk

Japan's biggest open-entry art exhibition tours to Kyoto with about 500 works in five sections, Japanese-style painting, Western-style painting, sculpture, crafts and calligraphy, including pieces by artists from Kyoto and Shiga. It's closed on Mondays unless they're holidays and from 28 Dec to 2 Jan.

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The 1930s facade of the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art in Okazaki そらみみ, CC BY-SA 3.0
Exhibition ¥700

New Year Feature: All About Sheep

新春特集展示 ひつじづくし 干支を愛でる

22 Dec to 7 Feb Kyoto National Museum, Higashiyama

Time 9:30 to 17:00, Fridays to 20:00 (last entry 30 minutes before) Station Shichijo (Keihan), 7 min walk

For 2027, the Year of the Sheep, the museum's New Year display gathers sheep in art from its collection, an animal rarely kept in Japan outside Hokkaido, so expect some oddities. A tea utensils feature runs at the same time, the ticket covers every gallery in the Heisei Chishinkan, and it's closed on Mondays (open 11 Jan), from 28 Dec to 1 Jan and on 12 Jan.

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The Meiji era brick facade of the Kyoto National Museum's original building kajikawa, CC BY 3.0
Festival Free

Karuta Hajime at Yasaka Shrine

かるた始め式

3 Jan (dates to be confirmed) Yasaka Shrine, Gion

Station Gion bus stop (City Bus 206), 1 min walk

The first karuta card game of the year is played as an offering on the Noh stage at Yasaka Shrine, followed by a show of Heian court costume.

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The lantern-hung dance stage of Yasaka Shrine with cherry blossom beside it underutilized, CC BY-SA 2.0
Festival Free

Toka Ebisu at Kyoto Ebisu Shrine

十日ゑびす大祭

8 to 12 Jan (dates to be confirmed) Kyoto Ebisu Shrine, Gion

Station Shijo-Kawaramachi bus stop (City Bus), 10 min walk

Kyoto Ebisu Shrine's big New Year festival runs from 8 to 12 Jan, and around the 10th you can get lucky bamboo branches for business. In 2026 the shrine stayed open all night on the 9th and 10th.

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Stone torii of Kyoto Ebisu Shrine on Yamato-oji, with the Ebisu face on the inner gate and the hall beyond masato_photo, CC BY-SA 2.0

Markets and fairs that run every month

Market Free

1000market at Kiyomizu-dera

1000market（サウザンドマーケット）

28th of every month, 9:00 to 16:00 Kiyomizu-dera, Higashiyama

Time 9:00 to 16:00 Station Gojozaka bus stop (City Bus 100, 206) or Kiyomizu-michi (207)

Kiyomizu-dera's own market on the 28th, the Fudo-son fair day, in the square in front of the gate, which you can walk into without a ticket. It started in April 2022 around traditional crafts, the environment and cutting food waste, and the stallholders are posted on Instagram.

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The main hall of Kiyomizu-dera on its wooden stage above the wooded hillside ito1117, CC BY-SA 3.0
Market Free

Garakuta-ichi at To-ji

ガラクタ市（東寺）

First Sunday of every month To-ji, Kyoto Station

Station Toji (Kintetsu Kyoto Line), 10 min walk

To-ji's smaller monthly market of antiques and handmade goods, held on the first Sunday rather than the big Kobo-ichi on the 21st.

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Market Free

Heian Antique Market (Heian Nomi-no-ichi)

平安蚤の市

About once a month on dates the organiser posts, 9:00 to 16:00 Okazaki Park, in front of Heian Shrine, Okazaki

Time 9:00 to 16:00 Station Higashiyama (Tozai Line), 10 min walk

More than 100 dealers in antiques and secondhand goods set up in Okazaki Park in front of Heian Shrine. Dates move from month to month and are often weekdays, and rain or storms cancel it, with the call posted the afternoon before.

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The vermilion and green halls of Heian Shrine under a cloudy sky Manish Prabhune, CC BY 2.0
Market Free

Heian Rakuichi Handmade Market

平安楽市

About once a month on dates the organiser posts, 10:00 to 16:00 Okazaki Park, in front of Heian Shrine, Okazaki

Time 10:00 to 16:00 Station Higashiyama (Tozai Line), 10 min walk

A market of makers' own crafts and snacks in Okazaki Park, about once a month on dates the organiser posts, often on a weekday. In 2026 there was none in September or October, and the August one ran from 16:00 to 20:00.

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The vermilion and green halls of Heian Shrine under a cloudy sky Manish Prabhune, CC BY 2.0
Market Free

Hyakumanben Handmade Market at Chion-ji

百万遍さんの手づくり市

15th of every month except August, 8:00 to 16:00 Hyakumanben Chion-ji, Demachiyanagi

Time 8:00 to 16:00 Station Hyakumanben bus stop (City Bus 206), 1 min walk

Makers sell their own crafts, ceramics, clothes and food in Chion-ji's grounds on the 15th of each month. Places are allotted by lottery among applicants, and it runs in the rain.

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Main hall of Hyakumanben Chion-ji with a bronze lantern and pine in the courtyard Daderot, CC0 1.0
Market Free

Kamigamo Handmade Market

上賀茂手づくり市

4th Sunday of the month, 9:00 to 15:00 Kamigamo Shrine, Demachiyanagi

Time 9:00 to 15:00 Station Kamigamo-jinja-mae bus stop (City Bus 4)

Stalls line the Nara-no-ogawa stream in Kamigamo Shrine's grounds, and everything is made by the seller, from jewellery, clothes and pottery to vegetables, baked sweets and bread. Check the organiser's dates, since a month with five Sundays can catch people out.

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The Hosoden hall of Kamigamo Shrine with its two sacred sand cones, Kyoto Kimon Berlin, CC BY-SA 2.0
Market Free

Tenjin-san Market at Kitano Tenmangu

天神市（北野天満宮）

25th of every month, 7:00 to sunset Kitano Tenmangu, Kitano

Time 7:00 to sunset Station Kitano Tenmangu-mae bus stop (City Bus), 1 min walk

Kitano Tenmangu's market on the 25th, the date tied to Sugawara no Michizane's birth and death, is Kyoto's other big fair alongside To-ji's, strong on antiques, old tools and secondhand clothes. On market days the shrine buildings are lit after dark.

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The carved Sanmon gate of Kitano Tenmangu hung with a large ema plaque z tanuki, CC BY 3.0
Market Free

Kobo-ichi Market at To-ji

弘法市（東寺）

21st of every month, about 5:00 to 16:00 (stall hours vary) To-ji, Kyoto Station

Time About 5:00 to 16:00 Station Toji (Kintetsu Kyoto Line), 10 min walk

On the 21st of every month, Kukai's memorial day, about 1,200 to 1,300 stalls fill To-ji's grounds with antiques, old kimono and secondhand odds and ends, and about 200,000 people come. Most stallholders are dealers with shops elsewhere, it goes ahead in the rain, and stalls open from about 5:00, so come early if you're hunting for something.

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Market Free

Kyoto Antique Fair

京都アンティークフェア

Three times a year (spring, early summer and autumn) over a Friday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, last day to 16:00 Kyoto Pulse Plaza, Takeda

Time 10:00 to 17:00 (last day to 16:00) Station Takeda (Karasuma Line, Kintetsu Kyoto Line), then the free shuttle bus from west exit 4

Over 300 dealers from all over Japan sell antiques and old art, furniture, paintings, Asian goods and Western antiques under one roof at Pulse Plaza, so the weather doesn't matter. Entry is free, and a free shuttle bus runs from Takeda Station.

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Market Free

Tenjin-ichi Market at Kitano Tenmangu

天神市（北野天満宮）

25th of every month, all day, with the lanterns lit from sunset Kitano Tenmangu, Kitano

Time All day, lanterns lit from sunset Station Kitano-Hakubaicho (Randen Kitano Line), 5 min walk

The 25th is Kitano Tenmangu's monthly fair day, and stalls line the approach all day. From sunset the shrine lights its 350 stone and 250 hanging lanterns, and 25 January and 25 December are the busiest of the year, with about a thousand stalls.

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The carved Sanmon gate of Kitano Tenmangu hung with a large ema plaque z tanuki, CC BY 3.0
Market Free

Kobo-san Market at To-ji

弘法市（東寺）

21st of every month, 7:00 to 15:30 To-ji, Kyoto Station

Time 7:00 to 15:30 Station Toji (Kintetsu Kyoto Line), 6 min walk

Over 1,000 stalls fill To-ji on the 21st of every month, Kobo Daishi's memorial day, selling antiques, old tools, secondhand clothes and food to about 200,000 visitors. It runs in the rain, and the January market is Hatsu-Kobo.

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Market Free

Umekoji Park Handmade Market

梅小路公園手づくり市

First Saturday of the month, none in January, May and August, 9:00 to 16:00 Umekoji Park, Kyoto Station

Time 9:00 to 16:00 Station Umekoji-Kyotonishi (JR Sagano Line)

The sister market of the Hyakumanben one, with makers' stalls in Umekoji Park, and unlike at the temple you can bring a dog. It goes ahead in the rain.

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A preserved Kyoto city tram on display in Umekoji Park, Kyoto Tam0031, CC BY-SA 3.0
Market Free

Umekoji Park Handmade Market

梅小路公園手づくり市

1st Saturday of the month except January, May and August, 9:00 to 16:00 Umekoji Park, Kyoto Station

Time 9:00 to 16:00 Station Umekoji-Kyotonishi (JR Sagano Line), 1 min walk

The sister market of Chion-ji's, run by the same team, sets up in Umekoji Park on the first Saturday of the month, with crafts and food sold by the people who made them. In May it joins the park's Green Fair on 3 and 4 May instead.

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A preserved Kyoto city tram on display in Umekoji Park, Kyoto Tam0031, CC BY-SA 3.0

Good to know

What is on in Kyoto in January 2027?

There are 11 events listed for January 2027 (6 exhibitions, 3 festivals and 2 anime and games events). The big dates are Maruyama Okyo and Ito Jakuchu (17 Oct to 20 Jun), Whom Does Jewellery Dream Of? (24 Oct to 17 Jan), The Indomitable Power of Go Nagai (28 Nov to 11 Jan), Studio Ghibli Presents Hakuin's Zen (17 Dec to 11 Jan), Nitten Kyoto Exhibition (19 Dec to 16 Jan) and New Year Feature: All About Sheep (22 Dec to 7 Feb). 8 have confirmed dates and 3 are annual events whose exact 2027 dates are still to be announced, shown with the usual window. Every listing links to the interactive map.

What festivals are on in Kyoto in January 2027?

The 3 festivals listed for January 2027 are Karuta Hajime at Yasaka Shrine (3 Jan, dates to be confirmed), Kemari Hajime at Shimogamo Shrine (4 Jan, dates to be confirmed) and Toka Ebisu at Kyoto Ebisu Shrine (8 to 12 Jan, dates to be confirmed).

Are there free events in Kyoto in January 2027?

Yes. Karuta Hajime at Yasaka Shrine (3 Jan, dates to be confirmed), Kemari Hajime at Shimogamo Shrine (4 Jan, dates to be confirmed) and Toka Ebisu at Kyoto Ebisu Shrine (8 to 12 Jan, dates to be confirmed) are free to attend, 3 of the 11 events listed for January 2027.

Is January a good time to visit Kyoto?

The year's coldest weeks, with mornings averaging under 2°C. The first days of January fill the shrines for hatsumode, the first visit of the year. The Tenjin-san market at Kitano Tenmangu on the 25th is one of the two biggest of the year.

How current is this list?

Dated events are checked against the organiser's own page, and finished events drop off the page on their own. Annual events further out carry their usual dates until the official ones are published.