Neighbourhood guide

Ginkakuji

Temple gardens along a canal path, under the Daimonji hill

Get to Ginkaku-ji for its 8:30 opening, because the temple fills up as the day goes on. Then walk south on the Philosopher's Path, about 1.8 km of stone path beside a branch of the Lake Biwa Canal, and turn off it for the temples on either side. Honen-in's grounds open at 6:00, and you don't pay to go in.

This is the north-east corner of the city, where the canal runs along the foot of Daimonji-yama. The path's named after Kitaro Nishida, a Kyoto University philosopher who's said to have walked here deep in thought. The painter Hashimoto Kansetsu, whose home and garden are now Hakusasonso, gave 360 cherry trees for its banks in 1922.

Late November is when the most doors open. Ginkaku-ji takes groups into the Togu-do from 1 November to 5 December 2026 (in Japanese), Honen-in opens its halls and garden from 18 to 24 November, and Konkai Komyo-ji shows its tiger screens from 13 November to 6 December, while Shinnyo-do's maples usually peak. In spring you get the cherries, and Honen-in opens again from 1 to 7 April.

Getting there

From Kyoto Station, take the Karasuma subway line to Imadegawa (about 9 minutes) and City Bus 203 to Ginkakuji-michi, about 43 minutes in all. From Gion-Shijo, it's the Keihan line to Demachiyanagi and City Bus 7 or 203 (about 29 minutes), or start at Keage Station on the Tozai Line, about 15 minutes' walk from the path's south end.

15 places

Ginkakuji-michi bus stop (City Bus 5, 7, 32, 102, 203, 204) · Jodoji bus stop (City Bus 5) stations

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What to see

Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth Muromachi shogun, began a mountain villa here in 1482, and after he died in 1490 it became the Zen temple Jisho-ji. Ginkaku-ji keeps the Silver Pavilion (properly the Kannon-den), and in front of the main hall the Ginshadan, a stepped bed of white sand patterned like ripples, sits beside the flat-topped sand cone of the Kogetsudai. The hillside lookout gives you a view over the city, but it's all steps.

Then walk south along the canal. Honen-in is a short climb east of the Philosopher's Path, where Honen kept a hermitage, and the patterns in the sand mounds inside its gate change with the seasons. Further south, Reikan-ji grows more than 100 kinds of camellia but only opens for special viewings (20 March to 12 April in 2026). Back at the north end, Hakusasonso's pond garden is a national Place of Scenic Beauty (¥1,300 with the museum).

West of the canal, Shinnyo-do has a three-storey pagoda from 1817 and a stone garden of the dying Buddha. Konkai Komyo-ji, a few minutes south, was the Aizu lord's Kyoto headquarters from 1862, and around the equinoxes you can watch the sun set behind Mount Ogura from its graves. Yoshida Shrine draws about 500,000 people at Setsubun. If it rains, there's Kyoto University Museum (¥400, closed Mondays and Tuesdays), and Shisen-do and Keibunsha Ichijoji are about 2 km north, in Ichijoji.

Where to eat and drink

Omen Ginkakuji opened near Ginkaku-ji in 1967, serving a dish from Isesaki in Gunma. You dip the udon in kombu and bonito broth and add as much as you like of the condiments, kinpira burdock and sesame among them. It's ¥1,520, or ¥1,780 for the gluten-free rice noodles. Book by phone (it doesn't take email bookings), and check its calendar before a Thursday.

Most temples and museums here close by 17:00, and Omen only does dinner from Friday to Sunday and on holidays (17:00 to 20:30). After dark, ride City Bus 5 north to Tenka Ippin Sohonten, the ramen chain's head shop, open until 1:00. Its founder started in 1971 with a street cart near Ginkaku-ji that sold just 11 bowls a day at first.

Where to stay

Lodging here runs small. Kyoto City's register of licensed lodgings (end of July 2026) lists 25 in Jodoji, Shishigatani, Yoshida and Kitashirakawa, and all but four hold the simple-lodging licence that guesthouses and house rentals use. Ryokan Yoshida-Sanso, a villa built in 1932 for Prince Higashi-Fushimi at the foot of Yoshida-yama, has been an inn since 1948 and serves kaiseki.

Stay here if you want Ginkaku-ji at opening without a bus ride first, or if you've seen the centre on an earlier trip. The catch is getting around. There's no station at Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto Station is about 43 minutes away, and the evenings are quiet, so if you want to walk home from Gion, sleep downtown. Book well ahead for the cherry and maple seasons.

How to do it in a day

Be at Ginkaku-ji for 8:30 (9:00 from December to February) and see the sand garden before you climb to the lookout. During the autumn tours, put your name down for the Togu-do at the main hall about an hour before the one you want. Walk down to Hakusasonso when it opens at 10:00, then have lunch at Omen Ginkakuji.

Afterwards, walk the Philosopher's Path south and climb to Honen-in. Cut west to Shinnyo-do before its 15:45 last entry, and get to Konkai Komyo-ji for the late afternoon. From 13 November to 6 December 2026, you can stay for its light-up (17:30 to 20:30). Then take City Bus 5 north for a late bowl at Tenka Ippin Sohonten.

Nearby neighbourhoods

Okazaki Art museums, Meiji gardens and Nanzen-ji along the Lake Biwa Canal 27 places · 1.7 km away

Imperial Palace Free palace walks, a park that never shuts, and the court's old shops 23 places · 2.7 km away

Demachiyanagi Stepping stones, a shrine forest and the trains to Kurama 15 places · 2.8 km away

Kawaramachi Downtown Kyoto, between Nishiki Market and the Kamo River 26 places · 3.1 km away

The best of Ginkakuji

Best temple Ginkaku-ji The Silver Pavilion and the Togu-do are the two buildings left from the shogun's villa, and both are National Treasures. Entry's been ¥1,000 since April 2026.

Best walk Philosopher's Path About 30 minutes end to end at an easy pace. In spring, after the cherries fall, the petals drift down the canal in rafts.

Best free stop Honen-in Walk in through the thatched gate between two mounds of white sand, from 6:00. The halls only open for a week in April and a week in November.

Best lunch Omen Ginkakuji You dip the udon in kombu and bonito broth and pile on the condiments, ¥1,520 hot or cold. Book by phone.

Things to do in Ginkakuji

Viewpoint · Free Daimonji-yama The hill above Ginkaku-ji is Nyoigatake, better known as Daimonji-yama, where a giant 大 is lit on the night of 16 August for the Gozan Okuribi. Ginkaku-ji's own history says Ashikaga Yoshimasa had the first one laid out in 1489 to send off the spirit of his son Yoshihisa. A path climbs through the Ginkakuji-yama national forest to the fire beds, and from the crossing of the 大 you look out over the whole city, with the green of the Imperial Palace in the middle.

Temple · ¥ Ginkaku-ji Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth Muromachi shogun, began building a mountain villa here in 1482, and after his death in 1490 it became the Zen temple Jisho-ji. Two buildings survive from his day, the Kannon-den, which is the Silver Pavilion itself, and the Togu-do hall, and both are National Treasures. In front of the main hall, a stepped bed of white sand patterned like ripples (the Ginshadan) sits beside a flat-topped sand cone, the Kogetsudai.

Museum · ¥ Hakusasonso The house, studios and garden of Hashimoto Kansetsu (1883 to 1945), a Nihonga painter who built the place over about 32 years from 1913 and moved in in 1916. The pond garden he designed covers 7,400 square metres of the 10,000 square metre estate, is a national Place of Scenic Beauty and is set with stone carvings from the Heian to Kamakura periods. A museum on the grounds shows his paintings.

Temple · Free Honen-in Honen-in is a short climb east of the Philosopher's Path, on the spot where Honen, founder of the Jodo sect, kept a hermitage with his disciples Anraku and Juren. The present temple dates from 1680. You walk in through a thatched gate between two mounds of white sand, the byakusadan, and the patterns drawn in them change with the seasons.

Shopping · ¥ Keibunsha Ichijoji Keibunsha calls itself a shop of all sorts of things to do with books. Beside the bookshop there's the Seikatsukan, with books on clothes, food and the home and the household goods that go with them, the Gallery Annfair, which hosts shows and a yearly used-book fair, and Cottage, an event space with a kitchen at the back of the bookshop.

Temple · Free 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.

Museum · ¥ Kyoto University Museum Kyoto University's museum holds about 2.6 million specimens and objects, and its permanent galleries cover natural history, cultural history and the history of technology. On some Saturdays graduate students run the Children's Museum, explaining the exhibits in conversation with visitors, and adults are welcome too.

Food · ¥¥ Omen Ginkakuji Yoji and Tomi Shinagawa opened Omen in front of Ginkaku-ji on 10 August 1967. The dish comes from Isesaki in Gunma, where Tomi learned it from her mother-in-law during the war. You dip the udon in a broth of Hokkaido kombu and bonito, adding as much as you like from a heap of condiments such as kinpira burdock, sesame, green onion, ginger and seasonal vegetables.

Neighbourhood · Free 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 · ¥ Reikan-ji A convent temple founded in 1654 for Princess Tari-no-miya, daughter of Emperor Go-Mizunoo, and headed by imperial princesses for generations. Go-Mizunoo loved camellias, and the garden holds more than 100 kinds, including the Nikko camellia, a Kyoto City natural monument. The shoin, moved here from Emperor Gosai's palace, keeps paintings of birds and flowers of the four seasons attributed to the Kano school.

Temple · ¥ 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 · ¥ 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.

Food · ¥ Tenka Ippin Sohonten The head shop of Tenka Ippin, the ramen chain built on kotteri, a soup of chicken bones and vegetables so thick the company calls it a soup you eat rather than drink. Founder Tsutomu Kimura started with a street cart in 1971 and spent 3 years and 9 months getting that soup right. The cart became this shop, the chain's first, in August 1975.

Shrine · Free Yoshida Shrine Founded in 859 to protect the capital, Yoshida Shrine sits on the hill of Kagura-oka, up the street from Kyoto University's main gate. The Daigen-gu hall, an Important Cultural Property, enshrines the gods of every shrine in Japan, and there are small shrines to the god of cooking and the god of sweets. It's busiest at Setsubun, 2 to 4 February, when about 500,000 people come and around 800 stalls line the approaches.

Sento · ¥ Ginsui-yu Ginsui-yu is the neighbourhood sento in Jodoji, a couple of minutes' walk from the Philosopher's Path. It runs on fully softened water, which the bath recommends for sensitive skin, and has a sauna with a TV, a cold bath, an electric bath, a jet bath and a herbal bath.

Stay in Ginkakuji

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