Neighbourhood guide

Gion

The teahouse streets below Yasaka Shrine, best early or at dusk

Gion grew up as the town at the gate of Yasaka Shrine, and it's still where Kyoto's geiko and maiko live and work. Gion Kobu, the largest of the city's five geiko districts, keeps its teahouses along Hanamikoji-dori, and the Shirakawa canal runs through Gion Shinbashi to the north. Go early for the shrine and the temples behind it. Come back at dusk for the streets.

Walk east on Shijo-dori from the Kawaramachi crossing, over the Kamo River, and Yasaka Shrine's vermilion gate is in front of you about 13 minutes later. The Gion Matsuri grew from a prayer there against epidemics, and it still takes over July, with float processions on 17 and 24 July. Minamiza has stood at the east end of the bridge for more than 400 years, since kabuki played on the dry riverbed.

If you see a geiko or maiko in the street, let her pass. Don't stop, touch, follow or photograph her without asking. Those are southern Gion's own rules, and a resident's report can bring the police. Miyagawacho, down by the river, is a second geiko district, with its own dances each April.

Getting there

From Kyoto Station, take the JR Nara Line two minutes to Tofukuji and change to the Keihan Line for Gion-Shijo, 9 minutes up the line from Fushimi-inari. On weekends and holidays the EX100 bus from stop D1 gets you to the Gion stop in about 15 minutes for ¥500, two minutes from Yasaka Shrine.

25 places

Higashiyama (Tozai Line) · Gion-Shijo (Keihan) stations

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What to see

Start on Hanamikoji-dori, which runs south from Shijo-dori between teahouses that kept their old fronts. Look for red lanterns printed with linked dumplings, Gion Kobu's crest. Keep to the edge, since cars use the street too, and stay out of anything that isn't a shop or the road. The street leads to the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo. Gion Corner, in its annex, puts seven traditional arts on one stage in about 50 minutes, and the Gion Kagai Art Museum next door shows the kimono and kanzashi of the district's geiko and maiko. North of Shijo-dori, Gion Shirakawa is a canal-side street of machiya that Kyoto has protected since 1976. See it after dark in cherry season.

Behind Yasaka Shrine, Maruyama Park's old weeping cherry is lit up at night when it blooms, and beyond the park Chion-in's Sanmon is one of the largest wooden gates in Japan. You can walk in free from 6:00. Kodai-ji, which Nene founded in 1606 to pray for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, lights its garden from 23 October to 13 December 2026.

At Yasui Konpira-gu you crawl through a stone plastered with paper charms, one way to end a bad tie and the other way to start a good one. Ishibe-koji is a stone-paved lane of Meiji and Taisho rental houses that people still live in, so keep your voice down.

Where to eat and drink

The old food shops are a few minutes' walk apart, on and around Shijo-dori. Kagizen Yoshifusa has made sweets here since the Kyoho era (1716 to 1736). Gion Izuju, at the foot of Yasaka Shrine's steps, presses Tsushima mackerel on rice for saba-zushi, ¥2,820 for six pieces before tax, and you can take almost everything away. Upstairs at Gion Tsujiri, matcha parfaits run from ¥1,600 to ¥3,000. In Maruyama Park, Imobo Hiranoya Honke has made imobo, prawn-shaped taro simmered with dried cod, for about 300 years. Set meals start at ¥3,300.

Chourakukan, a Western-style mansion from 1909, serves desserts in six rooms, each in a different style. After dark, Gion Finlandia Bar pours mostly Nordic spirits in a building that still looks like a teahouse, from 18:00 to 2:00, with a ¥1,000 cover charge. To take home, Hararyokaku's kuro-shichimi is ¥540 a bag.

Where to stay

Kyoto's tourism association lists ryokan, Western-style hotels and smaller places such as machiya townhouses and guesthouses. Its list for this part of town includes Gion Shinmonso, a 21-room ryokan on the Shirakawa, and Chourakukan, with six rooms in its mansion by Maruyama Park. The Celestine Kyoto Gion is on Yasaka-dori. Book well ahead for the cherry blossom and the autumn leaves.

Gion suits you if you want Yasaka Shrine before the crowds and a short walk home after Gion Corner. Got big cases? Take the subway. Kyoto asks visitors to keep large luggage off its city buses. The Karasuma and Tozai lines run from Kyoto Station to Higashiyama in about 15 minutes, changing at Karasuma Oike.

How to do it in a day

Pick any day but Monday, when Kagizen Yoshifusa's closed. Be at Yasaka Shrine early and walk through Maruyama Park to Chion-in, then come back down for Kennin-ji at its 10:00 opening and Yasui Konpira-gu nearby. Lunch is saba-zushi at Gion Izuju (closed Wednesdays and Thursdays) or imobo at Imobo Hiranoya Honke, from 11:00.

Book the 13:30 dance at the Gion Kagai Art Museum, then have kuzukiri at Kagizen Yoshifusa. Walk Hanamikoji-dori and Gion Shirakawa as the light goes, and see the 18:00 show at Gion Corner (Tuesday to Friday only from December to mid-March). Between 23 October and 13 December, Kodai-ji's open until 22:00. Or end at Gion Finlandia Bar, which pours until 2:00.

Nearby neighbourhoods

Kawaramachi Downtown Kyoto, between Nishiki Market and the Kamo River 26 places · under 1 km away

Higashiyama Kiyomizu-dera at opening, then the temples and pottery below it 22 places · under 1 km away

Okazaki Art museums, Meiji gardens and Nanzen-ji along the Lake Biwa Canal 27 places · 1.4 km away

Shijo-Karasuma Kyoto's old bank corner, with kimono streets one block back 16 places · 1.5 km away

The best of Gion

Best shrine Yasaka Shrine The grounds never close. Go first thing, then leave by the west gate and Gion's streets are right in front of you.

Best temple Kennin-ji Kyoto's oldest Zen temple, with twin dragons by Koizumi Junsaku on the Dharma Hall ceiling. Entry goes from ¥800 to ¥1,000 on 1 January 2027.

Best sweet Kagizen Yoshifusa Order the kuzukiri, made to order and eaten with black sugar syrup. The tea room takes no bookings, and it's closed on Mondays.

Best dance Gion Kagai Art Museum A geiko or maiko dances two short pieces upstairs, from 13:30. It's ¥1,600 on top of the ¥1,500 entry, and the museum shuts from mid-March to early May.

Things to do in Gion

Temple · Free Chion-in Chion-in is the head temple of Jodo Shu, where the founder Honen taught and spent his last years. You walk in through the Sanmon, built in 1621, about 24 metres tall and 50 metres wide under some 70,000 roof tiles, one of the largest wooden gates in Japan. The 70-tonne bell, cast in 1636, rings 108 times on New Year's Eve, swung by a team of 17.

Cafe · ¥¥ Chourakukan Chourakukan is a Western-style mansion that Murai Kichibei, the "tobacco king", built in 1909 to receive guests, and it was named an Important Cultural Property in 2024. Its cafe serves seasonal desserts in six rooms, each in a different style, with a Bösendorfer piano that a pianist plays on some days.

Shopping · Free Furukawacho Shopping Street Furukawacho is a covered shopping street of about 40 shops over 220 metres, running south from Sanjo-dori on the line of the old Wakasa road, the route that brought mackerel from the Sea of Japan. It's known as the Nishiki of the east, and it was once called eastern Kyoto's kitchen. The arcade went up in 1972, and about 1,000 pastel paper lanterns hang from it now.

Landmark · ¥¥¥ Gion Corner Gion Corner, in the annex of the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo, puts seven traditional arts on one stage in about 50 minutes: tea, koto, ikebana, bugaku court dance, kyogen comedy, Kyomai dance by Gion Kobu maiko, and bunraku or noh depending on the month. It's where Gion's own teahouse association sends visitors who want to see Kyoto-style dance.

Nightlife · ¥¥ Gion Finlandia Bar Finlandia Bar opened in 1982 in a Gion building that keeps the look of a teahouse. It pours mostly Nordic spirits and cocktails made the way you ask, and it says it's the only bar given permission to call itself Finlandia.

Food · ¥¥ Gion Izuju Izuju has made Kyoto-style sushi at the foot of Yasaka Shrine's stone steps since the end of the Meiji era. The saba-zushi is mackerel caught off Tsushima, pressed on rice and wrapped in kombu, and the inari-zushi rice is mixed with hemp seeds, yuzu and burdock.

Museum · ¥¥ Gion Kagai Art Museum The Gion Kagai Art Museum, in the Yasaka Club beside the Kaburenjo, explains the world of Gion Kobu's geiko and maiko through hand-painted Yuzen kimono, Nishijin obi and the kanzashi they change with the seasons. Upstairs, a geiko or maiko dances two Inoue-style pieces several times a day. You can also see the pond garden from 1913 and, when it's open, part of the Kaburenjo's all-hinoki theatre.

Neighbourhood · Free Gion Shirakawa North of Shijo-dori, the Shirakawa canal runs through Gion Shinbashi, where neat rows of machiya, stone paving and trees line the water. Kyoto has protected it as a district of traditional buildings since 1976. In spring the cherry trees along the canal are lit up for an evening illumination.

Cafe · ¥¥ Gion Tsujiri Tsujiri started selling tea in Uji in 1860 and opened this Gion shop on Shijo-dori in 1948. The ground floor is the tea shop, which also sells soft serve, and Saryo Tsujiri on the two floors above has served matcha sweets since 1978. Its most popular order is the Tokusen Tsujiri parfait, layered with matcha and vanilla ice cream, shiratama, matcha jelly and azuki.

Neighbourhood · Free Hanamikoji-dori Hanamikoji runs south from Shijo-dori through Gion Kobu, the largest of Kyoto's five geiko districts, between teahouses that kept their old fronts. The power lines went underground and the stone paving went down in the 2001 financial year. The street leads to the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo, where the district's geiko and maiko dance the Miyako Odori every April.

Shopping · ¥ Hararyokaku Hararyokaku has sold kosen, fragrant powders you sprinkle into hot water, since at least 1685, and its main shop is in Gion. Its best-known product is kuro-shichimi, a seven-spice blend of white and black sesame, chilli, sansho, aonori, poppy seeds and hemp seeds, part of it dry-roasted, then ground and kneaded until the blend turns dark brown.

Shopping · ¥¥¥ Ichizawa Shinzaburo Hanpu Ichizawa Shinzaburo Hanpu sells canvas bags made in its own workshop, from totes to rucksacks, at its only shop anywhere, on Higashioji-dori. The family business goes back to the Meiji era, when Kihee Ichizawa bought a sewing machine and started on tool bags and shirts.

Food · ¥¥ Imobo Hiranoya Honke Hiranoya Honke, inside Maruyama Park, has made imobo for about 300 years. It's ebi-imo, a taro shaped like a prawn, simmered for a full day and night with dried cod that's soaked for over a week, so the cod's gelatin holds the taro together while the taro softens the fish.

Neighbourhood · Free Ishibe-koji Ishibe-koji is a stone-paved lane south of Yasaka Shrine that winds between stone walls from Kodaiji Kitamon-dori to Shimogawara-dori. It was built as rental housing in the late Meiji and early Taisho years, and it's now part of a protected district of traditional buildings.

Cafe · ¥¥ Kagizen Yoshifusa Kagizen Yoshifusa has made Kyoto sweets in Gion since the Kyoho era (1716 to 1736). Its tea room is where you try the kuzukiri, made to order from Yoshino kudzu and water and eaten with black sugar syrup, a dessert the shop first delivered to teahouses and Minamiza in the early Showa years. To take home, the Kikujuto, small chrysanthemums of wasanbon sugar, have been made for over 150 years.

Shopping · ¥¥ Kazurasei Roho Kazurasei has made and sold women's hair goods since 1865, and its main shop is on Shijo-dori in Gion. Look for boxwood combs, kanzashi hairpins and the 100% pure camellia oil it presses in its own factory.

Temple · ¥ Kennin-ji Kennin-ji is Kyoto's oldest Zen temple, founded in 1202 with the monk Eisai as its first abbot. Look up in the Dharma Hall at Koizumi Junsaku's twin dragons, finished in 2002 for the 800th anniversary and painted across a ceiling 11.4 by 15.7 metres. The Wind and Thunder Gods screens you see are high-definition copies, because Sotatsu's original is deposited at the Kyoto National Museum.

Temple · ¥ 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.

Shrine · Free Kyoto Ebisu Shrine Kyoto Ebisu Shrine is one of Japan's three great Ebisu shrines, founded in 1202 by Eisai as the guardian shrine of Kennin-ji. The lucky bamboo branch, now the emblem of Ebisu worship all over Japan, started as this shrine's own talisman.

Park · Free Maruyama Park Maruyama Park opened in 1886, which makes it Kyoto's oldest park, and it's a designated Place of Scenic Beauty covering 86,000 square metres at the foot of the eastern hills behind Yasaka Shrine. The centrepiece is an old weeping cherry that's lit up at night when it blooms. You'll also find stroll gardens, rest houses and Japanese restaurants inside.

Landmark · ¥¥¥ Minamiza Minamiza has stood at the east end of Shijo bridge for more than 400 years, since the days when kabuki played on the dry bed of the Kamo River. The current building, with its Momoyama-style gables, dates from 1929 and reopened in November 2018 after earthquake-proofing.

Neighbourhood · Free Miyagawacho Miyagawacho, by the Kamo River, is one of Kyoto's five geiko districts, with 27 teahouses in its association. Its name is said to come from the stretch of river below Shijo bridge where Yasaka Shrine's portable shrines are washed during the Gion Matsuri. The district's geiko and maiko dance the Kyo Odori each April, the 75th in 2026, in a new Kaburenjo that opened in 2025.

Shrine · Free Yasaka Shrine Yasaka Shrine watches over the streets of Gion, and its history goes back to at least 876, when the priest Enjo enshrined Gozu Tenno to stop the epidemics sweeping Kyoto. That prayer started the Gion Matsuri, which still fills July, with float processions on 17 and 24 July. The shrine has long ties to the geiko of Gion next door.

Shrine · Free Yasui Konpira-gu Yasui Konpira-gu is where people come to cut bad ties and make good ones. The centrepiece is a stone 1.5 metres tall and 3 metres wide, shaped like an ema plaque and plastered with paper charms, with a hole you crawl through, front to back to end a bad tie and back to front to start a good one.

Sento · ¥ Atarashi-yu Atarashi-yu has been open for more than a century on Furumonzen-dori, near Yasaka Shrine, Chion-in and Tatsumi Inari. It has a sauna, a cold bath, an electric bath, a jet bath and a herbal bath, and it stays open until midnight.

Stay in Gion

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