Yasaka Koshindo
Higashiyama, Kyoto
Source: ja.kyoto.travel, checked 11 Oct 2026.
Yasaka Koshindo, formally Kongo-ji, is a Tendai temple near the Yasaka Pagoda, and it's counted with Shitenno-ji in Osaka and Senso-ji in Tokyo as one of Japan's three great Koshin temples. Its charm is the kukurizaru, a monkey with its hands and feet tied, made to keep your own selfish wants in check.
Insider tip
The custom is to give up one desire and offer a kukurizaru to the main deity, Shomen Kongo, to get a wish granted. On Koshin days, every 60 days, and on 6 and 7 January and 3 May, the temple serves blessed konnyaku, and you eat three pieces facing north without a word.
What's on near Yasaka Koshindo
Upcoming events within a ten-minute walk of Yasaka Koshindo, from the weekly Kyoto events calendar.
Spring Night Viewing at Kodai-ji
春の夜間特別拝観（高台寺）
Time 17:00 to 21:30 (gates close 22:00) Station Higashiyama Yasui bus stop (City Bus 206), 7 min walk
Hideyoshi's widow Nene's temple lights its garden for spring evenings: the Garyu pond and the bamboo grove past the Kasa-tei and Shigure-tei tea houses are the ones to see. You follow the same route as by day.
Tetsuhiro Terada, CC BY 2.0 Autumn Night Viewing at Kodai-ji
秋の夜間特別拝観（高台寺）
Time 9:00 to 22:00, lit from 17:00 (last entry 21:30) Station Higashiyama Yasui bus stop (City Bus 206, 207)
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.
Tetsuhiro Terada, CC BY 2.0 Entoku-in Autumn Exhibition and Night Viewing
圓徳院特別展と夜間特別拝観
Time Night viewing 17:00 to 22:00 (last entry 21:30), screens on show from 10:00 Station Higashiyama Yasui bus stop (City Bus 206)
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.
Rokudo Mairi at Rokudo Chinno-ji
六道まいり（六道珍皇寺）
Time 6:00 to 22:00 Station Kiyomizu-michi bus stop (City Bus 206), 3 min walk
Before Obon, Kyoto families come to this temple at the old crossroads to the underworld to ring the mukae-gane bell and call their ancestors home, carrying sprigs of koyamaki bought from stalls on the approach.
663highland, CC BY 2.5 Ryoma Festival
龍馬祭
Time 15:30 Station Higashiyama Yasui bus stop (City Bus 86, 206), 7 min walk
On the anniversary of Sakamoto Ryoma's death, fans gather at his grave above Higashiyama, and shamo chicken hotpot, the dish he was about to eat the night he was killed, is offered and shared with visitors. The festival is free, but the grave area costs ¥300.
Oilstreet, CC BY 2.5 Nearby
Around Higashiyama
Kiyomizu-dera at opening, then the temples and pottery below it
Higashiyama is a whole ward, but this guide covers the slope from Kiyomizu-dera down to Shichijo-dori. Go early. The temple's gates open at 6:00, and if you're there then, you'll reach its wooden stage long before the day's crowds. Later, walk down past the pottery shops of Gojozaka to Sanjusangendo, where 1,001 statues of Kannon stand in a hall 120 metres long.
Higashiyama has 22 places on the Roam Kyoto map: 10 shrines and temples, 4 shops, 2 museums, 2 neighbourhoods, 1 cafe, 1 viewpoint, 1 restaurant and 1 landmark. Read the Higashiyama guide.
Good to know
- What is the address of Yasaka Koshindo?
- 390 Kinen-cho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto (in Japanese: 京都市東山区金園町390).
- How do I get to Yasaka Koshindo?
- The nearest station is Higashiyama-Yasui bus stop (City Bus 206). Yasaka Koshindo is in Higashiyama, Kyoto.
- How much does Yasaka Koshindo cost?
- Nothing. Yasaka Koshindo is free to visit.
- How long do you need at Yasaka Koshindo?
- Plan for 15 min.
- When is the best time to visit Yasaka Koshindo?
- On a Koshin day.
Stay near Yasaka Koshindo
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