Kyoto · Sights

Best Shrine in Kyoto

16 places, each checked by our team.

• Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社Fushimi — Head shrine of the 30,000 Inari shrines of Japan, with roughly 10,000 vermilion torii forming tunnels that wind up sacred Mt. Inari, open 24 hours…
• Heian Shrine 平安神宮Okazaki — A grand 1895 replica of the Heian imperial palace in vivid vermilion and green, fronted by one of Japan's largest torii, with a stroll garden of…
• Imamiya Shrine 今宮神社Murasakino / Kita Ward — A northern Kyoto neighbourhood shrine famous for its "tama-no-koshi" good-marriage blessings and the two rival aburi-mochi shops facing each other…
• Iwashimizu Hachimangu 石清水八幡宮Yawata — One of Japan's three great Hachiman shrines, on Mount Otokoyama south of Kyoto, with a National Treasure main hall.
• Kamigamo Shrine 上賀茂神社Kamigamo / Kita Ward — Kyoto's oldest shrine and a World Heritage Site, where two cone-shaped sand mounds stand before the worship hall and a stream runs through the…
• Kifune Shrine 貴船神社Kibune / Sakyo — A mountain shrine of water and matchmaking in the cool Kibune valley, its stone steps lined with red lanterns, with fortune papers that reveal text…
• Kitano Tenmangu 北野天満宮Kitano / Kamigyo — Kyoto's shrine of learning, dedicated to the scholar Sugawara no Michizane, with 1,500 plum trees, an earthen-rampart maple garden and the monthly…
• Matsuo Taisha 松尾大社Matsuo / Nishikyo — The guardian shrine of sake brewers in western Kyoto, with a wall of sake barrels and Shigemori Mirei's last masterpiece, three bold modern gardens.
• Motoise Kono Shrine 元伊勢籠神社Amanohashidate — The ancient first shrine of Tango province at the north end of Amanohashidate, linked by legend to the origins of Ise Grand Shrine.
• Nonomiya Shrine 野宮神社Arashiyama — A tiny shrine inside the Arashiyama bamboo grove with a rare black, unbarked kuroki torii, where imperial princesses once purified themselves before…
• Seimei Shrine 晴明神社Horikawa / Nishijin — A small shrine dedicated to the Heian-era court diviner Abe no Seimei, marked everywhere with his five-pointed star crest.
• Shimogamo Shrine 下鴨神社Shimogamo / Sakyo — One of Kyoto's oldest shrines, approached through the Tadasu-no-Mori primeval forest at the fork of the Kamo river, with paper-doll purification,…
• Ujigami Shrine 宇治上神社Uji — A small, quiet World Heritage shrine across the river from Byodo-in whose main hall, built around 1060, is the oldest surviving shrine building in…
• Yasaka Shrine 八坂神社Gion — Gion's guardian shrine at the top of Shijo-dori, its vermilion West Gate a city landmark, its dance stage hung with hundreds of glowing lanterns…
• Yasui Konpiragu 安井金比羅宮Gion / Higashiyama — A Gion backstreet shrine famous for a tunnel stone covered in paper charms: crawl through one way to cut bad ties, the other to make good ones.
• Yoshida Shrine 吉田神社Yoshida / Kyoto University — A wooded hillside shrine beside Kyoto University, famous for its Setsubun festival and the unusual octagonal Daigengu hall.