A thousand years as the imperial capital: shoguns, spirits and bamboo groves.
Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1869, and it still keeps the shoguns’ castle, the emperors’ palace and hundreds of temples and shrines. Behind its wooden streets live legends of plague gods, wells that led to hell and stones that cut ties. Three free self-guided walks to explore it at your own pace: the historic centre, Gion and Higashiyama, and Arashiyama.
Choose your free tour
All routes are free and can be combined. If it’s your first visit, start with the mixed route.
From the castle where the shoguns’ rule ended to the emperor’s gate, Nobunaga’s temple and the bridge where the Tōkaidō road came to an end.
From Gion to Kiyomizu-dera, past shrines against plague, the well of an official who served the king of hell, and a slope where you really should not trip.
From the Togetsukyō bridge to the Sagano bamboo grove, by way of a Zen temple, the shrine of the Ise princesses and a poet’s hut.
The map
The routes cross in the old town. Tap a point to see which story awaits you there.
Filled points already have a published article; the rest are in the works.
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A day in the city
Link the three routes and you will see the best of the city on foot, for free: the mixed route in the morning, history in the afternoon and legends as the sun goes down.
Morning
Afternoon
Early evening
Where to eat. Try Yudōfu (simmered tofu) at Okutan Nanzen-ji.
What to eat
The dishes you can’t leave without trying, and the classic spots that have been serving them for years.
Blocks of silky tofu warmed in a kombu seaweed broth and dipped in soy sauce with spring onion. The dish grew out of the vegetarian cooking of Zen temples, and around Nanzen-ji it has been served for centuries. Okutan, which traces its origins to 1635, serves it in a garden next to the temple.
Where to try it
Buckwheat noodles in hot broth, topped with a fillet of dried herring slowly simmered in soy and sugar until it is both sweet and salty. The herring arrived dried from northern Japan and was cheap protein in a city far from the sea. The dish was created in 1882 by the second owner of Matsuba, a noodle house opened in 1861 next to the Minamiza theatre.
Where to try it
Mackerel cured in salt and vinegar, pressed onto a bar of rice and wrapped in kombu: the fish reached Kyoto from the Wakasa coast along the so-called “mackerel road”. Izuu, opened in Gion in 1781, was among the first to sell it as a restaurant speciality, and the teahouses of the district still order it.
Where to try it
Vegetables pickled in salt, rice bran or vinegar: tangy suguki, purple shibazuke with shiso leaves, or senmaizuke, turnip sliced paper-thin. They come with every Kyoto meal. In Nishiki Market you can taste them shop by shop.
Where to try it
Kyoto’s signature sweet: a cinnamon-scented rice-flour dough that is either baked into thin, crisp curved tiles or served raw and soft, folded into a triangle around red bean paste. According to tradition, the curved tile imitates a koto, the Japanese zither, in homage to the musician Yatsuhashi Kengyō. Shōgoin Yatsuhashi is one of its historic makers.
Where to try it
