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Arashiyama highlights: a bridge for the moon, bamboo and poets

In western Kyoto, where the river leaves the mountains, the imperial court built its pleasure villas more than a thousand years ago. Arashiyama and Sagano are still Kyoto at its most scenic: water, maple-covered hills and bamboo groves. This walk brings together the must-see sights of the area, from a bridge with a poetic name to a thatched hut where Bashō once stayed.

  • 6 stops
  • 1.9 km
  • 1 h 40 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
Earth path between tall bamboo stalks in Sagano

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 Togetsukyō BridgeA bridge named after a moon that seemed to cross it, which thirteen-year-olds walk over without looking back.
  2. 2 Tenryū-ji TempleThe great Zen temple a shogun founded to calm the spirit of the emperor he had betrayed.
  3. 3 Nonomiya ShrineThe sacred grove where imperial princesses purified themselves before serving at Ise, setting of a chapter of “Genji”.
  4. 4 Sagano Bamboo GroveA green corridor of towering stalks whose sound is protected as one of Japan’s soundscapes.
  5. 5 Jōjakkō-ji TempleA temple on the slopes of Mount Ogura, where tradition says a poet gathered Japan’s hundred most famous poems.
  6. 6 Rakushisha, the Hut of the Fallen PersimmonsThe thatched hut of a disciple of Bashō, named after a persimmon crop sold and lost in a single night.

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Start with GPS

Guide mode

Walk it with GPS.

Open guide mode on your phone: you’ll see your position and the distance to each stop, and we’ll let you know when you arrive. Then read or listen.

Start with GPS

  1. Turn on your location

  2. Walk to the spot

  3. Check the photo and listen

What you’ll discover

Arashiyama highlights: a bridge for the moon, bamboo and poets

Tenryū-ji

The Zen temple a shogun founded in 1339 to appease the spirit of the emperor he had defeated.

The bamboo grove

A path between towering stalks whose rustling is one of the hundred soundscapes Japan wants to preserve.

Sagano of the poets

Mount Ogura of the “Hyakunin isshu” and the hut of the fallen persimmons, where Bashō wrote his “Saga Diary”.

Keep exploring

More routes in Kyoto

Back to Kyoto
HistoryShoguns, emperors and samurai: a thousand years of power in Kyoto Mysteries & legendsKyoto of the spirits: tanuki, wells to hell and a stone that cuts ties