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Kyoto · Mysteries & legends

Kyoto of the spirits: tanuki, wells to hell and a stone that cuts ties

Behind the teahouses and stone-paved lanes of Higashiyama, Kyoto hides another city: one of plague gods, vengeful emperors and the border with the world of the dead. On this walk you will carefully separate what the records say from what tradition tells, and you will find that many of these beliefs are very much alive: people still queue to crawl through a stone or buy gourds so as not to fall.

  • 6 stops
  • 2.2 km
  • 1 h 50 min
  • Free
Start with GPS Read about this stop 1
The Yasui Konpira-gū stone covered in white paper slips, with a hole at its base

The route

Stop by stop

  1. 1 Tatsumi Daimyōjin and the Shirakawa CanalA tiny shrine where geiko come to pray and which, tradition says, was built to calm a mischievous tanuki.
  2. 2 Yasaka ShrineThe shrine of the plague god and the birthplace of the Gion Matsuri, the great festival to ward off epidemics.
  3. 3 Yasui Konpira-gū ShrineA paper-covered rock you crawl through to cut bad ties, under the protection of a vengeful emperor.
  4. 4 Rokudō Chinnō-ji TempleThe crossroads between this world and the next, where a court official went down every night to work for the king of hell.
  5. 5 Sannenzaka SlopeA stone stairway between wooden houses where, superstition says, anyone who falls will die within three years.
  6. 6 Kiyomizu-dera TempleA temple hanging over the void, from whose stage hundreds of people jumped in the Edo period, trusting in Kannon.

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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

Kyoto of the spirits: tanuki, wells to hell and a stone that cuts ties

The stone that cuts ties

At Yasui Konpira-gū, thousands of paper slips cover a rock with a hole you crawl through to break off bad relationships.

The road to hell

Rokudō Chinnō-ji, at the gateway to the old city cemetery, and the legend of Ono no Takamura, who went down every night to help King Enma.

Jumping from Kiyomizu

Temple records document hundreds of jumps from its wooden stage in the Edo period, and a saying every Japanese person knows.

Keep exploring

More routes in Kyoto

Back to Kyoto
HistoryShoguns, emperors and samurai: a thousand years of power in Kyoto MixedArashiyama highlights: a bridge for the moon, bamboo and poets