When I set foot in Kyoto for the first time on my second trip to Japan, I had NO idea how to start digging into its temples & shrines.
Kyoto is home to over 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, so I’m not exaggerating when I say that choosing which ones to visit and which ones to leave out is a monumental task for first-time visitors.
After working through quite a few during my three days in Japan’s former imperial capital, here’s a list of the 15 beautiful temples & shrines in Kyoto I’d recommend checking out on a first visit, and why each one earns its spot over the dozens of others competing for your limited time.
Fushimi Inari Taisha
68 Fukakusa Yabunouchicho, Fushimi Ward
If I could only squeeze in one shrine on a first trip to Kyoto, it’d be Fushimi Inari Taisha. Founded in 711 by the Hata clan and dedicated to Inari, the god of rice and business, this shrine has become the one most people picture when they think of Japan, with its thousands of vermilion torii gates climbing a forested mountainside behind the main hall.
Roughly 10,000 gates make up the full trail at Fushimi Inari Taisha, each one donated by a business or individual hoping for good fortune. About 800 of them are packed close enough together near the entrance to form that famous torii tunnel everyone’s chasing for photos, known as the Senbon Torii.
I showed up at Fushimi Inari Taisha just before 9 am, expecting to beat the crowds. I quickly learned the hard way that 9 am isn’t early by Fushimi Inari standards!
If I went back here as a first-timer, I’d aim for closer to sunrise instead. The gates thin out fast once you start climbing past Inari Okusha, and the crowds camped near the entrance rarely follow.
Fushimi Inari is free to visit and open 24 hours, so nothing’ll stop you from testing that theory yourself. I’d budget about 45 minutes to an hour on your first day in Kyoto for the entrance area and the Senbon Torii.
The full climb from Fushimi Inari Taisha to the summit of Mount Inari and back runs closer to two to three hours. I’d save that trek either for a second visit, or a trip where I’ve got a couple extra days in Kyoto to play with.
Kiyomizu-dera
1 Chome-294 Kiyomizu, Higashiyama Ward
After starting my first day in Kyoto at Fushimi Inari, Kiyomizu-dera was the next stop I stumbled upon. And it’s hard to overstate how easily this stunning temple earns a spot among my favorite tourist attractions in Kyoto.
Founded in 780 on the site of the Otowa Waterfall (the temple’s name literally means “pure water”), the current buildings date to a 1633 reconstruction under the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.
The main hall’s wooden veranda, built without a single nail and held up by 13-meter columns, delivers one of the finest panoramas I’ve caught anywhere in the city. It’s especially striking during Kyoto’s spring cherry blossoms and the fall foliage months, when the hillside below the veranda turns into a wash of color.
Kiyomizu-dera is open 6 am to 6 pm most of the year (6:30 pm in July and August). Seasonal night illuminations push the closing hours to 9 pm in spring, summer, and autumn.
Admission to the temple runs ¥500 for adults and ¥200 for kids. It’s well worth the expense to see everything you can here.
One heads up: Jishu Shrine, a small matchmaking shrine on the grounds, has been closed for renovation. I wouldn’t try to build a visit around it without checking its current status first.
Kinkaku-ji
Between Kyoto’s two Yoshimasa-era pavilions, Kinkaku-ji is, in my opinion, the far more dazzling one. It’s covered top to bottom in gold leaf, and mirrored in the pond sitting right in front of it, it’s one of the most beautiful scenes I witnessed in Kyoto.
(Even with the at times suffocating crowds.)
Kinkaku-ji started life in 1397 as a retirement villa for the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It was only converted into a temple after his death.
The building standing today at Kinkaku-ji isn’t the original. A novice monk burned it to the ground in 1950. The temple was rebuilt in 1955 with an extra coat of gold leaf added in 1987.
Visitors can’t go inside Kinkaku-ji. The entire draw is walking the garden path around the pond and watching the reflection shift as you move. And, in my opinion, that’s more than enough to justify the 30- to 45-minute transit ride out here.
Kinkaku-ji is open daily 9 am to 5 pm. Admission is ¥500 for adults, and ¥300 for kids.
Ginkaku-ji
Ginkaku-ji is one temple I wouldn’t recommend skipping on a first visit to Kyoto, even with its flashier gold sibling stealing most of the attention.
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa built Ginkaku-ji in 1482 as his own retirement villa, modeled after his grandfather Yoshimitsu’s Kinkaku-ji. It became a temple after Yoshimasa’s death in 1490.
Despite the name, Ginkaku-ji was never actually covered in silver. Historians have guessed that the nickname stuck sometime after construction, as a contrast to the Golden Pavilion rather than a literal description.
Walking the grounds of Ginkaku-ji, I spent more time poking around the smaller buildings tucked between the ponds and gardens than I did looking at the main hall itself.
Admission is ¥1,000 for adults (¥500 for kids). Ginkaku-ji is open from 8:30 am to 5 pm daily.
Nanzen-ji
86 Nanzenji Fukuchicho, Sakyo Ward
Tucked into the forested hills of Higashiyama, Nanzen-ji was one of my favorite stops in central Kyoto. It doesn’t pull the crowds the more famous pavilions nearby do, which is why I enjoyed stopping in and exploring.
Retired Emperor Kameyama converted his own villa into a Zen temple here in 1291, though the buildings were destroyed during the civil wars of the Muromachi period and rebuilt afterward.
The real curveball at Nanzen-ji is the Suirokaku, a red brick Roman-style aqueduct built in 1890 as part of the Lake Biwa Canal project, running straight through grounds that otherwise look centuries older.
Nanzen-ji is free to walk under, with no ticket required. The Sanmon Gate, rebuilt in 1628, charges separately to climb, and so does the Hojo Garden. The small cost for the Sanmon climb is worth it on its own, in my opinion, for the view over the complex.
Nanzen-ji’s grounds are open 8:40 am to 4:30 pm in winter and to 5 pm from March through November.
Sanjusangendo
657 Sanjusangendomawari, Higashiyama Ward
Sanjusangendo, officially named Rengeo-in, is the temple I’d point first-time visitors to if they only had time for one unusual sight in Kyoto.
Built in 1164 under Emperor Go-Shirakawa and rebuilt after a fire in the Kamakura period, its main hall stretches 120 meters. It’s considered the longest wooden structure in Japan.
Inside Sanjusangendo are 1,001 statues of Kannon, the thousand-armed goddess of mercy, standing in rows flanking a central seated figure. Only 124 of them survived from the original 1164 construction. The rest were added during the rebuild.
I’d try to set aside a solid 20 to 30 minutes to walk the length of the hall slowly. (Rushing past a thousand gilded statues kind of defeats the point of seeing them, in my opinion.)
Sanjusangendo is open 8:30 am to 5 pm from April through mid-November, and 9 am to 4 pm the rest of the year. Admission to the temple is ¥600 for adults.
Yasaka Shrine
625 Gionmachi Kitagawa, Higashiyama Ward
Yasaka Shrine sits right at the border of Gion and Higashiyama. From the number of locals I saw stopping to pray here on an ordinary day, it’s clearly a shrine that matters to more than just tourists.
Shrine records place the founding around 656, making Yasaka Shrine well over 1,350 years old.
Yasaka Shrine is the birthplace of the Gion Matsuri, one of Japan’s most famous festivals. The festival traces back to 869, when the shrine’s deities were enshrined to ward off an epidemic sweeping the country.
Come evening, the shrine’s dance hall gets strung with lanterns donated by local businesses. I’d time a visit to Yasaka Shrine for dusk rather than midday to enjoy it with quieter crowds and under lantern light. (The daytime bustle here can get a little much.)
Yasaka Shrine is free to visit and is open 24 hours a day.
Chion-in
400 Rinkacho, Higashiyama Ward
I nearly walked past Chion-in on my way toward Nanzen-ji, but I’m glad I stopped.
The temple’s Sanmon Gate is the largest wooden temple gate in Japan. It wasn’t something that I expected to bump into on a casual walk through Higashiyama.
Built in 1621 under the second Tokugawa shogun, the gate stands 24 meters tall and 50 meters wide, with roughly 70,000 roof tiles.
Chion-in is the head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, founded in 1234. It holds two more oddities I’d point out before visiting: the heaviest temple bell in Japan, a 74-ton giant that takes 17 monks to ring on New Year’s Eve, and corridors nicknamed the nightingale floors, which chirp underfoot by design as a built-in security system against intruders.
The main grounds at Chion-in are free to wander. Opening hours run 9 am to 3:50 pm. The gates close at 4:30 pm.
Admission to the Chion-in Hojo Garden runs ¥400, while the Yuzen-en Garden is ¥300. A combined ticket for both gardens is ¥500.
To-ji
To-ji doesn’t show up on nearly as many Kyoto temple lists as it should, especially given it’s a short walk from Kyoto Station and home to the tallest wooden tower in the country.
Kobo Daishi began construction on the five-story pagoda in 826. The version standing today dates to 1643. It’s the fourth rebuild after previous versions were lost to fire and lightning strikes.
At 55 meters, the pagoda at To-ji used to be visible from most of the old city. It’s still one of the first things you’ll spot from the train pulling into Kyoto.
If you’re arriving or leaving on a day you don’t want to burn much time getting somewhere, To-ji is worth squeezing in. Almost no other place in the city packs this much history into a 15-minute walk from the main train station.
The grounds of To-ji are free to enter. Getting into the Kondo and Kodo halls costs ¥800 for adults.
I’d try to time a visit for the 21st of the month to catch Kobo-san, one of the city’s biggest flea markets, spread across the temple grounds.
Heian-jingu
97 Okazaki Nishitennocho, Sakyo Ward
Heian-jingu feels almost out of place among Kyoto’s older sites. (And I guess that’s sort of the point.)
The shrine was built in 1895 to celebrate the 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto becoming the capital rather than to mark some ancient event. Everything about Heian-jingu, especially the 24.4-meter torii gate out front, which is one of the largest in Japan, was designed to be seen from a distance.
The buildings of Heian-jingu are free to wander, with recreations at about five-eighths scale of the original Heian-era government complex.
I’d pay the ¥600 for the Shin’en Garden behind the main buildings, though. It took the same garden designer two decades to build. The Shin’en Garden runs at a different pace than the crowds out front, with a pond, a covered bridge, and some of the better late-season cherry blossom viewing in the city.
Heian-jingu also hosts the Jidai Matsuri each October 22nd, a procession of around 2,000 people in costumes spanning a thousand years of the city’s history.
Eikando
Eikando, officially Zenrin-ji, is built around one strange detail: its main statue of Amida Buddha is caught mid-turn, looking back over its shoulder instead of facing forward like nearly every other Buddha statue in Japan.
Founded in 853 by the monk Shinjo, the Eikando got its more common nickname from a later priest named Yokan, who revived it as a nenbutsu practice hall.
Eikando really earns its reputation in autumn, though. Around 3,000 maple trees turn the grounds into one of Kyoto’s better-known fall foliage spots.
I’d try to time a trip for early November through early December. The night illuminations run 5:30 pm to 9 pm. It’s worth the bumped-up ¥1,000 entry during the treasure exhibition period over the standard ¥600 the rest of the year.
Outside of foliage season, Eikando is quieter than its autumn popularity suggests. The walk through the surrounding woods to reach the temple holds up nearly as well as the temple itself.
Shimogamo Shrine
59 Shimogamo Izumikawacho, Sakyo Ward
Shimogamo Shrine is one of the oldest shrines in Japan, though nobody can pin down exactly how old. Some records trace it to the 6th century, others to 678. The shrine’s own history stretches into legend before that.
What’s certain is its UNESCO World Heritage status. It’s one of seventeen locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.
Shimogamo Shrine sits inside Tadasu no Mori, the oldest surviving forest in the city. Archaeologists have found ritual remains here dating to the Jomon period, thousands of years before the shrine itself existed.
I’d build in time to walk the forest path leading up to the shrine rather than rushing straight to the buildings. The untouched feel of Tadasu no Mori is the actual draw here, in my opinion, not just what’s waiting at the end of it.
Shimogamo Shrine also anchors the Aoi Matsuri each May 15th. This is one of Kyoto’s oldest festivals, featuring a procession in Heian-era court dress traveling here from the Imperial Palace.
Kamigamo Shrine
339 Kamigamo Motoyama, Kita Ward
Kamigamo Shrine is Shimogamo’s sister site, founded in 678, about a century after Shimogamo, and sharing the same UNESCO listing. Together they’re known as the Kamo Shrines, though I’d treat them as two separate stops rather than assuming one covers the other. They sit about 3.5 kilometers apart and don’t feel especially similar once you’re standing in either one.
The detail that sticks with me most at Kamigamo Shrine is the pair of cone-shaped sand mounds. They flank the Hosodono worship hall, modeled after a nearby sacred mountain. The custom of using purifying sand at Shinto construction ceremonies across Japan reportedly traces back to this exact practice.
Kamigamo draws a noticeably thinner crowd than most of the temples on this list. I think that’s reason enough on its own to add it if you’re trying to step outside the bigger sightseeing loops for an hour.
The shrine is a 15-minute walk from Kitayama Station on the Karasuma subway line, or a short bus ride from Shimogamo.
Ninna-ji
Ninna-ji started as an imperial villa before Emperor Uda completed its conversion into a temple in 888. It’s remained the head temple of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism ever since.
The five-story pagoda at Ninna-ji, completed in 1624, is the kind of postcard shot I’d expect from a bigger-name temple rather than this lesser-known one on the edge of the city.
What actually makes Ninna-ji worth the trip is the Omuro cherry trees. This orchard of unusually short, late-blooming cherry trees only grows two to three meters tall.
The Omuro cherry trees typically peak in mid-April, one of the best times of the year to go to Kyoto. If you’ve missed peak bloom everywhere else in the city, this is your chance.
(I’d rather see cherry blossoms at eye level here than craning my neck at the taller trees lining the Philosopher’s Walk and dealing with big crowds.
Ninna-ji is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of the same Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto listing as Shimogamo and Kamigamo.
Kifune Shrine
180 Kuramakibunecho, Sakyo Ward
Kifune Shrine is the one entry on this list I’d only add with a caveat. It’s dedicated to Takaokami, the god of water. Estimates on its age range anywhere from 1,300 to over 1,600 years old.
What makes Kifune Shrine worth visiting is the mizuura mikuji (fortune slips). The slips appear blank until you float them on the shrine’s stream, after which the text appears.
PRO TIP: Kifune Shrine is roughly an hour from Kyoto Station. It requires a ride on the Eizan Railway toward Kurama to Kibuneguchi Station, then a short bus ride. That’s a real chunk of time if you’re on a time crunch. I’d only make the trip if you’re already planning to pair it with neighboring Kurama for a half-day hike, rather than treating it as a quick add-on.
The area surrounding Kifune Shrine also has a handful of restaurants built on platforms over the river. It’s a unique way to eat during Kyoto’s brutal summer humidity if you make the trip between May and September.
