Kyoto · Central Kyoto
Nishiki Market
Nishiki Market is a covered street of 390 meters, often called 'Kyoto's kitchen': Kyoto vegetables, river fish from Lake Biwa, pike conger (hamo), yuba (soy milk skin), nama-fu (fresh wheat gluten) and pickles. According to the market, it grew here thanks to cold groundwater, 15 to 18 degrees all year, and in the past every shop had a well that served as its refrigerator. In 1615 the shogunate recognized the fish merchants of Nishiki as one of the three licensed fish markets in the city.
The painter Ito Jakuchu was born in 1716 to a vegetable merchant in the market, and vegetables and fruit appear again and again in his paintings. In 1771 the authorities effectively ordered the vegetable market closed, and Jakuchu, then the street's elder, stopped painting and fought until the market received official approval in 1774. A stone marking his birthplace stands at the west entrance.
The street was once called Gusoku-koji, after the armor that courtiers took off here before entering the palace, and according to tradition its name was changed to Nishiki-koji in 1054. The current roof, with no pillars in the middle of the street, was completed in 1993.
Good to know
- The market association asks you not to eat while walking, because in the narrow street it dirties other people's clothes. Eat in front of the stall where you bought it, or inside it. A few seating places accept food bought in the market, on condition that each person orders one thing.
- At the end of December, before the New Year, the market is so crowded that according to the association you cannot move forward in it. If you visit then, come early.
- From Kyoto Station, bus 5 to the Shijo-Takakura stop, in front of the Daimaru department store, and from there about 2 minutes on foot to the west entrance.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Nishiki Market.
- HereNishiki Market
- 1 min
Aritsugu Shopping
A maker of knives and kitchen tools whose main store sits in Nishiki Market.
- 1 min
Hale Food
A small vegetarian restaurant, about 12 seats, in a machiya house with a garden, right next to Nishiki Market.
- ~2 min
Nishiki Tenmangu More to see
A small Shinto shrine at the east end of the market, on Shin-Kyogoku street, dedicated to the scholar Sugawara no Michizane. At the entrance there is a mechanical fortune machine: as you approach, shrine music plays, and for a coin a dancing lion brings you a fortune slip, also available in Japanese and English.
- ~3 min
Shijo-dori department stores, Kyoto Shopping
Kyoto's main street, with the two large department stores: Daimaru and Takashimaya, both with a tax-free counter.
- ~4 min
Miyawaki Baisen-an Shopping
A fan maker in business since 1823 that itself makes almost everything it sells, from hand fans to decorative fans.
- ~5 min
mumokuteki cafe Cafe
A fully vegan cafe in central Kyoto, on the second floor of the mumokuteki shop near Teramachi street, five minutes from Kawaramachi Station
More in Central Kyoto
Appears in: Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Nijo Castle and Nishiki Market: the north and the center