Kyoto · Higashiyama and Gion
Yasaka Shrine
Yasaka Shrine is older than Kyoto itself: according to the shrine, it stood here before the capital moved to the city in 794, and one tradition dates it to 656. It is dedicated to Susanoo, a god who wards off disasters. After prayer here was credited with stopping an epidemic in 877, the shrine grew, and in 995 it was counted among the shrines that protected the capital.
The main hall was declared a National Treasure in December 2020. The hall and the worship hall in front of it are covered by one large roof, and according to the shrine it is the largest Shinto hall in Japan by area. According to tradition, beneath it is a pond where the blue dragon that guards the east of the city lives.
Gion Matsuri, the shrine's festival, began in 869 as a ceremony against an epidemic, and it lasts all of July, from the 1st to the 31st of the month. Many lanterns donated by the teahouses and restaurants of Gion hang on the dance stage in the middle of the courtyard, and they are lit in the evening.
Good to know
- The orange gate facing Shijo Street is the West Gate, the oldest building at the shrine, from 1497. In 1913, when the street was widened for the streetcar, it was moved so that it would face the center of the street.
- The main gate is actually the South Gate, on the Maruyama Park side, and the portable shrines set out from it during the festival.
- Next to Utsukushi-gozen Shrine, the small beauty shrine in the courtyard, a spring flows. According to the shrine, two or three drops on the skin make both the body and the soul beautiful.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Yasaka Shrine.
- HereYasaka Shrine
- ~3 min
Kagizen Yoshifusa Shijo Honten Cafe
A long-established Japanese confectioner on Shijo Street. In the tearoom at the back of the shop they serve kuzukiri, clear cold noodles made from kuzu starch.
- ~4 min
Saryo Tsujiri Gion Honten Cafe
The teahouse of the tea merchant Gion Tsujiri, on the 2nd and 3rd floors above the shop on Shijo Street. Matcha parfait and sweet dishes made with green tea.
- ~5 min
Nene-no-michi Street
A stone-paved lane, about 460 meters, south of Maruyama Park and along the gate of Kodai-ji. It is named after Nene, Hideyoshi's wife, and when it was laid out in 1998 its power lines were buried underground.
- ~6 min
Kikunoi Honten Food
Traditional kaiseki near Maruyama in Kyoto.
- ~8 min
Izuu Food
A Kyoto-style sushi restaurant from 1781 that started with deliveries to the teahouses of Gion. The dish is saba sugata-zushi, a whole cured mackerel on rice. You can eat in or take away.
- ~9 min
Gion Shinbashi and Shirakawa Street
A preservation district north of Shijo Street: wooden teahouses in a neat row along the Shirakawa canal, a stone-paved street and cherry trees.
More in Higashiyama and Gion
Appears in: Higashiyama: Kiyomizu-dera in the morning, the Sannenzaka lanes, and Gion in the evening · Walking Kyoto's eastern hills: from Ginkaku-ji to Gion via the Philosopher's Path