Yasaka Shrine

Temple

Temple · Kyoto, Japan 35.0036°N 135.7785°E

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Yasaka Shrine

Time needed

About 30 minutesLonger in the evening

Best time

After darkDance stage at its best

Cost

FreeNo ticket to enter

Season

Peak at New YearFestival month is July

Access

Bus to Gion stopOr Keihan, 5 min on foot

Getting there

How to get to Yasaka Shrine?

Keihan Gion-Shijo Station lies about five minutes' walk west of the shrine, and Hankyu Kawaramachi Station about eight. From Kyoto Station, city buses 100 and 206 reach the Gion stop in roughly 20 minutes, a short walk from the entrance. A taxi from JR Kyoto Station takes around a quarter of an hour.

Opening hours

Is Yasaka Shrine open 24 hours?

Yes. The grounds are open at all times, so a late-night walk through is possible. The shrine office, which handles prayers and enquiries, works from 9am to 5pm.

Entry

Is Yasaka Shrine free to visit?

Yes, entry to the grounds costs nothing and there is no ticket. Worship at the halls, the sub-shrines and the spring is free as well.

Gion Matsuri

When is Gion Matsuri at Yasaka Shrine?

Gion Matsuri is the shrine's own festival and runs from 1 to 31 July. Its peaks are Yoiyama on the 16th and the float processions on the 17th and 24th, when the portable shrines are also carried out through the city.

New Year

What is Okera Mairi at Yasaka Shrine?

Okera Mairi is the shrine's New Year fire rite. At 4am on 28 December the chief priest strikes the fire with a hinoki mallet and mortar, the Joya-sai rite starts at 7pm on 31 December, and the Okera-sai, prayers for health and happiness, follows at 5am on 1 January. Families cook zoni soup over the embers.

Yasaka's dance stage is lit by hundreds of lanterns after dark, and a short walk round the main hall brings you to a small spring known as the beauty water.

What makes it special

Rows of paper lanterns hang around the dance stage in the middle of the grounds, each one donated by a local business.

The main sanctuary enshrines Susanoo-no-mikoto at its centre, with Kushiinadahime-no-mikoto and eight children of Susanoo beside him. Shrine maidens perform kagura, the Shinto music and dance, at this hall.

Utsukushi-gozensha, a small sub-shrine east of the main hall, is dedicated to three goddesses associated with beauty. Its spring sits right beside it.

The shrine has a long bond with the city's geiko. At Setsubun in early February, the dancers of Ponto-cho and Miyagawa-cho come here to dedicate dances in the afternoon.

Gion, the geiko district next door, makes the walk to do before you arrive: its evening route of teahouse lanes and canal ends at the shrine.

Visiting

Yasaka's main sanctuary is where to start, with a prayer, before you cross to the dance stage and stand under its rows of lights.

Next, walk round to the east side of the main hall for Utsukushi-gozensha and its spring. Come back to the stage at dusk if you arrived in daylight.

Leave by the back of the grounds, which open straight into Maruyama Park. The park is a casual refuge from the crowds of central Kyoto, and its towering weeping cherry is the sight to find there. Or head south toward Kodai-ji instead.

Tips

Use the spring water on your skin only, since it is not drinking water.

For the shrine at its most ceremonial outside July, come on the evening of 14 June, when kagura is dedicated from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. In May or June the new leaves are out and the grounds are quieter than in cherry season.

Know before you goNew Year's Eve into the first days of January is the most crowded time of the year. At Okera Mairi, people light a matchlock from the sacred fire and carry it home to a candle at the household altar, and any open flame must be put out before leaving the shrine grounds. The shrine office keeps 9am to 5pm hours, as of October 2026.