The stone torii gate standing at the entrance to Sugawara-in Tenmangu Shrine marks the site where the scholar Sugawara no Michizane was born in the ninth century. This small neighborhood shrine occupies the grounds of the former residence…
Kyoto Imperial Neighborhood Walk
This walk guides you through the quiet residential grid west of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, showcasing centuries-old soy sauce brewers, legendary miso shops, and peaceful neighborhood shrines. It is an authentic look at the slow, steady rhythm of daily life in historic Kyoto.
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1. Sugawara-in Tenmangu Shrine
2. Go-ō Shrine
The Go-ō Shrine is recognizable by the dozens of wild boar statues stationed throughout the grounds. According to legend, when Wake no Kiyomaro was exiled to the southern island of Kyushu, three hundred wild boars appeared to protect him…
3. Yuuhisai Koudoukan
The wooden gate at Yuuhisai Koudoukan opens to a house that once served as the private study for the eighteenth-century Confucian scholar Minagawa Kien. It features a tea room overlooking a garden where water flows from a spring once used…
4. Sawai Shoyu Honten
The wooden facade of Sawai Shoyu Honten features deep, dark timbers and a series of tall, slatted windows that reveal rows of ceramic vats inside. This shop has occupied the same spot since eighteen seventy-nine. While other brewers moved…
5. Raku Museum
The Raku Museum is marked by a low, understated facade that gives nothing away about the intense creative lineage housed inside. This building holds the private collection of the Raku family, who have produced tea bowls by hand for sixteen…
6. Honda Miso Honten
A wooden facade with a darkened, shopworn appearance marks the entrance to Honda Miso Honten. Since eighteen thirty, this shop has served the imperial kitchen, earning a reputation for the white miso once reserved exclusively for the…
7. Toraya Kyoto Ichijo
The black-tiled roof and clean, white plaster walls of the Toraya shop at Ichijo mark the site where the company served the Imperial Court for centuries. While the current building is a modern construction, it stands on the exact ground…