Fushimi Inari-taisha
Ten thousand vermilion torii tunnelling up an entire mountain.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 3 hrs
Difficulty
●●●○○
Best time
Before 8am, or after 6pm
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The shrine is dedicated to Inari, deity of rice and, by extension, of business prosperity. Every torii on the path was donated by a company or an individual, and the donor's name and the date are carved on the back of the right-hand post — readable on the way down, not on the way up.
The trail runs four kilometres and climbs to 233 metres on Mount Inari. The density of torii drops sharply after the Yotsutsuji junction, halfway up: so does the crowd, and that is the real reason to keep going.
Getting there
JR Nara line, Inari station: the exit opens onto the first torii. Or Keihan line, Fushimi-Inari station, five minutes on foot.
Hours
Open 24 hours a day
What to bring
- Walking shoes
- Headlamp
Rules on site
The shrine is open and lit around the clock, with no ticket desk: it is the one major Kyoto site you can visit at dawn or late at night. The full loop is a real staircase climb, not a stroll.
Other places in Kyoto
- Kinkaku-ji, the Golden PavilionTwo floors covered in gold leaf, set on a pond that doubles them.
- Arashiyama Bamboo GroveAn avenue of giant bamboo that closes off the sky, west of the city.
- Kiyomizu-deraA timber veranda built without a nail, hanging over the city, and the waterfall the temple is named after.
- GionThe tea house quarter, timber lanes and lanterns, where geiko still pass in the late afternoon.