Kansai · 14 events
Festivals, fireworks, illuminations and seasonal events across Kyoto, checked against official sources.
Japan's leading collaborative contemporary art fair, pairing Japanese galleries with international partners (Hauser & Wirth, Jeffrey Deitch and others in 2026) inside Otani Sachio's brutalist conference hall, backed by Kyoto Prefecture.
Heian-style boats perform court music and dance on the Oi River under the autumn maples of Arashiyama.
Kyoto's most famous maple temple: about 3,000 maples, a treasure exhibition and night illumination.
Fifteen Fushimi breweries (Gekkeikan, Kizakura, Tamanohikari etc.) pour their sake along the covered Otesuji arcade in one of Japan's great sake towns.
City marathon through Kyoto's streets, from Nishikyogoku athletic park to a finish in front of Heian-jingu Shrine.
Kyoto's plum festival on 25 February, with an outdoor tea ceremony served by geiko and maiko.
Kyoto's spring photography festival since 2013, staging international exhibitions in historic buildings normally closed to the public, with the KG+ open-call programme spread over 100+ small venues.
Imperial procession in Heian-period court dress from the Kyoto Imperial Palace to the Kamo shrines, held on 15 May.
Kyoto's month-long Yasaka Shrine festival, famous for its two Yamaboko float processions on 17 and 24 July.
Japan's most famous festival, a month-long series of Yasaka Shrine rites whose highlights are the two float processions of 34 yamaboko on 17 and 24 July.
Five giant bonfires in the shape of characters and symbols are lit on the mountains around Kyoto on the night of 16 August.
Five giant characters and shapes are burned on the hills at five-minute intervals from 20:00 to send off the ancestral spirits at the end of Obon, the quiet, solemn close of Kyoto's summer.
A procession of 2,000 Kyoto citizens in costumes from every era of the city's history, held on 22 October.
A 2,000-person, 2 km procession in meticulously researched costumes from the Meiji era back to the Heian court, departing the Imperial Palace at noon, founded in 1895 for Heian Shrine.