Worth it if
First-time visitors, photographers, walkers, shrine-curious travelers, and people who like places with movement.
Skip it if
Anyone unable or unwilling to walk uphill. You can still see the lower gates, but the best experience requires some climbing.
A major Shinto shrine on the southern edge of Kyoto where thousands of vermilion torii gates line a mountain path climbing approximately 4 kilometres. The base shrine is formal and very busy. Above it, the gate tunnels wind up through sub-shrines and forest for an hour and a half each way — the path thins of people the higher you go, and the sub-shrines get quieter and more interesting.
You walk uphill for 90 minutes through an almost continuous tunnel of orange-red gates. Around the halfway point — past Yotsutsuji junction, where most visitors have turned back — it quiets significantly. The upper sub-shrines have an accumulated, layered quality that the busy lower section doesn't. That transformation is the reason to actually complete the path.
Most people turn back at Yotsutsuji, the small viewpoint platform about a third of the way up, take a photo of Kyoto through the torii frames, and call it done. That is the crowded version. Above Yotsutsuji the path thins completely, the tour groups disappear, and the mountain becomes what it was supposed to be: a proper hike through cedar forest, passing mossy stone fox shrines with no one else around. The summit is not the payoff. Going past where everyone else stops is.
On the ground
Why locals go
It's a real working shrine complex, not a scenic installation. The entire mountain is considered sacred to Inari, the deity of rice and prosperity, with small fox statues and dedicated sub-shrines at intervals. The ritual function is ongoing alongside the tourism.
What visitors miss
Everything above Yotsutsuji junction, about halfway up, where the tour groups have turned back and the gate tunnels continue through quieter forest with occasional small shrines beside the path. Most people photograph the lower section and leave.
Best combined with
Practical tips
Arrive before 8am if you want the lower section with any space. After 9am it's crowded continuously.
Wear real shoes. The path is uneven stone steps for most of the ascent.
The best gate photographs are not at the entrance — they're further up, where the path curves and you can see the tunnel receding in both directions without people filling the frame.
Location
Visit info
Best time
Arrive at sunrise or within the first hour after — the lower shrine clears fastest and the gate tunnels are at their quietest then. The base crowds noticeably by 9:00 on weekdays; weekends and public holidays are significantly worse, and midday in any season is the worst window. Evening works but the upper mountain paths are genuinely dark after dusk and harder to photograph. In summer (July–August), the climb becomes hard in afternoon heat: if you plan to go above Yotsutsuji, start early or expect a sweaty hour each way.
Time needed
2–3 hours
Location
Kyoto
Website
Visit siteLast reviewed: June 2026
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