Kiyomizudera Temple Fall Foliage Evening Illumination
In autumn, vibrant fall colors are illuminated at Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto, Japan for a special night lighting. We’ve done the event multiple times, and share info, our experiences, and tips we’ve learned during visits to see the 1,000+ maple trees that form a veritable sea of red koyo along the temple’s hillside.
Kiyomizudera is one of my favorite temples in Kyoto, Japan. We have it in the top 5 in the ‘Things to Do’ rankings in our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and I cover why it is not to be missed in our full Kiyomizu-dera Temple Tips & Info post. We’ve also written about the Cherry Blossom Night Illumination at Kiyomizudera separately, and have generally praised ‘Pure Water Temple’ as one of the must-see places in Kyoto throughout the blog.
Even if you’re new to this blog, you’ve undoubtedly seen praise for Kiyomizudera elsewhere. It’s widely considered one of the most iconic temples in all of Japan. If you walk past the bus stop at Kyoto Station, you can find the Kiyomizudera bus by looking for the one with the longest line. Suffice to say, it’s incredibly popular and perpetually busy. All of this is very well established on this blog and elsewhere, so we’re going to cut to the chase and cover how to approach a visit during the fall night illumination.
Let’s start with the basics. Kiyomizudera Temple is open for its fall colors night lighting from 5:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. (last entry), November 18 through November 30. Admission is 400 yen, and requires a separate ticket from a daytime visit to see the colorful leaves (koyo). If you’re visiting in 2024, keep an eye on Kiyomizudera’s official site for dates and times, but they should be almost exactly the same.
You might wonder why we’re updating this post with only one day left in the Kiyomizudera nighttime illumination ‘season,’ and it’s more about what it represents for crowds and Kyoto and what you can expect going forward. In particular, during cherry blossom season–again, at Kiyomizudera and in Kyoto as a whole.
Cutting to the chase, this was far and away the busiest we had ever seen Kiyomizudera. We made separate visits during the daytime hours and for nighttime illumination, and the temple was packed beyond belief both times. To be sure, Kyoto is always busy this time of year, but we had never seen it like this.
The increased crowds are probably attributable to a couple of things. First, Kiyomizudera’s main hall is out from behind scrims; while this happened a couple of years ago now, many people are only just starting to traveling again. (For those wondering, it looks spectacular–great to see again after years behind scrims.)
Second, there are currently domestic travel subsidies and there’s the matter of pent-up demand, particularly among domestic travelers. The fiscal stimulus is clearly driving a lot of travel, especially to Kyoto.
Pent-up demand is also going to be an issue going forward, especially when domestic tourism collides with spiking international visitors.
Doubling back to that first point, the absolute worst crowds we encountered in all of Japan were at Kiyomizudera on the platform overlooking the stage protruding from the main hall. This was downright dangerously crowded, with wall-to-wall people.
It took me about 15 minutes to get to the front for a photo, and even getting out wasn’t easy. I can’t believe there wasn’t any crowd control to facilitate the flow of people. Instead, it was complete gridlock. The main hall was also incredibly crowded, but not that bad.
Just as it’s busy during the day, Kiyomizudera Temple is busy at night. If you go around 5:30 p.m., or arrive earlier to get there right at the start, you will be fighting crowds arriving and wandering in the Higashiyama District who left the daytime opening of Kiyomizudera. Crowd-wise, arriving early is the worst possible idea.
Depending upon the duration of your trip to Kyoto, you may not have a better option strategy-wise, though. In Higashiyama, Kiyomizudera is one of 4 temples that have exceptional night lightings. Ideally, you’d spread these 4 temples out over two nights, doing Shorenin and Eikando one night and Kodaiji and Kiyomizudera another night. (There are a few other nighttime illuminations you could also include if you want to visit 3 per night.)
However, there are a number of other nighttime illuminations in other parts of Kyoto, so if you only have 2-3 nights in the city, doing all of Higashiyama in a single night might be necessary. In that case, you either need to start or finish at Kiyomizudera.
Since it is not the busiest temple of the 4 (a crown that goes to Eikando Temple, and by a wide margin), we recommend beginning at Kiyomizudera. You’ll then continue north to Kodaiji Temple, followed by Shorenin Temple, and finish at Eikando Temple. In total, that’s 45 minutes of walking, meaning you’ll have a little over 30 minutes at each temple…which is not much time.
With all of that said, in an ideal scenario, we recommend arriving as close to 9 p.m. as possible. That’s the last entry, not when the temple closes. Actual closing time varies based on how quickly they can sweep guests out, but it tends to be around 10 p.m.
If you’re a regular visitor who will walk through the temple at a normal pace, arriving at 8:55 p.m. will give you plenty of time to see everything. If you’re a photographer focused on photos, we’d recommend an earlier arrival (I tend to show up around 8 p.m., but I’m slow and take way too many photos.)
Photographers should also be aware that, at least last year, tripods were allowed at Kiyomizudera’s night illuminations. The one exception to this is the narrow walkway that overlooks the wooden stage supporting the main hall. However, there is a thick handrail here, so if you take a beanbag (I recommend the Green POD Camera Platform–it’ll really come in handy in Japan), you’ll have no issues.
Overall, Kiyomizudera Temple’s fall nighttime illumination is unquestionably a must-do. If the idea of paying twice to visit is not appealing, we still recommend going in the morning as you normally would per our 1-Day Eastern Kyoto/Higashiyama Itinerary, but sticking with the free area. Nighttime here is a truly unique experience with special lighting and great evening views of the city. Don’t miss it!
If you’re planning a trip to the Japan that includes Kyoto, we recommend starting by consulting our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan to plan all aspects of our vacation. You should also check out our other posts about Japan for ideas on other places to visit!
Your Thoughts
Have you visited one of Kiyomizudera Temple’s nighttime illuminations? Fall, summer, or spring? What did you think of the experience? How did it compare to other nighttime illuminations in Kyoto (if you did any) for you? Any thoughts or tips of your own to add? Do more dedicated posts about nighttime illuminations in Kyoto interest you? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
So we visited Kiyomizudera for the evening illumination on November 25th, admittedly a Saturday night in peak fall colours season, and it was an absolute gong show, and a largely unpleasant experience. It turned us off so much that we didn’t bother to return for the daytime. I will admit that we got there a little too early (about 8pm?) and that when we left as last admission time arrived, there was no queue to enter, so it was probably more bearable inside. You are absolutely right about the lack of crowd control. That was even true at the entry – there was no roping or anything to keep the queue of ticket buyers organized, and those who ended up on the right side of the ticket booths had to squeeze their way through the crowd to get out of the area to go to the entry. It was ridiculous. We attended the Eikandō Temple illumination the day before (as well as the daytime one) and it was so organized and civilized; the absolute opposite of the situation at Kiyomizudera. In addition to the throngs, the illuminations and views weren’t nearly as beautiful or impressive as they had been at Eikando. I might try again in another year, but arrive much later, as you suggest, but honestly, I’m not that bothered. It may prove to be a one and done for me. Your photos look fantastic, but I think perhaps our timing was off a bit? As we didn’t see as much colour all together, nor easily visible or photographed. That was a bit surprising as we seemed to have hit the perfect peak of the maple trees at Eikando, as well as Kokudera, but such is life. I was surprised at the low price here, only 400 yen pp for the illuminations, but in the end it wasn’t really worth it. Just my two cents though. Absolutely adored Eikando’s illumination though.
Do these illuminations occur in the winter? We will be there in the last week of December
Do they have similar illuminations during Sakura season? I know there’s the train you can take at night to see the cherry blossoms but wasn’t sure if they have something at Kiyomizudera.
While not as spectacular as Kiyomizudera, I think it’s still worth the trip to Arashiyama to see the evening illumation of the bamboo forest. The surrounding temples are all really beautiful.
In particular, I enjoy visiting Jojakko-ji at the top of the mountain while the maples are turning colors. I’ve been there many times. The attached link has a few nice photos.