Hōkan-ji / Yasaka Pagoda

photo by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 3.0

46 m tall: you can climb to the second floor and see the central pillar from inside.

It closes off the view along Yasaka-dōri, and almost everyone photographs it from the street without going in: the entrance is out of the way, in a small courtyard to one side. If you pay the four hundred yen, you climb a steep staircase to the second level and find yourself in front of the central pillar, which cannot be seen from outside.

What still stands of the Hōkan-ji temple is the five-storey pagoda, 46 metres tall on a base 6.4 metres on each side. Tradition attributes its founding to Prince Shōtoku; the present structure is the rebuilding commissioned in the fifteenth century by Ashikaga Yoshinori, of the family that ruled Japan at the time.

ℹ️ ¥400. Open only from 10:00 to 15:00, far shorter hours than anything else around it. ⚠️ Closures are irregular and the temple itself advises phoning before you go, on 075-551-2417. ⚠️ You cannot go up below junior high age: anyone who has not finished elementary school stays outside. No car park. From the ‘Higashiyama-Yasui’ and ‘Kiyomizu-michi’ bus stops it is five minutes' walk.

🚉 Kyoto Kawaramachi · 17 min walk

Sources: kyoto-kankou.or.jp

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