In 1590 Hideyoshi gathered the temples here: today it is an arcade of shops, no longer of faith.
Teramachi-dori, ‘temple street’, owes its name to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who in 1590 had the Buddhist temples scattered across the city moved there en masse for reasons of defence and urban control: in the Heian period, by contrast, it was the easternmost street of the capital, 32 metres wide and called ‘great street of the eastern capital’. Today it is a covered arcade of about 500 metres and 160 shops, flanked by the younger Shinkyogoku, opened in 1872 on the initiative of the prefectural administration: the two run parallel, side by side, between Sanjō and Shijō.
The two covered shopping arcades are in the heart of central Kyoto, between Sanjō and Shijō streets, a few steps from the Kamo River and Nishiki Market.
ℹ️ Covered pedestrian route, open at all times. The shops keep their own hours, roughly 10:00–20:00.
🚉 Kyoto Kawaramachi · 6 min walk
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