Events & Gatherings

Community Kinki T

Monthly (21)

Toji Kobo-ichi Flea Market

1 Kujo-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto (To-ji Temple grounds)

On the 21st of every month, the grounds of To-ji Temple become a market. More than a thousand stalls. Antiques, old too

Market Kinki N

Daily (closed Wed)

Nishiki Market

Nishikikoji-dori, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto

It has long been called Kyoto's kitchen. Nishiki Market runs about three hundred and ninety meters under its arcade, lin

Market Kinki H

Every 2th Sat

Heian Flea Market

Okazaki Park, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

Once a month, someone's past gathers in a plaza. At Okazaki Park in Kyoto, the Heian Flea Market sets up on the second S

Market Kinki K

Daily

Kuromon Market

Nipponbashi 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Osaka

People call it Osaka's kitchen. Kuromon Market stretches about five hundred and eighty meters, lined with some hundred a

Residency Kinki N

Daily

Nishiawakura Local Venture Program

Nishiawakura, Aida District, Okayama

A village that did not abandon its forest is calling the young. Nishiawakura in Okayama is a small mountain village of a

Residency Kinki Y

Daily

Yoshino Forestry Experience

Yoshino, Yoshino District, Nara

Looking five hundred years ahead, you plant a tree. Yoshino in Nara is famous for its cherry blossoms. But it is also a

Workshop Kinki N

Daily

Nishijin Textile Experience

Nishijin district, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto

A single thread becomes a pattern like a cosmos. Nishijin in Kyoto is the home of the luxury silk textile called Nishiji

Market Kinki K

不定期（月1〜2回）

Kobe Kitano Antique Market

Kitanocho, Chuo-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo

Kobe's Kitano district was built for the foreign traders who arrived after the port opened in the 1860s. Their houses —

Gathering Kinki A

3月下旬〜4月上旬（菜の花）、10月（コスモス）

Asuka Fujiwara Palace Ruins: A Field of Canola in Spring

Takadono, Kashihara City, Nara

The Fujiwara Palace was Japan's first permanent capital, built in 694 and abandoned thirty years later when the court mo

Gathering Kinki I

通年（月曜休）

Inujima Art Project: Ruins as Canvas

Inujima, Higashi-ku, Okayama City, Okayama

Inujima had a copper refinery that operated for just a decade before closing in 1919, leaving behind smokestacks and fur

Workshop Kinki B

通年（各窯元により異なる）

Bizen Yaki: Touching a Thousand-Year-Old Tradition

Imbe, Bizen City, Okayama

Bizen ware uses no glaze and no painted decoration. The colors — the ash glazes that form naturally, the flame marks, th

Workshop Kinki A

通年（各工房により異なる）

Awa Ai: Dyeing with Japan's Most Famous Indigo

Tokushima City and Yoshinogawa river valley, Tokushima

The Yoshino River valley in Tokushima was once Japan's largest indigo-producing region, supplying the blue that dyed the

Residency Kinki N

通年（要事前申込）

Nishiawakura: Living the Rural Revival From the Inside

Nishiawakura Village, Aida-gun, Okayama

Nishiawakura Village has a population of roughly fifteen hundred and a reputation, among people interested in rural rege

Residency Kinki K

通年

Kamiyama: The Village That Reinvented Itself for Remote Work

Kamiyama Town, Myozai-gun, Tokushima

Kamiyama is a small mountain town in Tokushima with a population under two thousand and a reputation, in certain circles

Residency Kinki W

通年

Wakasa: Sleeping in a Farmhouse That Someone Brought Back to Life

Wakasa Town, Mikata-kami-gun, Fukui

The farmhouses of the Wakasa Town area have been standing for generations — thick-beamed structures built for the winter

Festival Kinki I

通年（舟屋日和などのイベントは季節限定）

Ine Funaya: Houses That Open Directly onto the Sea

Ine Town, Yosa-gun, Kyoto

The funaya of Ine Bay are houses built directly over the water, with their ground floors serving as garages for fishing

Festival Kinki N

例年8月中旬

Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks Festival

Yodo River, Osaka

The people made this one themselves. The Yodogawa fireworks began in 1989 not as a municipal project but as a grassroots

Festival Kinki H

例年7月下旬

Himeji Minato Festival Sea Fireworks

Himeji Port, Himeji, Hyogo

This is the sea festival of the city of the white castle. Himeji is crowned by its great fortress—a World Heritage site,

Festival Kinki A

例年8月中旬（阿波おどり前夜）

Awa Odori Eve Fireworks Festival

Shinmachi River, Tokushima City

This is the eve of the dancing fools. "The dancers are fools and the watchers are fools," goes the famous chant of the A

Festival Kinki T

例年8月中旬

Takamatsu Festival Fireworks

Sunport Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa

Fire opens over the Seto sea. Takamatsu, capital of Kagawa on the island of Shikoku, is a port town facing the Inland Se

craft Kinki K

通年（要予約・工房により異なる）

Kyoto Kiyomizuyaki Pottery Experience

Gojozaka, Higashiyama, Kyoto City, Kyoto

You touch the clay of a thousand-year-old capital. Along the slopes climbing toward Kiyomizu Temple, the pottery known a

Festival Kinki E

例年11月中旬〜12月上旬が見頃

Eikando: The Buddha Who Looks Back

Eikando Zenrinji, 48 Eikandocho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

Kyoto's autumn began here, or at least its reputation did. Eikando—formally Zenrinji, founded in 853—has been called mo

Gathering Kinki B

年に数回の本公演

Bunraku at the National Theatre Osaka

Three people to a single puppet. Bunraku, the puppet theatre that grew up in Osaka, works its central illusion through

Gathering Kinki A

ほぼ毎日の定期上演

Awa Puppet Theatre at Jurobei Yashiki

Puppet theatre, but the village kind. The puppet drama of Awa is not the refined Bunraku of the city but something that

Gathering Kinki M

例年春（4月〜5月）と秋、節分

Mibu Kyogen

A kyogen with no voices. Mibu Kyogen has been performed at Mibu Temple in Kyoto for some seven hundred years, and its p

Gathering Kinki K

例年1月下旬〜2月上旬（約10日間）

Kobe Luminarie: Light That Began as Mourning

Meriken Park, Higashi Yuen park, and the former foreign settlement, Kobe

Kobe Luminarie began as an act of mourning. In December 1995, eleven months after the Great Hanshin Earthquake killed mo

Festival Kinki M

例年4月上旬〜中旬

Mochigase Nagashibina (Floating Doll Festival)

Mochigase, Tottori, Tottori

Before hina dolls stood on tiered platforms in family alcoves, they floated. In Mochigase, a former post town on the Sen

Gathering Kinki T

12月中旬〜下旬

Tottori Sand Dunes Illusion

Tottori Sand Dunes, Fukube-cho, Tottori

Japan does winter illumination with industrial enthusiasm — every city has its tunnel of lights. What Tottori has, alone

Festival Kinki H

2月下旬〜3月3日

Hiketa Hina Doll Festival

Historic Hiketa townscape, Higashikagawa, Kagawa

At the far eastern edge of Kagawa, where Shikoku faces the narrow strait toward Awaji, the old soy-sauce town of Hiketa

Festival Kinki A

例年2月下旬〜4月上旬

Awa Katsuura Big Hina Festival

Doll Culture Hall, 35-1 Tsukinose, Ikuna, Katsuura, Tokushima

Dolls that no longer have a place at home come here from all over the country. Katsuura, a small town in the hills of T

Festival Kinki K

例年10月下旬〜11月上旬が見頃

Koyasan

Koyasan, Koya, Wakayama

Autumn on Koyasan runs late October to the first days of November. The mountain sits high enough that its cherry blossom

Festival Kinki K

例年11月上旬が見頃

Kogen-ji

Kogen-ji, Tamba, Hyogo

Kogen-ji publishes a table of its own seasons, and it is more careful than most. The leaves begin to turn between the mi

Festival Kinki Y

例年11月上旬〜12月上旬が見頃

Yoshinoyama

Yoshinoyama, Yoshino, Nara

Yoshinoyama's band runs from early November into the first days of December, and the location is listed simply as everyw

Festival Kinki B

例年11月上旬〜下旬が見頃

Befu-kyo

Befu-kyo, Kami, Kochi

The viewing period at Befu-kyo is posted as early to late November, but the more useful document is a table of the peak

Festival Kinki K

例年11月上旬〜下旬が見頃

Kankakei Gorge

Kankakei, Otsu-168 Kankakedori, Shodoshima, Shozu, Kagawa

A visit to Kankakei is built in two stages: first you cross the sea, then you climb. The gorge cuts through the middle o

Festival Kinki Z

例年11月上旬〜中旬が見頃

Zuihoji Park

Zuihoji Park, Arimacho, Kita-ku, Kobe, Hyogo

Arima's autumn keeps a garden of its own. Zuihoji Park sits on the slope above the hot spring town, and being higher it

Festival Kinki A

例年11月中旬〜下旬が見頃

Arashiyama

Togetsukyo, Saga, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto

What turns at Arashiyama is not a garden but a mountainside. The peak comes in mid to late November, and because the sub

Festival Kinki T

例年11月中旬〜下旬が見頃

Tofukuji

Tofukuji, 15-778 Honmachi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto

Tofukuji is where Kyoto goes to look down on autumn instead of up at it. The peak runs mid to late November. Inside the

Festival Kinki K

例年11月中旬が見頃

Kifune Shrine

Kifune Shrine, 180 Kurama Kibunecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

Kibune gives you autumn at a single point: mid-November. The valley is narrow, pressed in by slopes on both sides, and s

Festival Kinki T

例年11月中旬が見頃

Todoroki Falls

Todoroki Falls, Hirai, Kaiyo, Kaifu, Tokushima

Todoroki is a valley you count your way up. The recommended month is November, the middle of it. The main fall drops fif

Festival Kinki M

例年11月中旬〜12月上旬が見頃

Minoo Park

Minoo Falls, 1-18 Minoo Koen, Minoh, Osaka

Minoo is the gorge that commutes. From central Osaka it is about half an hour by train, which is an unreasonably short d

Festival Kinki T

例年11月中旬〜12月上旬が見頃

Tanzan Shrine

Tanzan Shrine, 319 Tonomine, Sakurai, Nara

At Tanzan Shrine one red stands inside another. The centre of the site is a thirteen-storey pagoda — built in wood, thir

Festival Kinki A

例年3月下旬〜4月上旬が見頃

Arashiyama Cherry Blossoms

Arashiyama, 40 Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho, Ukyo, Kyoto

The blossom here is on the mountain, along the river, and around the bridge. Kyoto prefecture's tourism federation descr

Festival Kinki O

例年4月上旬〜中旬が見頃

Omuro Cherries at Ninnaji

Ninnaji, 33 Omuro Ouchi, Ukyo, Kyoto

You do not look up at these. The Omuro cherries stand about two metres high, branching from the base and spreading close

Festival Kinki D

例年3月下旬〜4月上旬が見頃

Daigoji Cherry Blossoms

Daigoji, 22 Daigo Higashiojicho, Fushimi, Kyoto

A single flower-viewing party from over four centuries ago is still the name of this place. The Kyoto prefectural touris

Festival Kinki K

例年3月下旬〜4月上旬が見頃

Kasagiyama Cherry Blossoms

Kasagiyama Prefectural Natural Park, Kasagi, Soraku, Kyoto

The mountain with the cherry trees on it is itself a monument. Kyoto prefecture records Mount Kasagi as a National Histo

Festival Kinki T

例年4月上旬〜中旬が見頃

The Mint's Cherry Passage

Japan Mint, 1-1-79 Tenma, Kita, Osaka

The path is open for one week. Inside the grounds of the Japan Mint there is a five-hundred-and-sixty-metre walk along t

Festival Kinki O

例年4月上旬が見頃

Osaka Castle Park Cherry Blossoms

Osaka Castle Park, Osakajo, Chuo, Osaka

Three thousand trees across a hundred and five hectares. Osaka Castle Park covers 105.6 hectares in the middle of the ci

Festival Kinki E

例年4月上旬が見頃

Expo Park Cherry Blossoms

Expo '70 Commemorative Park, 1-1 Senri Banpakukoen, Suita, Osaka

The places where the cherry trees grow all have names. The Expo '70 park lists nine of them: Higashi-oji, the Japanese g

Festival Kinki H

例年4月上旬が見頃

Himeji Castle Cherry Blossoms

Himeji Castle, 68 Honmachi, Himeji, Hyogo

White flowers in front of a white castle. Himeji city gives about a thousand cherry trees in the grounds, Somei-yoshino

Festival Kinki A

例年4月上旬が見頃

Akashi Park Cherry Blossoms

Akashi Park, 1-27 Akashi Koen, Akashi, Hyogo

Two turrets and no keep. Akashi Park covers about 54.8 hectares, and standing on the earthworks are the Tatsumi and Hits

Festival Kinki S

例年4月上旬が見頃

Shukugawa Riverside Cherry Blossoms

Shukugawa riverside green, Gomenmachi and beyond, Nishinomiya, Hyogo

The city has counted them by variety. There are about thirteen hundred cherry trees along the Shukugawa, and Nishinomiya

Festival Kinki N

例年3月下旬〜4月下旬が見頃

Nara Park Cherry Blossoms

Nara Park, Kasuganocho, Nara, Nara

The cherry season here lasts about a month. The Nara city tourism association gives it as late March through to late Apr

Festival Kinki K

例年4月上旬が見頃

Koriyama Castle Cherry Blossoms

Koriyama Castle ruins, 248-4 Kitakoriyamacho, Yamatokoriyama, Nara

The trees are planted around the moats. Yamatokoriyama city describes about six hundred cherries, mostly Somei-yoshino,

Festival Kinki K

例年4月上旬が見頃

Kimiidera Cherry Blossoms

Kimiidera, 1201 Kimiidera, Wakayama, Wakayama

Wakayama's cherry blossom is declared open from this temple. In front of the main hall at Kimiidera stands the specimen

Festival Kinki N

例年3月下旬〜4月上旬が見頃

Negoroji Cherry Blossoms

Negoroji, 2286 Negoro, Iwade, Wakayama

Seven thousand cherry trees in the grounds of one temple. That is the figure Wakayama's tourism authority gives for Nego

Festival Kinki S

例年4月上旬が見頃

Shichikawa Dam Cherry Blossoms

Shichikawa Dam, Sada, Kozagawa, Higashimuro, Wakayama

The dam came first, and the trees were planted around the edge of what it made. The reservoir behind the Shichikawa dam

Festival Kinki H

例年4月上旬が見頃

Hisamatsu Park Cherry Blossoms

Hisamatsu Park, Higashimachi, Tottori, Tottori

Tottori's flowering is declared from a park entrance. The specimen tree that the Tottori meteorological observatory uses

Festival Kinki T

例年4月上旬が見頃

Tsuyama Castle Cherry Blossoms

Tsuyama Castle, 135 Sange, Tsuyama, Okayama

The stonework survives in terraces, and the cherry trees are on top of it. Tsuyama city gives several thousand cherry tr

Festival Kinki S

例年3月下旬〜4月上旬が見頃

Seibu Park Cherry Blossoms

Seibu Park, Kamonacho, Tokushima, Tokushima

Five hundred trees on the side of a mountain, above a city of a quarter of a million. Seibu Park sits partway up Bizan,