The best things to do in Kyoto in July 2026

One of Kyoto’s oldest shrines, Kamigamo boasts a mythical origin story dating back 2,600 years. Today, this Unesco World Heritage Site features a sprawling complex dotted with magnificent prayer halls and buildings, many of which have been designated National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. 

The Shingu Shrine in particular, found in the inner grounds of the Kamigamo Shrine precinct, celebrates a water festival every year on the fourth Sunday of July. This celebration honours the shrine’s water dragon deity and prays for protection from the intense summer heat. For 12 days leading up to this tradition, Kamigamo Shrine is opening its doors after sunset for a special nighttime visit. 

Here you’ll find over 1,000 wind chimes decorating the shrine grounds while blue and green lights create a cooling atmosphere to counter the daytime summer heat. Moreover, you can enjoy dipping your feet in the Nara-no-Ogawa Stream flowing through the shrine and refresh yourself physically and spiritually.

Best of all, you get to watch the mystical shrine maiden dance (twice daily) as well as a sacred Shinto musical performance (three times daily) featuring the shinobue (Japanese bamboo flute) and the koto (Japanese zither)...

One of Kyoto’s most iconic shrines, Fushimi Inari Taisha is beloved for its vibrant vermilion torii gate tunnels that stretch from the base of the complex, across the hillsides, and up to the mountaintop. While the grounds are atmospheric on any given day, they become even more magical during the Motomiya-sai Festival in summer.

This festival brings together Inari Shrine devotees from across Japan for two days of prayers and celebrations. At 6pm on Sunday July 19, thousands of lanterns will light up the grounds, from the main shrine at the foothills to the vivid orange torii tunnels winding up Mt. Inari. You’ll find ornate stone, wood and beautifully painted paper lanterns illuminating the grounds after dark.

On Monday July 20, the festivities kick off at 9am...

The most renowned of all traditional Japanese festivals, Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri has a storied history dating back to the year 869, when it was first held as an appeasing ceremony to the gods to rid the city of an epidemic. What’s truly impressive is that this grand tradition has survived for over a millennium while retaining much of its elaborate rituals.

While Gion Matsuri spans the entire month of July with numerous festivities revolving around its host, the Yasaka Shrine, the main highlight is the spectacular Yamaboko float procession happening on July 17, followed by a second, smaller one a week later on July 24.

The biggest procession of the two, the Saki Matsuri Junko on July 17, features 23 massive multi-storey floats. These awe-inspiring vessels, known as Yamaboko, measure up to 25 metres tall and weigh as much as 12 tons. Each is unique in design, yet all of them are embellished with ornate tapestries as well as intricate carvings and woodwork. In fact, these floats hold such historical and artistic significance that they are designated Important Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan.

The procession follows a 3km route across the city centre, starting at the Shijo-Karasuma junction at 9am and ending at the Karasuma-Oike junction at around 2pm. However, to truly appreciate the Yamaboko floats up close, you’ll want to check out the Yoiyama festival, which takes place for three nights (July 14–16) leading up to the main procession...

An annual affair since 1986, this summer fiesta at Nishi-Honganji Temple’s outdoor car park is one of Kyoto’s largest and liveliest Bon Odori festivals. Every year, it attracts roughly 10,000 visitors with its jovial communal dancing and vibrant, family-friendly festivities. 

While this year’s itinerary has yet to be finalised, last year’s event saw more than 30 food vendors as well as a children’s area featuring hands-on workshops and classic festival games such as yo-yo fishing, target shooting and ring toss. There were also Japanese taiko drum performances and live music on stage...

Emerging in the wake of the Margaret Thatcher era, the Young British Artists (YBAs) and their contemporaries embraced shock, irreverence and entrepreneurial flair. While the YBA label (applied after the landmark 1988 ‘Freeze’ exhibition organised by Damien Hirst) was often contested, it came to define a generation that reimagined what art could be. Painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation all became tools for probing themes of identity, consumer culture and shifting social structures. 

‘YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection’ is the first exhibition in Japan devoted exclusively to British art of the 1990s. It debuted in Tokyo earlier this year before arriving at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art. Featuring around 90 works by some 50 artists, the show captures a turbulent and transformative period in British culture, when politics, society and art collided to spark a wave of radical experimentation.

Highlights include works by Hirst, Tracey Emin, Lubaina Himid, Wolfgang Tillmans and Julian Opie, alongside others who reshaped contemporary art on a global stage...

One of the world’s most renowned design houses, Marimekko is beloved for its iconic style combining joyous prints with vibrant colours. Since its inception in 1951, the Finnish brand has produced more than 3,500 original prints, and its signature cheery designs can be found across all aspects of modern lifestyle from fashion to homeware.

This two-year touring exhibition takes a deep dive into the brand’s heritage, aesthetics and creative vision. It opens in Kyoto before travelling to other cities in Japan, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in October. Through a diverse collection of artworks, textiles and dresses across the decades, the exhibition sheds light on Marimekko’s design approach as well as its printmaking techniques. 

Highlights include a video installation by multidisciplinary art and design collective plaplax...

Active during the late Edo period (1603–1868), Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) was a talented ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artist whose work crosses multiple genres. While he is best known for his musha-e, or warrior prints, he also painted uniquely styled landscapes incorporating Western painting techniques, as well as portraits of stylish women (bijin-ga) and popular actors. His work was so extensive and prolific that he established a reputation as a super creator in the ukiyo-e world back in the day.

This exhibition brings together about 200 pieces of Kuniyoshi’s work. His extraordinary and versatile talent is showcased across six distinct genres. You can expect to see some of his most iconic artworks including ‘The Takiyasha Witch and the Skeleton Spectre’ (one of the world’s most recognisable ukiyo-e images) and ‘Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido Road Explained by Cats’.

Aside from the traditional display, the organisers of the immensely popular Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition have transformed roughly 50 pieces of Kuniyoshi’s woodblock prints into a captivating digital art experience...