West Kyoto · SaganoNo.927★★Open in map →

Nonomiya Shrine

historyOff the trail — and worth it

A small shrine set beside the Sagano bamboo path in western Kyoto, kept in an archaic style: a torii of unstripped kunugi logs and a low fence of kuromoji brushwood. Imperial priestesses purified themselves here before setting out for Ise.

FromKyoto Station
~30 minJR Sagano Line
Get off atSaga-Arashiyama Station (JR Sagano Line)
On foot
Nonomiya Shrine

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

The shrine is on one of Kyoto's busiest walking routes, so it is not undiscovered. What gets missed is the gate. Most people photograph it and move on without knowing that the bark left on the logs is not rustic decoration — it is the archaic form this shrine has kept, and it is why the gate looks unlike almost any other torii in the city.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Nonomiya Shrine main hallHyppolyte de Saint-Rambert / CC BY 4.0

The black-wood toriia gate of kunugi logs with the bark left on, the oldest surviving form of torii
The koshibagaki fencea low enclosure of woven kuromoji brushwood set behind the gate
The main hallthe hall of Nonomiya-no-Okami, identified with the sun deity enshrined at Ise
Okame-ishi stonea rounded stone beside the Daikoku hall, stroked while making a wish

How to actually get there

Kyoto Station → Saga-Arashiyama Station (JR Sagano Line).
Saga-Arashiyama Station → the bamboo path entrance (walk southwest).
Follow the path into the grove to Nonomiya Shrine, on the north side.

JR Sagano Line, direct from Kyoto Station: Kyoto Station → Saga-Arashiyama Station on the JR Sagano Line, then a walk southwest into the grove. Local trains on this stretch run about every 15 minutes through the day, so the rail leg needs no timetable planning. Rapid services are quicker where they stop.
Return from Saga-Arashiyama Station: Walk back east out of the grove to Saga-Arashiyama Station and take the JR Sagano Line to Kyoto Station. Trains are frequent all day and the last one leaves before midnight, so an evening in Arashiyama is easy — but the shrine itself will have closed long before that.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Nonomiya sits in the Sagano district of western Kyoto, a few steps off the bamboo path that runs between Tenryuji and the Okochi-Sanso villa. The shrine keeps a deliberately archaic look. Its torii is built from kunugi logs with the bark still on it, the oldest form the gate takes, and the enclosure behind is a low fence of woven kuromoji brushwood. The deity here is Nonomiya-no-Okami, identified with Amaterasu, the same sun deity enshrined at Ise. Beside the main hall stand a Daikoku hall and a rounded stone.

How to enjoy it

The shrine opens at 9:00 and closes at 17:00, so it does not pair with a dawn walk on the bamboo path. Come mid-morning instead, once the gate is open and before the grove fills. Look up at the torii before anything else — once you have registered the bark still on the logs, the rest of the precinct falls into place.

Background & history

The nonomiya was not originally a permanent shrine but a temporary enclosure. An unmarried imperial princess chosen as saio withdrew to one to purify herself before travelling to serve at Ise Grand Shrine, and a new enclosure was built for each appointment, so the location kept moving. In the early Heian period, under Emperor Saga, the site was fixed here in Sagano. The place appears in The Tale of Genji, and the bark-on gate and brushwood fence are kept in the old form that scene describes.

Before you go

Cash: Visiting the precinct is free. Amulets, prayer plaques and fortunes at the shrine desk are cash. JR Saga-Arashiyama Station takes IC cards such as ICOCA and Suica as well as cash.
Good to know: The precinct is small and faces directly onto the bamboo route, so the middle of the day is when it is most crowded. The shrine desk keeps to the posted hours, and nothing is staffed outside them.
Another way: From Osaka, take the Hankyu line to Katsura, change to the Hankyu Arashiyama Line for Arashiyama Station and walk north through the district. From central Kyoto, the Randen tram out of Shijo-Omiya also ends at Arashiyama Station, south of the grove.
After you get off: From Saga-Arashiyama Station, walk southwest about ten minutes on paved streets to the edge of the bamboo grove. The shrine faces the path on its north side.