Free Evening Tour of Gion and the Geisha Districts

Gion is the most charming and best-preserved district of historic Kyoto: the heart of the geisha world. On this free walking tour, I’ll guide you—in Italian—as we explore it.

We’ll start at the statue of Izumo no Okuni—the woman credited with the birth of kabuki—on the banks of the Kamo River. We’ll stroll along the Shirakawa Canal and cross the Tatsumi Bridge, one of the city’s most elegant sights, before reaching the Yasaka Shrine. From there, we’ll head up toward Higashiyama along Nene no Michi and the Ninenzaka slope, until we reach the iconic view of the pagoda at Hokan-ji Temple. We’ll walk through the historic Hanamikoji Avenue with its many tea houses where geisha work, pass by the illuminated Minami-za Theater, and end our walk in Pontochō, the lantern-lit alley along the river.

Along the way, I’ll tell you the story of Gion and the centuries-old tradition of the geisha, and if we’re lucky, we might even run into a few!