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Kyoto Live Cameras in Japan — 34 official webcams

Twenty-seven live cameras on the temples, shrines and approaches of Kyoto, from Kiyomizu-zaka to Fushimi Inari and the Arashiyama bamboo grove. With three more from a shop at the gate of Higashi Hongan-ji, no prefecture here has more.

What you can see

Twenty-seven of the thirty-four cameras here are sightseeing cameras placed so that visitors can spread themselves across the quieter hours. Fourteen belong to the Kyoto National Highway Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which streams them as Kyoto Crowd Level Live; thirteen belong to the Kyoto City Tourism Association. Both operators state that the resolution is lowered so that individuals cannot be identified.

Three of the remaining seven are streamed by Mori Shinzaburo Shoho, a Buddhist altar-fittings shop at the gate of Higashi Hongan-ji, from its own building: Ohigashi-san Square, Higashi Hongan-ji and Kyoto Tower. The last four are the Ministry of the Environment's Shusui-tei in the Kyoto Imperial Garden and three river cameras from the ministry of land: the Yura, the Katsura and the Kizu.

The twenty-seven are scattered across the city. In Higashiyama there are Kiyomizu-zaka, Hanamikoji street in Gion and Nene-no-michi; in Arashiyama the north end of the Togetsukyo bridge, the bamboo grove path and Saga Toriimoto; in Fushimi both approaches to Fushimi Inari Taisha. Some sit well out of town in the hills, like Kifune shrine and Jakko-in, so on a snowy day the city can be merely wet while these alone are white.

All twenty-seven run from a single channel at the same time, so we do not embed them here; the button opens the stream on YouTube.

34 cameras in Kyoto

33 video, 1 still. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

What the crowd cameras tell you depends on the hour. Early in the morning Kiyomizu-zaka and the Arashiyama bamboo grove path still show their paving and ground; towards midday they fill with people. That is what makes them useful for deciding whether to set out early. At the bus terminal in front of Kyoto station and the taxi rank at the Hachijo exit, the length of the line is the wait, so it is worth a look before you leave the station.

By season: cherry blossom from late March into early April, autumn colour from mid-November into early December. Eikan-do and Jingo-ji draw people for the maples, Jonangu for the weeping plum from late February, Zuishin-in for the plum at the end of March. Nishiki market alone streams only from 11:00 to 18:00, following the hours of its shops.

The three cameras at the temple gate reward opening at different hours. Ohigashi-san Square is moved from time to time, closing in on the trees of the square or the street; Higashi Hongan-ji looks down on the great roofs of the Founder's Hall and the Amida Hall; and Kyoto Tower lights up after dark, which makes it an evening camera.

The Katsura river camera stands near the Togetsukyo bridge at Arashiyama. It exists to show the river in flood, but in normal conditions it simply shows the river through the seasons: two cameras on almost the same spot, put there for entirely different reasons.

Closer looks at cameras here

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

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