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Arashiyama and Sagano: 5 Live Cameras in Japan

From the Togetsu bridge through the bamboo path, Seiryoji and Daikakuji to the thatched houses of Saga-Toriimoto. Five cameras, emptier the further north.

What you can see

The five are ordered as a walk, north from the Togetsu bridge. Arashiyama has a reputation for being crowded everywhere, but watching all five in a row shows that on the same day the crowd differs from place to place.

Togetsukyo North End is the north foot of the bridge over the Katsura river. The queue crossing the bridge and the boats on the water land in one frame. There is a second way to read it: when it rains upstream, the colour of the water changes first. The weather upstream arrives before the weather over the bridge.

Sagano Bamboo Path is the bamboo road from north of Tenryuji through to the Okochi Sanso villa. On windy days the bamboo bends all at once; on clear days the sunlight falls on the path in stripes. Wind and light take visible form here, which sets it apart from the other four.

Seiryoji, Saga Shakado is in front of the Niomon gate of the temple at the centre of Sagano. The forecourt opens out like a square, and the flow of people walking north from Arashiyama slackens here once. It is the best of the five to compare against the bridge camera.

Daikakuji is the former imperial temple of Sagano. Its wide grounds hold the Osawa pond, and it is known as a place for viewing the moon. The grounds are large enough that people spread out, so the crowding stays gentle.

Saga-Toriimoto Preservation District is a corner along the approach to Atago shrine where thatched roofs and townhouses remain. It is as far north as the walk from Arashiyama goes, and the crowd thins out sharply. It is last of the five because it lets you confirm on screen that going further north means going quieter.

Cameras you can watch now: 5

All 5 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

The operator publishes no viewing season, and we will not invent one here. The queue at the bridge, the water colour changing with rain upstream, the bamboo on windy days, the striped sunlight, the flow slackening at the gate, people spreading out in wide grounds and the crowd thinning to the north all come from the camera descriptions.

All five run on Japan time, so there is no time difference to work out — but once it is dark, neither the street nor the bamboo shows. For Arashiyama at night, a camera pointed at a lit street suits better.

These five are streamed by the Kyoto City Tourism Association. That site declines reuse of its content and photographs, so we copy neither the video nor any image, and keep no sample picture here. It is also a channel carrying 13 streams at once, so it cannot be played inside this site. Please open the streaming page itself.

If it isn't showing

All five also appear on the Kyoto page, filed under World Heritage; the bamboo path is also in Nature and the bridge in River.

The rest of Kyoto is split into Gion and Higashiyama, Central Kyoto, The Hills of Kyoto and Kyoto Imperial Garden. Temple gates alone are gathered in Temple and Shrine Approaches.

The Katsura river under the bridge is part of The Yodo River System. By season, Arashiyama appears in both Cherry Blossom and Autumn Leaves.

How to read the crowds is in Reading Kyoto's crowds before you go; why we copy no images is in How we handle the camera images.

Where to find Arashiyama and Sagano

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.

To find other cameras, go to the camera list. You can narrow all 439 cameras by format, region, subject and provider.