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Gion and Higashiyama: 4 Live Cameras in Japan — to Kiyomizu

Up Kiyomizu-zaka from the Gojo-zaka crossing, down Nene-no-michi to Hanami-koji. Four cameras make the crowding along one road visible as a single line.

What you can see

The four are ordered along one road, from the foot of the climb to Kiyomizu temple through to Gion. One camera only tells you it is busy; four together show where the crowd is coming from.

Higashioji-dori and Gojo-zaka is the crossing at the foot of the climb to Kiyomizu temple. Tour buses and city buses turn here, so the state of the traffic tells you the day's crowding before the slope does. Of the four, this is where the first sign appears.

Kiyomizu-zaka is the sloping approach up to Kiyomizu temple. Souvenir shops line both sides, and the flow of visitors shows up as a band of people. Early in the day the paving stones are visible, and towards noon the slope fills up. Whether the stones show is the measure.

Nene-no-michi, Higashiyama is the stone-paved road below Kodaiji. It lies on the route joining Kiyomizu temple and Yasaka shrine, so the crowding of both meets and shows here. This is the camera for telling whether people are coming from the north or the south.

Hanami-koji, Gion is a street of stone paving and teahouse lattices. The lamps come on in the evening, and it looks more like itself at night. One note: part of the southern end is private road, where entry and photography are restricted. That does not affect watching on screen, but follow the notices if you walk there.

Cameras you can watch now: 4

All 4 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 traffic showing the sign first, the paving stones visible in the morning and the slope filling by noon, both flows meeting on Nene-no-michi, and the lamps coming on in the evening all come from the camera descriptions.

All four run on Japan time. In practice it is Kiyomizu-zaka early in the day and Hanami-koji after dark. The operator writes that Hanami-koji looks more like itself at night, which makes it the only one of the four worth opening in the dark.

Kiyomizu-zaka and Gojo-zaka are streamed by the Kyoto National Highway Office; Nene-no-michi and Hanami-koji by the Kyoto City Tourism Association. Both put more than a dozen streams on one channel, so they cannot be played inside this site. The association also declines reuse, so Nene-no-michi and Hanami-koji carry no sample picture. The pictures for Kiyomizu-zaka and Gojo-zaka are kept under the Public Data License (PDL1.0), which allows use when the source is named.

If it isn't showing

All four also appear on the Kyoto page, filed under World Heritage.

The rest of Kyoto is split into Arashiyama and Sagano, Central Kyoto, The Hills of Kyoto and Kyoto Imperial Garden. The page including the Kiyomizu gate itself is Temple and Shrine Approaches.

City crossings are collected in Shibuya Crossing & Station Fronts; by season there are Cherry Blossom and Autumn Leaves.

How to read the crowds is in Reading Kyoto's crowds before you go; how to tell why a screen is blank is in What is happening when a live camera shows nothing.

Where to find Gion and Higashiyama

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.