Sacred Kyoto: Temple Guide

Most people see Kyoto once. Take your time to understand it.

Somebody is climbing through the vermilion gates at Fushimi Inari right now. The ones who know look back on the way down — because every gate was bought and donated, and the giver's name is inked on the side you only see when you turn.

Sacred Kyoto puts that kind of knowing in your pocket. Twenty guides to the greatest temples and shrines of the city: what you are looking at, what to notice before you walk past it, and why it has mattered for centuries. Who burned the Golden Pavilion to the ground in 1950? Why are the 1,001 golden figures at Sanjūsangen-dō each carved differently?

All of it free. Every guide, every word, from your first launch.

READ OR LISTEN
Enjoy it your way. The written guide is laid out for reading. The audio is read by one voice over a bed of traditional Japanese music. The same visit, told once for a reader and once for a listener, and you can swap between them whenever you like.

About four minutes each, told as a story.

IT TRAVELS WITH YOU
Every word and every minute of audio lives inside the app itself. Put your phone in airplane mode on the train out to Arashiyama and it still works — no need for data.

WHAT YOU GET
• 20 guides — 14 temples and 6 shrines
• Every one made twice — once to read, once to listen to
• 90 minutes of narration
• A map that shows you what is near you right now
• Original illustrations, made for this app and nowhere else

THE SITES
Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Ryōan-ji, Ginkaku-ji, Tenryū-ji & Arashiyama, Nanzen-ji, Sanjūsangen-dō, Yasaka-jinja, Heian-jingū, Tō-ji, Tōfuku-ji, Chion-in, Eikan-dō, Ninna-ji, Shimogamo-jinja, Daigo-ji, Kitano Tenmangū, Kamigamo Jinja, Kurama-dera.

And hundreds more on the way.

FREE, AND ENTIRELY YOURS
Everything is open from the first launch — just you and the guides. The app runs on your phone alone and keeps your data there: allow location and it is used on the device to show what is nearby, and it stays on the device.

Guides are in English. The map draws its streets when you have a connection; every guide and every word is already on your phone.

Made by two people in love with Kyoto, for people who will fall in love with it too.