Tokyo / Kagurazaka

Kagurazaka神楽坂

The old geisha quarter on a hill — cobbled lanes, black-fenced ryotei, a French institute, and the most Parisian evening in Tokyo.

Kagurazaka climbs from the Iidabashi moat as a single sloping street, and its side lanes — Hyogo Yokocho, Kakurenbo Yokocho — are stone-paved alleys of black fences and lanterns where the geisha houses of the 1920s stood and a few still work. The French institute has been here since 1952, which explains the bistros and the boulangeries between the ryotei; the main street has a shrine at the top, a temple halfway with a giant statue of Bishamonten, and a Sunday pedestrian afternoon. It is small, it is twenty minutes from anywhere, and it is the best place in the city to eat dinner and then get lost.

One-day itineraries

Evening · Kagurazaka

An evening in Kagurazaka: the temple at dusk, the lanes at lantern-light, a kaiseki dinner, and getting lost on purpose

Kagurazaka is a hill twenty minutes from anywhere with a French institute at one end, a geisha quarter in the middle and a shrine by Kengo Kuma at the top. It is small enough to know in an evening, and it is the evening Tokyoites choose for a birthday. Start at dusk; finish when the lanes run out.

Kagurazaka · 5 stops

Places (4)

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi 1 1. Kagurazaka's stone lanes 2 2. Akagi Shrine 3 3. Dining in Kagurazaka 4 4. Zenkokuji Bishamonten
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
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