Kamigamo Shrine
Founded in 678 to protect Kyoto from malign influences, this is where Imperial messengers once came to brief the kami of thunder on affairs of state.
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One of Japan's oldest Shinto sanctuaries and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Kamigamo is dedicated to Kamo Wake-ikazuchi, the thunder deity. Emperor Kanmu visited in 794; by 965 the emperor was dispatching official messengers here to report important events. The Kamo clan, whose ancestors traditionally served the shrine, still live nearby.
What to look for
- The adjacent woods, which are vestiges of the primeval forest of Tadasu no Mori
- The Kamo River, which runs along the shrine's north Kyoto site
Located in north Kyoto on the Kamo River; traditionally paired with Shimogamo Shrine — the two together form the Kamo-jinja, Kyoto's guardian shrines.
Kamigamo Shrine is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Kyoto, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Kyoto pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Kyoto
- Kiyomizu-dera TempleA monk traced a golden stream to its source on Mount Otowa in 778. Pilgrims are still arriving.
- Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)A gold-wrapped pavilion torched by a novice monk in 1950 and rebuilt by 1955 — every gleaming surface you see is modern.
- Fushimi Inari-taishaTen thousand orange gates, every single one paid for by a Japanese business, tunnel up a sacred mountain.
- Heian-kyō (Kyoto)Japan's capital for over a thousand years — and by one legal argument, still.
- Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)The silver coating was never applied — and that unfinished state became the point.
- Kyoto Imperial PalaceJapan's imperial seat for 538 years — until the emperor moved his residence to Tokyo and the palace lost its central role.