Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

On the western edge of Kyoto, behind the temples of Arashiyama, a narrow path runs for a few hundred metres through a dense stand of giant bamboo. The stems are mōsō bamboo, the largest of the species grown in Japan, and they rise straight and close on both sides of the lane until their crowns meet overhead. What reaches the ground is filtered green light, and a sound: the stalks knock and creak against each other in the wind and the leaves hiss high above. Japan's Ministry of the Environment has counted it among the country's notable soundscapes, which is a rare honour for a place most people know only from photographs.

The grove belongs to Sagano, the old district at the foot of the western hills, and it is woven into a landscape of temples and villas rather than standing alone as a forest. At its eastern end is Nonomiya Shrine, a small Shinto shrine with a torii of dark unbarked timber and brushwood fences, built as the place where imperial princesses chosen to serve at the Ise Shrine purified themselves before the journey; its enclosure appears in The Tale of Genji. The bamboo borders the grounds of Tenryū-ji, the head temple of a branch of Rinzai Zen, and at the far end of the path sits Ōkōchi Sansō, the hillside villa and garden that the period-film star Ōkōchi Denjirō spent some thirty years creating. Beyond it the land drops towards the Katsura River.

The walk from end to end takes little more than a quarter of an hour, and its beauty depends almost entirely on timing and weather. Early in the morning the lane is quiet and the light comes in low and slanting between the stems; after rain the bamboo darkens and the air smells green. Notice how evenly spaced and straight the stems are: this is a tended grove rather than a wild wood, and the effect of endless vertical lines is as much the work of people as of nature.

The bamboo path is the most photographed piece of Sagano, and it is best seen as part of the district around it: a green corridor linking a shrine, a Zen garden and a villa, rather than a destination on its own.

Getting there

The bamboo grove is in the Arashiyama district on the western edge of Kyoto, about 1 km from the centre of Arashiyama. The nearest airport is Osaka Itami International Airport (ITM), about 33 km away. The quickest rail approach is the JR Sagano Line from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama Station, a ride of about 15 minutes, followed by a walk of around 10 minutes to the grove.