Yokai Night Parade 百鬼夜行

Yokai Places in Kyoto

The nue's pond, the oni's bridge, the tengu's mountain, the night parade's street, and the oni king's mountain, museum and buried head

7 places

Kyoto was the capital when most of the famous tales were set down, and the city still has the ground they happened on. Two of these places are in walking distance of each other north of Nijō Castle, and the street of the night parade is a short bus ride west of them; the mountain of the tengu is half an hour north by the little mountain railway; the oni king’s mountain is a day trip to the far side of the prefecture, with the museum in its valley and the shrine high on its flank; and the pass on the city’s western edge is where his head was buried on the way back.

  1. Nue Pond and Nue Daimyōjin 鵺池・鵺大明神

    Site Kyoto (Kamigyō), Kyoto

    A small stone-edged pond in a city park north-west of Nijō Castle, where the arrow that killed the nue was said to have been washed.

    Yokai you will meet: Nue

  2. Seimei Shrine and Ichijō Modoribashi 晴明神社・一条戻橋

    Shrine or temple Kyoto (Kamigyō), Kyoto

    The shrine on the site of the court diviner's house and, a hundred metres south, the bridge where a warrior cut off an oni's arm.

    Yokai you will meet: Oni, Kitsune

  3. Kurama-dera 鞍馬寺

    Shrine or temple Kyoto (Sakyō), Kyoto

    The mountain temple north of Kyoto where the king of the tengu taught a boy to fight, reached past a giant tengu head at the station.

    Yokai you will meet: Tengu

  4. Japan Oni Exchange Museum 日本の鬼の交流博物館

    Museum Fukuchiyama (Ōe), Kyoto

    A museum of oni at the foot of Mount Ōe, where the oni king's fortress stood in the tale, with a roof tile five metres high outside.

    Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni

  5. Kubizuka Daimyōjin 首塚大明神

    Shrine or temple Kyoto (Nishikyō, Oinosaka pass), Kyoto

    A small shrine on the old road at the pass west of Kyoto, where the oni king's head was buried because it could not be carried into the capital.

    Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni

  6. Ichijō Yōkai Street and Daishōgun Hachi Shrine 一条妖怪ストリート（大将軍商店街）と大将軍八神社

    Street Kyoto (Kamigyō), Kyoto

    Four hundred metres of shops on the road the night parade once took, with yokai figures at their doors and the shrine of the direction god at the west end.

    Yokai you will meet: Karakasa-kozō, Chōchin-obake, Biwa-bokuboku

  7. Onitake Inari Shrine on Mount Ōe 鬼嶽稲荷神社

    Shrine or temple Fukuchiyama (Ōe), Kyoto

    A lone shrine at the eighth station of the oni's mountain, where the trail to Shuten-dōji's summit begins and the valley below fills with cloud at dawn.

    Yokai you will meet: Shuten-dōji, Oni

Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.