Chion-in Light-Up and New Year's Eve Bell: 2026 Dates

Chion-in's late-2026 calendar

The temple's event calendar lists these visitor openings:

Outside these events, the gate-hours page gives daily gates of 6:00–16:00, with the Yuzen-en garden (¥300) and Hojo garden (¥400) desks opening at 9:00; a combined garden ticket is ¥500 and sold until 15:20.

Sanmon gate upper floor (31 October – 13 November)

The upper floor of the Sanmon, the temple's main gate, is usually closed. It opens as part of Kyoto's autumn programme of special openings of non-public cultural properties, organised by the Kobunka Hozon Kyokai foundation. The event page gives 9:00–16:00 daily, ¥1,000 for adults and ¥500 for junior and senior high students; it lists no child price or last entry time.

Inside is a Buddhist hall with a crowned Shakyamuni Buddha and sixteen arhat statues, both Important Cultural Properties, and painted ceilings and pillars. The gate dates from 1621. A limited goshuin stamp for the opening costs ¥500 at the stamp desk; our goshuin guide explains how stamps work. The temple's general rule is no photography or recording inside halls.

Autumn light-up (17 November – 6 December)

The light-up page lists 17:30 to 21:30, last entry 21:00, at ¥800 for adults and ¥400 for children. The lit route covers:

• the area around the Sanmon gate and its upper-floor corridor (corridor only),
• the Yuzen-en garden,
• the Onna-zaka slope,
• the Mieido hall,
• the Amidado hall (outside only).

The page names no booking for general admission. A Premium Tour, ¥3,000 for adults and ¥1,500 for children including admission, is booked through an online form and paid in cash at the tour desk.

Chion-in or Eikando at night? Both run until 6 December. Chion-in starts three days earlier, costs ¥200 less and takes entries 30 minutes later. Eikando's light-up covers its garden and Amida Hall, and it sells tickets only on the day. Our list of Kyoto's autumn night illuminations compares the others.

New Year's Eve bell (joya no kane)

Chion-in's 2026 New Year's Eve event page confirms the date and start: Thursday 31 December 2026, from 22:20, at the Great Bell Tower (Daishoro). Seventeen monks ring the bell with ropes, one stroke at a time, for 108 strokes. A trial ringing is held from 14:00 on Sunday 27 December. Neither page gives entry rules yet.

How the bell worked in 2025

The temple's New Year's Eve page still showed the 2025 arrangements on 22 October 2026. Treat them as a guide to the likely shape, not as 2026 rules:

• Two ways in, both paid. Numbered tickets at ¥3,000 per person (free for elementary age and under) were sold in cash at the Yuzen-en desk from 8 to 24 December, 9:00–16:00: 400 places in four groups of 100. A further 2,000 places, four groups of 500, opened by online application at 14:00 on 1 December.
• No same-day entry, no phone bookings. The tourist centre's 2025 bell list noted the online places were already full on 9 December.
• Groups, not a free-for-all. Ticket holders checked in at the Kuromon bus pool, entered through the Kuromon gate and stayed about 30 minutes; leaving was allowed, re-entry was not.
• Timing. The 2025 memorial service started around 22:20, the ringing around 22:40, and it ended around 0:35.
• Rules. No naked flames, tripods, selfie sticks, drones or flash; no alcohol beforehand; dress for a long wait in the cold.

The 2025 trial ringing on 27 December needed no application, though entry could be limited once the bell tower area was full.

If you are staying on for New Year's Day, our Fushimi Inari guide covers that shrine's New Year period.

Getting to Chion-in

The light-up page gives these routes: City Bus 206 from Kyoto Station, 12 from Sanjo Keihan, or 31, 46, 201 or 203 from Shijo-Kawaramachi to the Chion-in-mae stop, then about 5 minutes on foot; the Tozai subway line to Higashiyama, about 8 minutes on foot; Keihan Gion-Shijo, about 10 minutes; or Hankyu Kyoto-Kawaramachi, about 15 minutes.