Nishiki Market
錦市場
Known as Kyoto's Kitchen, this narrow 390 m market has served the city's food culture for 400 years with Kyoto vegetables, pickles, yuba and more.
Kyoto's Kitchen, 400 years on
Nishiki Market (Nishiki Ichiba) is a shopping street running along Nishikikoji-dori, one block north of Shijo-dori in Kyoto's busy downtown. It stretches about 390 m from east to west, and on both sides of a narrow lane only 3.3 to 5 m wide you will find shops selling fish, pickles, tofu, dried foods, sweets, cooking tools and more. A red, yellow and green arcade roof covers the street, so you can walk it even on a rainy day.
Records are unclear, but a market is thought to have been held around here as early as the Heian period. It started properly as a fish market in 1615, when it became one of the three fish wholesalers officially recognised by the Edo shogunate in Kyoto. What helped it thrive was high-quality groundwater that stays at about 15 to 18°C all year round. Known as Nishiki no mizu (Nishiki water), it was used to keep fish cool in the wells each shop had, in the days before refrigerators.
The market supplies not only the high-end restaurants of Kyoto cuisine but also the seasonal ingredients for obanzai, Kyoto's home cooking, which is why it is called Kyo no Daidokoro, Kyoto's Kitchen. At the end of the year it gets so crowded with shoppers that you can hardly move forward, a scene that is part of winter in Kyoto.
What to see and taste
On sale you will find Kyoto vegetables, freshwater fish from Lake Biwa, hamo (pike conger, the fish that sums up summer in Kyoto), yuba (the skin that forms when soy milk is heated), namafu (a chewy food made from wheat protein) and Kyoto pickles. Many of the ingredients are unique to Kyoto, and asking the shop staff how to eat them is part of the fun.
Plenty of shops cook to order or sell food that is ready to eat. You can enjoy skewers, both grilled and deep-fried, or hamo tempura in front of the shop where you bought them or inside it. Some places also let you bring in food bought elsewhere in the market; if you do, follow that shop's rules, such as ordering one drink or dish.
Besides food, there are shops selling tools and everyday goods, so you can also hunt for souvenirs with a Kyoto feel.
Birthplace of the brilliant painter Ito Jakuchu
The Edo-period painter Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) was born into a family of vegetable wholesalers in Nishiki Market. He is known for his vividly coloured, minutely detailed works, and in recent years he has become popular abroad too.
Jakuchu did not only paint. Records show that, as a local community leader, he worked hard to save the market when it was in danger of being shut down. Near the market's western entrance a monument marks the site of his family home, and you can see his pictures all around the market, including on shop shutters.
Getting there
It is about a 3-minute walk from Shijo Station on the Karasuma subway line or Karasuma Station on the Hankyu Kyoto line, and about 4 minutes from Hankyu's Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station. From Kyoto Station, take city bus 5 to Shijo-Takakura, then walk about 2 minutes.
Opening hours and closing days vary from shop to shop, so if there is one you particularly want to visit, check before you go.
Tips
- Please do not eat while walking through the market. The street is narrow and crowded, and the shopping street asks visitors not to, because it leads to trouble such as food getting on other people's clothes. The rule is to eat in front of the shop where you bought the food or inside it.
- At the end of the year the market is so packed with locals buying food for New Year that you can barely move. If you want to browse at leisure, avoid that time and it will be much easier to get around.
- If you come by car, shopping in the market gets you a discount at the partner car parks listed by the shopping street. There are no car parks for large coaches nearby, though.
Sources
Updated 29 September 2026. Opening hours and prices change, so check the official site before you go.
