7 best art and cultural events to look forward to in Kyoto in 2026

One of the most popular forms of Japanese percussion, taiko drumming has captivated audiences in Japan and around the world with its powerful, energetic rhythms. Yet traditional taiko performances are often rare, usually limited to festivals or occasional theatre shows. Until now.

Led by renowned taiko and shinobue (bamboo flute) artist Yuki Yamanaka, Japanese Drums Entertainment EN has started staging regular performances at Hulic Hall Kyoto since December 2025. The ensemble, made up of both seasoned veterans and rising young performers, blends the traditional sounds of taiko with modern staging and choreography.

The 45-minute show is entirely non-verbal, relying on the dynamic interplay of drum sounds, rhythms and physical expression to create an experience that’s instinctively accessible and thrilling for all audiences. In the theatre’s intimate 200-seat setting, the show becomes an immersive, multi-sensory experience, as viewers don’t just see and hear the performance, but also feel the vibrations of the drums.

Geisha and their apprentices, known as maiko, are an enduring symbol of Kyoto. Yet encounters with these graceful performers are hard to come by – unless you are invited to a private banquet or have connections to ochaya, traditional teahouses that serve food and drink alongside performances.

However, once a year in April, the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Theatre stages the Miyako Odori, a dance performance featuring around 50 geiko (the Kyoto term for geisha) and maiko from Gion Kobu, Kyoto’s largest geisha district. Best of all, it is open to the public.

Miyako Odori made its debut in 1872 as a special attraction of the First Kyoto Exposition. Since then, it has remained a largely unbroken annual spring tradition, save for six years surrounding World War II, as well as during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The performance features shamisen music, singing and percussion, all performed live in perfect unison with the geisha and maiko dancers. The hour-long show opens with a grand ensemble dance known as the so-odori, in which all the dancers appear together in matching light-blue kimono.

This is followed by eight individual dances (nakabasami) depicting Kan’ei-era culture – a period of political stability in early Edo-period Japan between 1624 and 1644 – alongside seasonal Kyoto landscapes. Pay close attention to the transitions between acts, as one of the distinctive feats of Miyako Odori is its seamless scene changes, carried out without ever lowering the curtain.

For its 10th anniversary, Kyoto Nippon Festival has tapped some of Japan’s leading creative talents for its contemporary art-led cultural programme at the historical Kitano Tenmangu Shrine.

Multidisciplinary artist Mika Ninagawa, known for her large-scale spatial works, will transform the shrine’s famed plum garden, home to around 2,000 plum trees, into an immersive installation. Using light and colour to create a dreamlike atmosphere, ‘Three Gardens of Snow, Moon and Flowers’ (9am–8.30pm) will celebrate the beauty of the transitioning season just as the plum blossoms begin to bloom.

In the second half of the festival, from March 20 to May 24, Ninagawa and her creative team EiM will collaborate with dance company Dazzle on a 60-minute immersive theatre experience, ‘The Grand Tea Gathering on a Floral Night’. Audiences can expect Ninagawa’s signature colour-saturated world to set the stage for a tale weaving together history, tradition and art.

Unlike many art fairs, where artists are represented by galleries and rarely present, Artists’ Fair Kyoto allows you to meet the creators themselves. Now in its ninth edition, the event provides a platform for emerging artists to launch their careers and engage directly with collectors and the public.

This year, 40 emerging artists from Japan and abroad will exhibit at the historical Meiji Kotokan building at the Kyoto National Museum, with works spanning multiple genres from paintings and video art to sculptures and installations.

A distinctive feature of the fair is its inclusive selection process. Artists are chosen by an advisory board of leading Japanese artists including Izumi Kato, Kohei Nawa, Sasaoka Yuriko and Kenji Yanobe. There’s also a public application process to ensure a broad yet carefully curated line-up.

Artists’ Fair Kyoto is complemented by AFK Resonance, a fringe exhibition at Tofukuji Temple, running from February 21 to March 1. Ticketing details will be announced in January.

One of the largest Zen temple complexes in northern Kyoto, Daitokuji once flourished as a cultural powerhouse during the Momoyama period, when tea master Sen no Rikyu and leading painters of the Kano school were active here. Its sprawling grounds are dotted with sub-temples featuring refined architecture and pristine dry landscape gardens. However, many of these sub-temples are usually closed to the public, opening only briefly in spring, making this short window the best, and often only, chance to explore these lesser-known gems.

The Obai-in sub-temple, closely linked to Sengoku-period warlords, opens from March 21 to May 17 (10am–3.45pm; ¥1,000). You’ll get to stroll through the celebrated Chokuchutei dry landscape garden and step inside the Sakumuken Tea Room. Also not to be missed are the main hall’s sliding-door paintings by Ungo Togan, one of the four great masters of the Momoyama period.

Korin-in, meanwhile, welcomes visitors from March 14 to June 14 (closed March 20 and May 28), from 10am to 4.30pm (¥800). Highlights include the elegant Hojo Garden, a symbolic recreation of the mythical Mount Horai, featuring raked white gravel and carefully placed stone arrangements. This gorgeous Zen garden feels contemplative and is definitely worth taking your time.

Japan is renowned worldwide for its meticulous and refined craftsmanship, and the Kyoto Crafts Exhibition Dialogue (March 11–14) offers a rare opportunity to explore the depth and diversity of the country’s artisanal work all in one place over a weekend.

Now in its ninth edition, the exhibition will bring together 88 brands from Kyoto and across Japan. You can interact directly with the artisans and explore their creations, which will be displayed throughout the rooms and restaurants of Hotel Kanra Kyoto. Featured crafts include washi paper, indigo-dyed textiles, woodwork, handwoven denim, Kiyomizu-yaki ceramics, lacquerware, Tango chirimen silk fabric, contemporary tea utensils, leather goods, and much more.

Do note that the first two days (March 11–12) are reserved for trade visitors only. The following two days (March 13–14), designated as Market Days, are open to the public. Entry is ¥1,000; it includes a ¥500 voucher redeemable against purchases.

Now in its 14th edition, the annual Kyotographie has consistently highlighted pressing issues through photography while showcasing revolutionary ideas that push this versatile medium in unexpected directions. For 2026, the international photography festival’s theme ‘Edge’ feels especially poignant, not just in describing photography but also the state of the world today.

Here, ‘edge’ can refer to the border between opposing forces, a state of tension, or a tipping point of transition. Conceptually, the theme draws on photography’s precarious position on the fringes, often straddling the line between art and documentary, and, with the rise of new technologies such as generative AI, between truth and fiction.

This sense of division, whether it is uncertainty or possibility, is reflected in the works of 13 photographers from eight countries. Here, the featured works address a wide range of subjects including marginalised communities and overlooked places as seen through the lens of colonisation and territorial disputes, the fraught relationship between humans and nature, and conditions of urban decline. Alongside these, you’ll also find exhibitions that focus on experimental approaches to photography, highlighting new ideas and techniques in image-making.

Key exhibitions include: a retrospective on radical Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama, a tribute to the late Palestinian photographer Fatma Hassona, a showcase of Dutch photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s portraiture including celebrities like David Bowie, and Kenyan photographer Thandiwe Muriu’s latest body of work produced during her Kyoto residency. This year, Kyotographie will also highlight three South African photographers whose creations explore the region’s political history and photographic tradition.