While you’re exploring all Kyoto has to offer, why not spend a fun-filled day in the southern Fushimi area? You’ve seen the gold-covered temple and passed through the vermilion torii gates, now take the time to kick back and enjoy an area famed for charming local scenery, sake production, and its role in the dramatic history of Japan’s modernization!
Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum
Gekkeikan is a household name in Japan, and the producer of a variety of delicious sake flavors that have been made in Kyoto since 1637. Here in Fushimi they have opened their doors and created the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, a place where you can learn exactly how Japan’s famous sake is created.
With both Japanese and English explanations and helpful examples of the tools and traditional equipment used in the process, you’re bound to learn a thing or twenty about what transforms rice into the alcoholic beverage popular at home and abroad. Not just educational, you can also enjoy a sake tasting at the museum and take a look around their traditional architecture characteristic of sake breweries.
OPENING HOURS
9:30 – 16:30 (last entrance 16:15), 300 yen
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Chūshojima Station (Keihan Line)
Jūkokubune Boat Ride
Located conveniently close to the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum by the Benten Bridge is the pier of the local jūkokubune pleasure boats. These distinctive jūkokubune boats were used from the Edo to Meiji periods to transport rice, sake, and occasionally people downriver to the large Osaka port.
Now used for tourism, these boats operate from spring to fall and take visitors on a local cruise along a lovely branch of the Uji River that is lined with a variety of cherry blossoms, hydrangeas, and other flowers. The cruise takes a brief stop at a floodgate to allow visitors a chance to visit a small museum and park with a river view before returning to set sail!
OPENING HOURS
10:00 – 16:20, 1,200 yen
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Chūshojima Station (Keihan)
Fushimi Yume Hyakushu
On your quest to find some lunch or a snack, don’t miss the local souvenir store, Fushimi Yume Hyakushu. Not only is this gorgeous traditional building your one-stop shop for sake and sake-flavored treats to take home with you, but you can also pick up some tourist brochures and guides for the area if you’re feeling the urge to go off-itinerary.
If you’re feeling peckish, take a seat in their café and try to choose between options such as sake ice cream, castella cake, or manjū… or just jump to sake tasting! Of course, they also have other delicious souvenirs available from the Fushimi area that aren’t sake as well!
OPENING HOURS
Tue. - Fri.: 10:30 - 17:00
Holidays: 10:30 - 18:00
CLOSED: Mondays
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Chūshojima (Keihan), Fushimi Momoyama (Keihan), Momoyama Goryō-mae (Kintetsu)
Terada-ya
In the Bakumatsu period (1853 – 1867) of Japanese history turmoil reigned in the then-capital as forces loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate and those loyal to the Meiji emperor warred against each other to the political tune of isolationism’s end. One man, Sakamoto Ryōma, was wanted by the shogunate supporters for helping broker an alliance between two powerful imperialist domains, and while he was staying at an inn in Fushimi called the Terada-ya he was almost assassinated.
Luckily for Ryōma a maid working at the inn (and later his wife), Oryō, saw the assailants sneaking in from her bath and rushed upstairs to warn him, allowing Ryōma to arm himself and make his escape- for the time being. Visitors to the Terada-ya can explore the preserved inn and bask in its history, which even includes bullet holes left behind in the wood.
OPENING HOURS
10:00 - 15:40, 400 yen
CLOSED: Mondays, January 1st - 3rd
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Chūshojima Station (Keihan), Fushimi Momoyama (Keihan), Momoyama Goryō-mae (Kintetsu)
Kizakura Kappa Country
Managed by the famous Kizakura brewery, Kizakura Kappa Country has a restaurant-bar that serves as a conveniently located place to grab lunch during your day out in Fushimi. With well-priced Japanese set meals and options for trying different sake and beer as well, fuel up here before continuing your travels.
For those interested, there is a sake museum here as well (though it is largely in Japanese) as well as an area full of interesting and strange art depicting kappa, the legendary Japanese water spirit that looks like a turtle with a dish on its head.
OPENING HOURS
Sat.-Sun.: 11:00 – 14:30 (L.O. 14:00) & 17:00 – 22:00 (L.O. 21:00)
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Chūshojima Station (Keihan), Fushimi Momoyama (Keihan), Momoyama Goryō-mae (Kintetsu)
Gokōnomiya Shrine
You won’t want to miss this shrine while you’re exploring the area’s rich sake history, since brewers have been praying here for centuries to improve their product! Gokōnomiya Shrine is famous for its pure spring water, and since you can’t make a good sake without good water, this shrine has an important role to play in Fushimi. Because it enshrines Empress Consort Jingū, who is said to have born her son miraculously three years after her husband’s death, it is also known as a place to pray for safe childbirth.
Containing a storied stone garden, Gokōnomiya Shrine also stands out for its colorful and vibrant Momoyama-style architecture, with gorgeously renewed woodcarvings in a water motif.
OPENING HOURS
09:00 – 16:00, 200 yen for rock garden
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Fushimi Momoyama (Keihan), Momoyama Goryō-mae (Kintetsu)
Shuzō Bar 「En」
This local brewery, Fujioka Shuzō, is home to the Sōkū label of sake. A relative newcomer to the scene, Fujioka Shuzō was recently reestablished by a descendant of a family who had once operated a brewery in the Fushimi area, but died young before passing on the family secrets.
From the bar "En" within the facility you can see the vats of fermenting liquor, and the staff are the kindest of hosts, ready to recommend their popular tasting set or one of the small food items that make use of sake or sake lees, such as the tasty sake lees dumplings and ice cream.
OPENING HOURS
11:30 ～ 18:00
Closed on Wednesdays
NEAREST STATION / BUS STOP
Fushimi Momoyama (Keihan), Momoyama Goryō-mae (Kintetsu)
