Overview
The grove is not a wild forest but a managed stand, thinned and harvested like any other bamboo plantation, which is why the stems stand so evenly. It adjoins Tenryū-ji, the Zen temple whose garden was laid out in the fourteenth century to borrow the mountains behind it, and the two are usually visited together. Arashiyama has been a retreat for Kyoto’s aristocracy since the Heian period, and the Ōi River below is still crossed by the Togetsukyō bridge on the same line as its predecessors.
Highlights
The path is genuinely short and genuinely crowded — arrive before seven and it belongs to you and a few photographers. Enter through Tenryū-ji’s north gate to come out into the grove from the quiet end. Leave time for the Ōkōchi Sansō villa at the top, where the ticket includes tea and where almost nobody goes.