Visiting Katsura Imperial Villa, Shūgakuin Imperial Villa, and the Sentō Imperial Palace: How to Apply and Age Limits for Children

Comparing visits to the palaces and villas

Among the Kyoto facilities managed by the Imperial Household Agency, visitor information is provided for four: the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the Kyoto Sentō Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa. The Kyoto Ōmiya Imperial Palace has no visits of its own; because it stands inside the same earthen walls as the Sentō Imperial Palace, the Sentō Imperial Palace route passes near the Ōmiya Palace's Otsune Goten (御常御殿, residential hall).

At the Sentō Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa, you follow a staff guide and cannot walk around freely. You do not go inside the buildings; you see the gardens and the exteriors of the buildings.

When do applications open? Online, by postcard, at the counter, or on the day

Advance applications for the Sentō Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa can be made in three ways: online, by return postcard, or at the counter of the Imperial Household Agency Kyoto Office. Online applications run from 5:00 on the 1st of the month 3 months before the month you wish to visit until 23:59 three days before the desired date (for November 10, from 5:00 on August 1 until November 7); return postcards must be postmarked between the 1st of the month 3 months before and 1 month before the desired date; and counter applications run from the 1st of the month 3 months before until the day before the desired date. Applications are accepted in order of arrival, and if applications made on the same day exceed capacity, a lottery is held. You can expect to hear the result within 3 business days online, or in about 3 weeks by postcard.

Each application covers up to 4 people, including the representative, and applications by proxy are not accepted. When applying, you register the name, age, and nationality of every visitor, and on the day every visitor shows an identity document (a driver's license, My Number Card, student ID, or similar).

Same-day reception is held at each site, where numbered tickets with a set visiting time are handed out on a first-come, first-served basis from 8:40. Capacity is 50 people a day at the Sentō Imperial Palace and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa and 70 a day at Katsura Imperial Villa, plus any places left open in the advance-application quota. Same-day tours at Katsura Imperial Villa are guided in Japanese only, and same-day places are set aside separately even on days when the advance-application places are full.

Where can you go with children?

The only site you can enter with children of elementary school age or younger is the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Katsura Imperial Villa is open to junior high school students and older, and children of elementary school age and younger, including infants, cannot come along. People without a visiting permit cannot enter the site, and there is no place for children to wait. The Sentō Imperial Palace and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa are limited to those 18 and over, and people under 18 cannot come along.

The fee for Katsura Imperial Villa is 1,000 yen per visit for those 18 and over, and free for junior high and high school students and those of equivalent status (bring a student ID or similar). You can pay in cash, by credit card, or with electronic money such as transit IC cards. Kyoto Gyoen, the park around the Kyoto Imperial Palace, can be entered free of charge 24 hours a day, every day.

Highlights of each site

The Kyoto Sentō Imperial Palace has been the site of palaces since the time of Retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo and Tōfukumon-in. After the great fire of 1854 (Kaei 7), most of its buildings were not rebuilt, and the Seikatei (醒花亭) tea house (ochaya) is the only garden building that survived that fire. On the west shore of the garden spreads a suhama (pebble beach) paved with about 120,000 rounded stones. Of the buildings of the Kyoto Ōmiya Imperial Palace on the north side, built for Empress Dowager Eishō, the Otsune Goten remains, and it is still used as lodging for Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress and others.

Katsura Imperial Villa was begun as a villa by Prince Toshihito (智仁親王), the first head of the Hachijō-no-miya (八条宮) family. On the west side of its grounds of about 69,000 m², the Old Shoin, Middle Shoin, Gakki-no-ma (Musical Instrument Room), and New Palace stand in a staggered line like flying geese, and four tea houses, including Shōkintei (松琴亭), and a private Buddhist chapel (Jibutsudō) are placed around the pond. Shūgakuin Imperial Villa is the mountain villa of Retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo at the southwestern foot of Mount Hiei; it covers 540,000 m², including the Upper, Middle, and Lower villas and the pine-lined paths and rice fields that link them. Boating on Yokuryūchi Pond (浴龍池) at the Upper Villa is said to have been the greatest pleasure there.

These palaces and villas are property for Imperial use managed by the Imperial Household Agency, and they have no national designation as National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, or the like.

Year-round opening of the Kyoto Imperial Palace and work on the Shishinden

The Kyoto Imperial Palace is open all year with no advance application needed; you enter through the Seishomon (清所門) Gate and your bags are checked at entry. Admission hours change with the season; from October to February they are 9:00–15:20 (everyone must leave by 16:00). Staff-guided tours in Japanese are held four times a day, at 9:30, 10:30, 13:30, and 14:30, with no application needed. The paths inside are gravel, and wheelchairs can be borrowed.

At the Shishinden, maintenance work including re-roofing the cypress-bark (hiwadabuki) roof will be carried out over about 9 years starting in fiscal 2026 (Reiwa 8). The first stage is to put up a suyane (素屋根, a temporary roof structure) covering the whole building by fiscal Reiwa 11, and as of October 2026, preparatory work for it is under way.

Where can you see them now? / Getting there

The Kyoto Imperial Palace and the Sentō Imperial Palace are inside Kyoto Gyoen; Shūgakuin Imperial Villa is to the northeast of the palace, and Katsura Imperial Villa to the southwest, on the west bank of the Katsura River. Applications at the counter are accepted by the visitors section of the Imperial Household Agency Kyoto Office inside Kyoto Gyoen (counter open 8:40–17:00).

Locations of Kyoto's Imperial Palaces and Villas

• Kyoto Imperial Palace (Kamigyō Ward): 5 minutes on foot from Imadegawa Station on the Karasuma subway line. There is no parking for cars or bicycles
• Kyoto Sentō Imperial Palace (Kamigyō Ward): 15 minutes on foot from Exit 1 of Marutamachi subway station, or 10 minutes from the "Furitsu Idai Byōin-mae" city bus stop
• Katsura Imperial Villa (Katsura Misono, Nishikyō Ward): 20 minutes on foot from the East Exit of Katsura Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line, or 8 to 15 minutes from the "Katsura Rikyū-mae" stop of the city bus and Keihan Kyoto Kōtsū buses (the figure varies between guides)
• Shūgakuin Imperial Villa (Shūgakuin Yabuzoe, Sakyō Ward): 20 minutes on foot from Shūgakuin Station on the Eizan Railway, or 15 minutes from the "Shūgakuin Rikyū-michi" city bus stop
• The routes at the Sentō Imperial Palace, Katsura Imperial Villa, and Shūgakuin Imperial Villa have stone bridges without handrails and steps, and Katsura Imperial Villa cannot be visited in a wheelchair