12th "Kyoto Night Market" Attracts Record-Breaking Approx. 28,000 Visitors; Theme is "Cheers with Night Sakura"
Kyoto Night Market LLC will host its 12th "Kyoto Night Market" on April 11, 2026, themed "Cheers with Night Sakura." The event aims to offer a new evening experience in Kyoto by combining local food, culture, and performances, building on the success of its previous edition which saw a record-breaking 28,000 attendees.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 7, 2026 at 19:30
- 🔍 Collected: April 7, 2026 at 11:00
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 18, 2026 at 09:25 (262h 25m after Collected)
Kyoto Night Market LLC will hold the "12th Kyoto Night Market" on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
Kyoto Night Market, one of Kyoto's largest night markets, has been proposing "new ways to spend your evenings in Kyoto" where local residents and tourists can enjoy together, by combining Kyoto's food, culture, craftsmanship, and performances, with the aim of dispersing tourism temporally and spatially. The previous event on March 29th attracted a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors. It continues to grow as a night tourism content for Kyoto, attracting increasing attention with each passing event.
This time's theme is "Cheers with Night Sakura," fitting for spring in Kyoto. At the venue, in cooperation with Tenzan Shuzo, a brewery from the upper reaches of the Katsura River in Kyoto, free sake will be offered to the first 300 visitors. Furthermore, a giant monument with a cherry blossom heart motif will be installed at the venue, welcoming visitors as a photo spot to color the spring night. In addition to gourmet food and festive attractions, a ninja show will also be held to create a unique experience characteristic of Kyoto.
12th Kyoto Night Market: Cheers with Night Sakura | Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026, 15:00-22:00 | Held at Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
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■ Event Overview
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: 12th Kyoto Night Market
Theme: Cheers with Night Sakura
Date & Time: Saturday, April 11, 2026, 15:00-22:00
Venue: Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple (Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City)
Admission: Free
Organizer: Kyoto Night Market LLC
Cooperation: Tenzan Shuzo Co., Ltd.
Support: Kyoto City
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Highlights This Time
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] Tenzan Shuzo Cooperation "Free Sake" First 300 Guests
As a special project to enjoy Kyoto's spring nights with local sake culture, free sake will be offered in cooperation with Tenzan Shuzo, a brewery from the upper reaches of the Katsura River. This is an opportunity to casually savor the charm of Kyoto's sake breweries in an open public space like Kyoto Night Market.
※ Drinking alcohol by persons under 20 years of age is prohibited by law.
※ Free sake is limited in quantity and will end once it is gone.
(Image Caption: Tenzan Shuzo, which will cooperate this time (brewery in the upper reaches of the Katsura River))
(Image Caption: Kyoto's traditional sake brewery participates in the free sake project for the first 300 guests.)
[2] Giant Cherry Blossom Heart Monument
As a symbolic production for this time's theme "Cheers with Night Sakura," a giant cherry blossom heart monument will be installed at the venue. In the symbolic location in front of Higashi Honganji Temple, it serves as a spring-limited photo spot where visitors can leave memories. This "picture-perfect" production, enjoyable for couples, friends, families, and tourists alike, further enhances the venue's vibrancy.
[3] Ninja Show Held
The popular ninja show at Kyoto Night Market will be held again this time. As content that is highly compatible with international visitors, it adds entertainment to Kyoto's nights. The appeal of Kyoto Night Market is not only enjoying food and shopping but also the joy of watching and experiencing.
(Image Caption: Authentic ninja performance | Popular with families and inbound tourists)
(Image Caption: Giant cherry blossom heart monument coloring the spring night | Installed as an Instagrammable photo spot.)
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■ Other Highlights
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] Diverse Booths & Experiences
• Many stalls offering Kyoto-exclusive gourmet food, sweets, merchandise, crafts, and workshops.
• Rickshaw experience by Doshisha University Jinriki-sha Tomonokai.
• "Kids Store Manager" experience.
[2] Authentic Performances
• Breathtaking performances by top-class street performers in Japan.
• Traditional performing art: Sarumawashi (monkey show).
• Fusion performance of Shinobue (bamboo flute) and Hula dance.
[3] Kyoto-esque Space
• Symbolic Kyoto location: Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
• An open night space where local residents and tourists mingle.
• An evening where you can enjoy the atmosphere of Kyoto's spring night sakura and the bustle of the market simultaneously.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Last time attracted a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
On Sunday, March 29th, the 11th "Cheers with Night Sakura" event was held, attracting a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors. Higashi Honganji Temple Square was bustling on a spring Kyoto night.
Free sake (first 500 guests) ended about an hour after the start, and rickshaw experiences, "Kids Store Manager" food stalls, and traditional performing arts such as Sarumawashi and Shinobue performances were also well-received.
There was a great response on social media, with Instagram posts recording 370,000 impressions in one week. This result shows the increasing recognition and attraction of Kyoto Night Market.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ About Kyoto Night Market
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kyoto Night Market is one of Kyoto's largest night markets, held primarily around Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
[Achievements]
• Cumulative Visitors: Approx. 150,000
• Monthly SNS Views: Max 810,000
• SNS Followers: Over 5,000
• Supported by Kyoto City
With the aim of temporally and spatially dispersing tourism, it continues to grow as a "nighttime cultural infrastructure" where not only tourists but also local residents gather, connecting Kyoto's culture, food, craftsmanship, and performers.
The 12th event, following the momentum of the previous one, will create an even more impressive night by combining the symbol of spring, cherry blossoms, with Kyoto's food, sake, and cultural experiences.
(Image: Scenes from the 11th Kyoto Night Market)
(Image: Record-breaking approx. 28,000 visitors)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Media Invitation
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For those wishing to cover venue photography, organizer interviews, visitor scenes, the free sake project, the giant monument, ninja show, etc., please contact us below.
[Inquiries]
Kyoto Night Market LLC
Contact: Imura
MAIL: kyotonightmarket@gmail.com
Instagram: @kyotonightmarket
Official HP: https://kyotonightmarket.com
Kyoto Night Market, one of Kyoto's largest night markets, has been proposing "new ways to spend your evenings in Kyoto" where local residents and tourists can enjoy together, by combining Kyoto's food, culture, craftsmanship, and performances, with the aim of dispersing tourism temporally and spatially. The previous event on March 29th attracted a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors. It continues to grow as a night tourism content for Kyoto, attracting increasing attention with each passing event.
This time's theme is "Cheers with Night Sakura," fitting for spring in Kyoto. At the venue, in cooperation with Tenzan Shuzo, a brewery from the upper reaches of the Katsura River in Kyoto, free sake will be offered to the first 300 visitors. Furthermore, a giant monument with a cherry blossom heart motif will be installed at the venue, welcoming visitors as a photo spot to color the spring night. In addition to gourmet food and festive attractions, a ninja show will also be held to create a unique experience characteristic of Kyoto.
12th Kyoto Night Market: Cheers with Night Sakura | Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026, 15:00-22:00 | Held at Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Event Overview
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: 12th Kyoto Night Market
Theme: Cheers with Night Sakura
Date & Time: Saturday, April 11, 2026, 15:00-22:00
Venue: Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple (Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City)
Admission: Free
Organizer: Kyoto Night Market LLC
Cooperation: Tenzan Shuzo Co., Ltd.
Support: Kyoto City
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Highlights This Time
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] Tenzan Shuzo Cooperation "Free Sake" First 300 Guests
As a special project to enjoy Kyoto's spring nights with local sake culture, free sake will be offered in cooperation with Tenzan Shuzo, a brewery from the upper reaches of the Katsura River. This is an opportunity to casually savor the charm of Kyoto's sake breweries in an open public space like Kyoto Night Market.
※ Drinking alcohol by persons under 20 years of age is prohibited by law.
※ Free sake is limited in quantity and will end once it is gone.
(Image Caption: Tenzan Shuzo, which will cooperate this time (brewery in the upper reaches of the Katsura River))
(Image Caption: Kyoto's traditional sake brewery participates in the free sake project for the first 300 guests.)
[2] Giant Cherry Blossom Heart Monument
As a symbolic production for this time's theme "Cheers with Night Sakura," a giant cherry blossom heart monument will be installed at the venue. In the symbolic location in front of Higashi Honganji Temple, it serves as a spring-limited photo spot where visitors can leave memories. This "picture-perfect" production, enjoyable for couples, friends, families, and tourists alike, further enhances the venue's vibrancy.
[3] Ninja Show Held
The popular ninja show at Kyoto Night Market will be held again this time. As content that is highly compatible with international visitors, it adds entertainment to Kyoto's nights. The appeal of Kyoto Night Market is not only enjoying food and shopping but also the joy of watching and experiencing.
(Image Caption: Authentic ninja performance | Popular with families and inbound tourists)
(Image Caption: Giant cherry blossom heart monument coloring the spring night | Installed as an Instagrammable photo spot.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Other Highlights
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] Diverse Booths & Experiences
• Many stalls offering Kyoto-exclusive gourmet food, sweets, merchandise, crafts, and workshops.
• Rickshaw experience by Doshisha University Jinriki-sha Tomonokai.
• "Kids Store Manager" experience.
[2] Authentic Performances
• Breathtaking performances by top-class street performers in Japan.
• Traditional performing art: Sarumawashi (monkey show).
• Fusion performance of Shinobue (bamboo flute) and Hula dance.
[3] Kyoto-esque Space
• Symbolic Kyoto location: Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
• An open night space where local residents and tourists mingle.
• An evening where you can enjoy the atmosphere of Kyoto's spring night sakura and the bustle of the market simultaneously.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Last time attracted a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
On Sunday, March 29th, the 11th "Cheers with Night Sakura" event was held, attracting a record-breaking approximately 28,000 visitors. Higashi Honganji Temple Square was bustling on a spring Kyoto night.
Free sake (first 500 guests) ended about an hour after the start, and rickshaw experiences, "Kids Store Manager" food stalls, and traditional performing arts such as Sarumawashi and Shinobue performances were also well-received.
There was a great response on social media, with Instagram posts recording 370,000 impressions in one week. This result shows the increasing recognition and attraction of Kyoto Night Market.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ About Kyoto Night Market
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kyoto Night Market is one of Kyoto's largest night markets, held primarily around Oto-san Plaza in front of Higashi Honganji Temple.
[Achievements]
• Cumulative Visitors: Approx. 150,000
• Monthly SNS Views: Max 810,000
• SNS Followers: Over 5,000
• Supported by Kyoto City
With the aim of temporally and spatially dispersing tourism, it continues to grow as a "nighttime cultural infrastructure" where not only tourists but also local residents gather, connecting Kyoto's culture, food, craftsmanship, and performers.
The 12th event, following the momentum of the previous one, will create an even more impressive night by combining the symbol of spring, cherry blossoms, with Kyoto's food, sake, and cultural experiences.
(Image: Scenes from the 11th Kyoto Night Market)
(Image: Record-breaking approx. 28,000 visitors)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Media Invitation
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
For those wishing to cover venue photography, organizer interviews, visitor scenes, the free sake project, the giant monument, ninja show, etc., please contact us below.
[Inquiries]
Kyoto Night Market LLC
Contact: Imura
MAIL: kyotonightmarket@gmail.com
Instagram: @kyotonightmarket
Official HP: https://kyotonightmarket.com