Kyoto Handicraft Center
Kyoto Handicraft Center: read a guide to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, a one-stop emporium for Kyoto arts and crafts in Okazaki, Kyoto.
Kyoto Handicraft Center 京都ハンディクラフトセンター
Kyoto Handicraft Center is located on the north side of Marutamachi Dori north of Heian Shrine and the Okazaki museum district of Kyoto.
Undergoing a major renovation through 2014, the twin buildings of the Kyoto Handicraft Center offer a hassle-free, one-stop emporium for Japanese arts and crafts.
Though you may find the items on sale at a cheaper price elsewhere, the Kyoto Handicraft Center offers an easy and extensive introduction to Kyoto's rich heritage of traditional arts. Goods at the Kyoto Handicraft Center are for sale duty free and can be paid for in a variety of currencies. Currency exchange is also on offer.
All of the staff at the Kyoto Handicraft Center are fluent in other languages to assist you in inquiries on the goods on offer and your purchases can be sent on to you overseas after you have bought them.
Kyoto Handicraft Center
Kyoto Handicraft Center
Floor Guide
The various floors of the Kyoto Handicraft Center showcase Kyoto's traditional crafts including bamboo crafts, candles, ceramics, chopsticks, clay dolls, cloisonné, combs, cosmetics, folding fans, gold leaf, iron kettles, key chains, kokeshi dolls, incense, kimono, lacquer, maneki neko, obi belts, post cards, sake, samurai armor, silk goods, spinning tops, swords, tabi, tea, umbrellas, wind chimes, wood block prints, yukata and other Kyoto arts.
Demonstrations on making Kyoto crafts by local specialists can be seen on the various floors and visitors can also try their hands at making some of the items.
The emporium as a whole contains a mix of high-end Kyoto arts as well as more lower priced souvenirs.
Kyoto Handicraft Center also has a small bookshop with English-language books on Japan and Japanese culture.
Now fully opened, the new Kyoto Handicraft Center has a restaurant and cafe and is an excellent one-stop introduction to the traditional crafts of Japan's ancient capital. Tax free shopping is available for foreign visitors.
Kyoto Handicraft Center
Kyoto Handicraft Center
Access - how to get to the Kyoto Handicraft Center
Kyoto Handicraft Center
17 Shogoin Entomicho
Sakyo-ku
Kyoto
Tel: 075 761 7000
Hours: 10 am-6 pm
The nearest stops on the Kyoto subway are Higashiyama Station and Marutamachi Station, though Jingu-Marutamachi Station on the Keihan Line is closer. Kyoto buses #93, #201, #202, #203, #204 and #206 go to nearby Kumano Jinja. Bus #32 also passes by the KHC, which is also close to Shogoin Temple and Kyoto Budo Center, just across the road to the south. The tiny Otatsu Inari Shrine is also close by.
For a full listing of Kyoto Museums & Art Galleries click here
