The Higashiyama Hanatouro (東山花灯路) is a light up event held for 10 evenings (from 6:00pm-9:30pm) during March in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto city in Japan. It normally starts on a Saturday evening and finishes on the Monday evening 10 days later. It usually finishes on the nearest Monday to the Spring Equinox day, but in 2015 it was held a week early (probably to prevent it clashing with Michelle Obama's visit to Kyoto). The word Hanatouro means "flower light path".

Features of the event include: the streets are lined with hanatouro lanterns; displays of illuminated Ikebana flower arrangements; floodlighting and other lights at various temples, shrines and other traditional buildings; traditional costume parades; displays of various illuminated artworks made by local students; and public performance of dances by local geisha groups.

The photos in this gallery are my favorite shots from attending the event at least once every year since 2010. I've used four different cameras to shoot the event over those years, but my favourite equipment for this event is my Nikon P7100 and a light weight tripod. All of the photos in this gallery I've post processed with DxO Optics Pro before doing the finishing touches with the Gimp. As well as technical details, I'll also try to include some background info on the sites that I've photographed.

The Higashiyama Hanatouru was cancelled for 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it made a return for 2022, but that was the last time it was held. Its sister event the Arashiyama Hanatouro (嵐山花灯路) was not cancelled in 2020 or 2021 due to it being at a time of year when there were no lock downs in Japan, however the 2021 Arashiyama Hanatouro was the last time that event occurred.

The official website still exists, check out the Kyoto Hanatouro website. On the Japanese version of the site it says the Hantouro lanterns are available to hire and some temples hire them for smaller light up events through the year. I do hope they bring back the two big events, but with all problems in Kyoto now-a-days with over-tourism and the fact that these are not festivals with long histories, there's probably little local support in bringing them back.

As of March 2026, I have decided to slowly add a few more photos from my visits to this event in 2017, 2018, 2019. Watch this space!