Keihoku overview
A mountain village that helped build Kyoto
Around 1 hour from central Kyoto by car, Keihoku feels worlds apart from the crowded streets and tourist attractions of the city. Surrounded by forests and rivers, this mountain region has quietly supported Kyoto for centuries through timber, agriculture, and craftsmanship.
Even today, traditional rural life and strong local communities continue to shape everyday life here.
Generations of families have lived here, passing down a lifestyle that exists in harmony with nature. Meet the local community, and experience a traditional Japanese way of life.
The Forests Behind Kyoto
For centuries, the mountains of Keihoku have been closely connected to the ancient capital.
The forests supplied timber for temples, shrines, townhouses, and other buildings in Kyoto, while rivers carried materials from the mountains toward the city.
The relationship went both ways. Kyoto shaped the culture and livelihoods of the region, while the mountains of Keihoku helped sustain the city.
Even today, this connection can still be felt in the forests, craftsmanship, food culture, and traditions of everyday life.
Close to Kyoto. Far from the Crowds.
Keihoku is surprisingly close to Kyoto, yet the landscape changes quickly as you leave the city behind.
There are no railway lines running through the region, and access still winds through mountain roads. As a result, Keihoku escaped much of the rapid development and mass tourism that transformed many other places within easy reach of Kyoto.
There are few chain stores or large commercial developments here. Instead, small shops, family farms, workshops, shrines, and community spaces remain part of the landscape.
What you encounter is not a carefully preserved version of rural Japan, but a place where rural life is still being lived.
Where Tradition Lives
Some traditions are easy to notice: local festivals, seasonal farming, and crafts such as making shimenawa, traditional straw ropes used in Japanese rituals. Others are quieter — neighbors working together in the fields, sharing the harvest, or watching over children as a community.
These traditions are not preserved for visitors or performed as cultural attractions. They continue simply because they are part of everyday life.
The Traditions You Don't Find in Museums
Some traditions are carefully preserved and celebrated. Others are so deeply woven into everyday life that people hardly think of them as traditions at all.
In Keihoku, these quieter forms of local knowledge — how people work together, care for the land, prepare food, celebrate the seasons, and pass things on to the next generation — are still part of daily life.
They may be easy to overlook. They are also among the things most worth preserving.
By sharing these experiences with visitors, we hope to help sustain the knowledge, relationships, and ways of living that make Keihoku what it is — and pass them on to the next generation.
Living With the SATOYAMA Landscape
Keihoku is shaped by a close relationship between people and the land. Rice fields, forests, rivers, and villages exist side by side, creating a landscape that changes with the seasons.
Forests provide timber. Fields provide rice and vegetables. Rivers provide water. The seasons determine when people plant, harvest, preserve, make, and gather.
Living from the land also means caring for it in return. People maintain forests and waterways, tend fields, preserve food, and share responsibility for the places they call home.
This is the satoyama landscape of Keihoku — not simply a natural environment, but a living relationship between people and the land.
A Different Kind of Escape
Modern life is becoming faster, more connected, and more standardized.
Keihoku offers something different.
Here, you can walk through a forest without checking your phone. Eat food made with ingredients from nearby fields. Work with your hands. Follow the rhythm of the seasons. Share a meal with people who live here.
Nothing needs to be spectacular.
The value is in being present — and in remembering what it feels like to be part of something real.
The Road Into Keihoku
Take JR bus of Takao/Keihoku Line from Kyoto Station (terminal no. 3) via Enmachi and Nijo station. Shuzan (sometimes written as Syuzan) terminal is a final stop and it takes around 1 hour 30 mins from Kyoto station. It costs JPY 1080.
You will get on the bus from rear door and get off from front door after you put your fare in the box next to a driver or show JR pass. We can pick you up at Shuzan final terminal by car.
Exploring Keihoku With ROOTS
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For more than 10 years, ROOTS has been introducing travelers to Keihoku and the people, landscapes, and traditions that make this place unique.
We do not simply take you to places to see.
We create opportunities to experience the region — through time spent in nature, local food, craftsmanship, seasonal activities, and everyday life.
Our hope is that your time in Keihoku becomes more than a memory of a place you visited.
It becomes a feeling you take home with you.