The Yasaka Pagoda — formally the five-storey pagoda of the temple Hōkan-ji — rises forty-six metres above the lanes of the southern Higashiyama district and is the indispensable landmark of every old-Kyoto photograph. The pagoda dates from 1440, a rebuilding of an earlier structure traditionally attributed to Prince Shōtoku in the sixth century. The temple around it is otherwise small, but the pagoda itself can occasionally be entered.
The reason most travellers come, however, is the view of the pagoda framed by the lantern-lit stone slope of Yasaka-dōri leading up toward Kiyomizu-dera — one of the most-photographed compositions in Japan and the canonical "old Kyoto" shot. Late afternoon and just before sunset are best for the light; mornings are quietest for the photograph.