Kendo in armour, a sword class in a historic house, a kenbu stage show or an hour in a museum: in Kyoto they all carry the word samurai. Here they stand side by side with the minimum age and the part of the city where each one happens.
Pick a day, or the first and last day of your stay in Kyoto. We check the booking calendar of every session and show which ones still have places.
Type: Sword basics
Type: Kenbu sword class
Type: Weapon forging
Type: Museum tour
Type: Kenbu show
Type: Tin casting
Type: Samurai walk in real armour
Type: Sword-fight film session
Type: Ninja house
Type: Sword and zen
Type: Sword class with museum
Type: Real kendo in armour
Type: Ninja class for children
Type: Armour photoshoot
Sorted by number of reviews. Re-sort by tapping a column header. The column on what you actually do is taken from each product page, not from the title.
| Photo | Experience | What you actually do | Duration | Min. age | Where in Kyoto | Reviews ↕ | Price ↕ | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kendo and Samurai Experience Kendo Experience (Studio NIN) | Sword basics with training swords. No armour, no sparring | 2 h | 7 | Shugakuin, north | ★ 4.8 (1,255) | $101per person | Book now |
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Samurai Sword Class Samurai Kembu Theater | Kenbu stage sword technique in costume, certificate | 1.5–2 h | 5 (martial arts experience advised up to 10) | Sanjo, centre | ★ 4.8 (862) | $63per person | Book now |
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Ninja Weapon Forging Kendo Experience (Studio NIN) | Forge a shuriken, engrave a kanji, take it home | 2.5 h | Not stated | Hieizanguchi, north | ★ 4.8 (670) | $145per person | Book now |
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Samurai Ninja Museum Guided Tour Samurai Ninja Museum Kyoto | Guided museum tour, soft armour to try on, shuriken | 1 h | Not stated | Rokkaku-dori near Nishiki, centre | ★ 4.7 (641) | $23per person | Book now |
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Samurai Kenbu Sword Dance Show Samurai Kembu Theater | Stage show with a short hands-on part | 1 h | Not stated | Sanjo, centre | ★ 4.5 (482) | $32per person | Book now |
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Ninja Weapon in a Tin Workshop Kendo Experience (Studio NIN) | Cast an 8 to 10 cm ninja weapon in tin | 2–2.5 h | 5 | Demachiyanagi | ★ 5.0 (171) | $107per person | Book now |
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Samurai Walk with Matcha and Calligraphy Daimyo | Real armour, calligraphy, matcha, photo walk. No sword training | 1.5 h | 5 | Kiyamachi near Sanjo, centre | ★ 5.0 (136) | $94per person | Book now |
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Samurai Action Film Experience GOATtrip | Chambara with professional actors, your own action video | 1 h | 5 | Myokaku-ji temple | ★ 4.9 (100) | $125per person | Book now |
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Sword and Zen in a Samurai Residence Waraku | Demonstration, wooden sword, one cut with an iaito, zen meditation | 2 h | 6 | New venue from 21 Oct 2026 | ★ 4.9 (80) | $114per person | Book now |
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Ninja House Experience Viyago Japan | Blowgun and shuriken, costume optional | 1 h | 5 | Arashiyama, west | ★ 5.0 (76) | $32per person | Book now |
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Sword Experience with Museum Ticket Samurai Ninja Museum Kyoto | Dojo practice with wooden and metal sword, museum tour | 2 h | 7 for the dojo | Rokkaku-dori near Nishiki, centre | ★ 4.6 (70) | $68per person | Book now |
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Kendo Samurai Experience Tour Park for us | Kendo in full bogu armour with shinai, sparring bout | 2 h | Not stated | JR Hanazono station | ★ 4.8 (37) | $114per person | Book now |
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Child-Friendly Ninja Class Samurai Ninja Museum Kyoto | Ninja outfit, blowgun, shuriken contest | 2 h | 3 | Utanokoji Building, Higashidaimonji-cho | ★ 4.9 (16) | $46per person | Book now |
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Samurai Photoshoot Shogun Studio | Armour and weapons, 10 edited photos per person | 1 h | Not stated | Saga-Arashiyama, west | ★ 4.8 (12) | $133per person | Book now |
Per-person prices are loaded from GetYourGuide and include taxes and booking fees. Paid extras such as the kunai at the forging class are not part of the price shown.
Type, district and group size, taken from the listings. Where the provider names no group size, the field says so.
| Tour | Type | District | Group size | Whole trip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kendo and Samurai Experience with Uniform and Equipment | Sword basics | Shugakuin | Not stated | 2 h |
| Samurai Sword Class by Experts in Traditional Arts | Kenbu sword class | Sanjo | up to 10 guests | 1.5–2 h |
| Ninja Weapon Forging Experience | Weapon forging | Hieizanguchi | Not stated | 2.5 h |
| Samurai Ninja Museum Guided Tour | Museum tour | Rokkaku-dori | up to 30 guests | 60 min |
| Samurai Kenbu Traditional Sword Dance Show | Kenbu show | Sanjo | Not stated | 60 min |
| Make Your Own Ninja Weapon or Shogun Mask in a Tin Workshop | Tin casting | Demachiyanagi | Not stated | 2–2.5 h |
| Samurai Walk with Matcha, Calligraphy and Photoshoot | Samurai walk in real armour | Kiyamachi | Not stated | 1.5 h |
| Samurai Sword and Kimono Action Film Experience | Sword-fight film session | Myokaku-ji | up to 6 guests | 60 min |
| Ninja Experience in a Real Ninja House in Arashiyama | Ninja house | Arashiyama | Not stated | 60 min |
| Sword and Zen Experience in a Historic Samurai Residence | Sword and zen | New venue since 21 Oct 2026, see booking | Not stated | 2 h |
| Sword Experience in Kyoto with Museum Ticket | Sword class with museum | Rokkaku-dori | up to 22 guests | 2 h |
| Kendo Samurai Experience Tour | Real kendo in armour | Hanazono | Not stated | 2 h |
| Child-Friendly Ninja Class at the Samurai Ninja Museum | Ninja class for children | Utanokoji | up to 20 guests | 2 h |
| Samurai Experience with Professional Photoshoot | Armour photoshoot | Saga-Arashiyama | Not stated | 60 min |
From the GetYourGuide listings, checked in October 2026. The length is the provider's figure.
Each of these tours stands out on one point. Every tour is in the full table further down.
The only session here that is kendo as the sport is practised: bogu armour, a bamboo shinai and a closing sparring bout in a dojo, 2 hours. Meeting point at the JR Hanazono north exit. Not for pregnant women or guests with existing health conditions.
A kenbu sword class near Sanjo, 1.5 to 2 hours, with costume and certificate. Up to 10 guests, from age 5.
Forge a shuriken at about 800 °C in 2.5 hours, engrave a kanji and take it home. A kunai costs extra. The studio is 1 minute from Hieizanguchi Station, and forged weapons can only travel in checked luggage.
A ninja class of 2 hours with up to 20 guests, open from age 3. It meets at a different address than the museum, so check the booking.
Operators in Kyoto use the same handful of words for very different sessions. Before you compare prices, check which of these you are actually booking.
The decision guide goes through each format and says who it suits.
Minimum ages range from 3 to 7 and are set per session, not per studio. The Samurai Ninja Museum, for example, takes 3-year-olds in its ninja class, while its sword dojo starts at 7.
| From age | Sessions | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Child-friendly ninja class (Samurai Ninja Museum) | A reviewer found it aimed at children more than at adults |
| 5 | Kenbu sword class, Daimyo samurai walk, GOATtrip action film, tin workshop, ninja house in Arashiyama | Kenbu class: martial arts experience advised for ages 5 to 10 |
| 6 | Waraku sword and zen | Free cancellation ends 7 days before the start |
| 7 | Kendo Experience sword basics, sword experience at the Samurai Ninja Museum | The museum dojo admits no younger children, babies included |
| Not stated | Park for us kendo, kenbu show, museum tour, forging class, Shogun Studio photoshoot | Ask the operator through the booking page before booking for a child |
GOATtrip and Park for us also exclude pregnant women and people with existing health conditions. Some sessions add conditions to the age limit, such as a parent in the room at the tin workshop; the page for families lists them session by session.
The sessions are spread across the city, and the distance can decide more than the format. The central cluster sits around Sanjo and Nishiki Market: the Samurai Kembu Theater in the Gozan Building near Sanjo, Daimyo on Kiyamachi, and the Samurai Ninja Museum on Rokkaku-dori. The museum's ninja class for children uses a second address in the Utanokoji Building, so read your ticket carefully.
Kendo Experience works from the north. Its sword session is in an old house with a large gate in Shugakuin, about 15 minutes on foot from Shugakuin station; the forging class is a minute from Hieizanguchi station on the Eizan line, and the tin workshop is near Demachiyanagi. Both workshops are compared on the weapon making page. In the west, the ninja house sits in Arashiyama and Shogun Studio is three minutes from JR Saga-Arashiyama, which suits a day spent there. The real kendo session meets at the north exit of JR Hanazono station, and GOATtrip films in a dojo at Myokaku-ji temple, which the operator describes as a little out of the way.
Waraku moves to a new venue on 21 October 2026. Take the address from your booking confirmation, and plan the route beforehand: Waraku says its staff can do little to help on the day if you cannot find it.
Almost everything here happens indoors, which makes a samurai session a good plan for the rainy season (roughly June to mid-July) or a wet day in typhoon season in September. In July and August, armour is hot and heavy, so bring water.
Cherry blossom in Kyoto usually falls between late March and early April, and autumn colour from mid-November to early December. Both are busy, as is Golden Week in 2027 (29 April and 3 to 5 May). Sessions with small groups, such as the action film with up to 6 or the kenbu class with up to 10, are the ones to reserve early.
A sword session in the morning leaves the afternoon free for tea, and our sister site on tea ceremonies in Kyoto sorts those by kimono, seating and length.
Guests of different sessions, from the Shugakuin sword class to the tin workshop. The two three-star reviews say what the titles leave out: the kenbu show is mainly dance, and the forging class involves more grinding than hammering.
“kahai was our instructor, he was very professional and informative. The true passion of the history shines through. This is not an experience to mess about, this is a serious activity with lots of respect taught.”
“There were 2 parts to it: 3 masters performing kenbu theatre based on samurai poetry, which was intense, obviously involving swords and certain themes around life and death of a samurai. The second part was us being instructed by Julia, our guide on the day, on the basic sword moves, dressing up as samurai and performing on stage.”
“This was fun and so much easier to understand what and how things were for the samurai with a guide”
“Really cool hands on experience, our mask and kunai came out extremely well. We got to take as much time as we needed too to ensure we liked our final product.”
“There is no real demonstration with the katanas. In the end it is mainly a dance show. At the end there is a short quarter of an hour where everyone holds a katana …”
“I thought we would be more hands on for this experience it wasn't really explained before booking that you don't really do any forging. … overall we used a sand machine to shape the blade for 10 minutes and hammered our weapon that was heated for us.”
Reviews written by guests after their session, from GetYourGuide.
The most-reviewed “kendo” session in Kyoto is a sword class without kendo armour. We read the product pages of the bookable sessions and list what each one actually includes: armour or not, which sword, any cutting, minimum age and location. Where a page leaves something open, we write “not stated” instead of guessing. When you book through a link on this site, the booking platform pays us a small commission out of its margin, not out of your price.
Yes, but only one session compared here is kendo as the sport is practised: the Kendo Samurai Experience Tour by Park for us. You wear full bogu armour, fight with a bamboo shinai in a dojo with a 7th-dan teacher and finish with a sparring bout. The much better known "Kendo and Samurai Experience" by Kendo Experience in Shugakuin teaches sword basics with training swords in training wear, without armour or sparring.
Both run at the Samurai Kembu Theater near Sanjo. The show lasts an hour: you watch kenbu, the samurai sword dance, and at the end hold a sword and try a few swings. Photos are not allowed during the show. The class lasts 1.5 to 2 hours in costume, with sword technique, photos and a certificate, in groups of up to 10. Kenbu is a stage art, not a martial art.
Do not count on it. None of the sessions here offers cutting rolled mats as a standard part of the programme. The Waraku session lists one cut at a target with an iaito within its two hours, and Kendo Experience lists no cutting at all. If cutting matters to you, read the current programme on the product page before you book.
It depends on the session. The child-friendly ninja class at the Samurai Ninja Museum starts at 3. The kenbu sword class, the samurai walk by Daimyo, the action film session, the tin workshop and the ninja house in Arashiyama start at 5; for the kenbu class, martial arts experience is advised for ages 5 to 10. Waraku starts at 6. Kendo Experience and the dojo of the Samurai Ninja Museum start at 7, and no younger children or babies are allowed in that dojo.
The Samurai Kembu Theater (show and class) is near Sanjo, Daimyo is on Kiyamachi near Sanjo, and the Samurai Ninja Museum is on Rokkaku-dori near Nishiki Market. Kendo Experience works from the north of the city (Shugakuin, Hieizanguchi, Demachiyanagi), the ninja house and Shogun Studio are in Arashiyama in the west, and the kendo dojo of Park for us meets at JR Hanazono station.
Waraku moves to a new venue on 21 October 2026, and the new address was not published when this page was written. Use the address in your booking confirmation. Waraku also has a longer cancellation window than most sessions here: free cancellation ends 7 days before the start.
No sporting background is needed, but armour is heavy, and kendo armour in particular is hard work in the humid Kyoto summer. GOATtrip and Park for us exclude pregnant women and people with existing health conditions; GOATtrip names back problems as well. The Daimyo walk notes that its armour is heavy.
You keep the shuriken from the forging class and the tin piece from the casting workshop. Forged weapons can only travel in checked luggage, and the import rules of your home country apply.
The current price of each session is in the comparison table on this page. The museum tour and the kenbu show are at the low end; the forging class, the professional photoshoot and the action film session are at the top. A few extras, such as the kunai at the forging class, cost more.
With what you do, how long it takes, the minimum age and the area of Kyoto.
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