🇯🇵 Kyoto · on the tour map

Southeast Asia's first and only traveling aura portrait studio.

Aura photography
in Kyoto.

See yourself in full color — a portrait of your energy on analog instant film, with an interpretation to take home. The waitlist decides our next cities — sign up to move Kyoto up the list.

5-minute sittings · limited slots · by appointment only

Book your portrait

Join the Kyoto waitlist

aura photography, as seen in The New York Times Vogue Vanity Fair Wired Goop

The waitlist decides where we go next

We route the tour by demand — the cities with the most signups get dates first, so every signup moves Kyoto up the list. One email when Kyoto goes live, first pick of slots before anyone else, nothing else in your inbox.

You're on the list ✨ We'll email you the moment Kyoto dates are live.

Don't want to wait for the tour? 🎪

We bring the aura camera to company events, weddings and celebrations in Kyoto year-round — tour or no tour.

Estimate your event →

What you take home

📸

Your portrait, on film

A one-of-one aura portrait shot on Instax Wide — your colors developed in your hands, minutes after the flash. No two are alike.

📖

Written interpretation guide

What each color means and how its position — heart, throat, above the head, left or right — changes the reading.

✨

The aura interpreter

Keep decoding after you leave — chat with our online interpreter about your colors, anytime.

Five minutes, start to finish

1

Rest your hands on the sensors. The camera reads the same family of signals a lie-detector test measures — tiny shifts in your skin's electrical activity.

2

Hold still for the exposure. Up to fifteen seconds while your energy is translated into color over your portrait — live, on analog film.

3

Watch it develop. Your colors appear in minutes. Decode them with your written guide and the online interpreter.

Sessions & prices

SessionDurationPrice

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The Kyoto stop

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Dates & hours

Payment

Prices will be in Japanese yen — pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Sessions are conducted in English.

Aura photography, Kyoto

Kyoto has always kept one foot in the unseen — omamori charms, omikuji fortunes, incense houses mixing the same blends for generations. The newer version of that instinct lives around Nishijin and the student quarters near Demachiyanagi: crystal sellers, tarot readers, small studios running breathwork on Sunday afternoons.

An aura portrait is the plainest version of it: hands on biofeedback sensors, an analog camera, and your energy exposed as color over your portrait on Instax Wide film. Five minutes, one print, and a written guide that starts from scratch — no prior belief or knowledge required. When Kyoto dates are announced, the waitlist gets first pick of slots.

Fresh from the tour

guest with her aura portrait and interpretation guide guest holding her aura keepsake card an aura print fresh from the camera, held up guest smiling with her aura portrait at the pop-up guest holding her aura keepsake card hands holding the aura interpretation guide

Thousands of portraits across Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, KL, Jakarta, Manila & Cebu — follow the tour on Instagram.

a guest's aura portraits taken one year apart, shared with the caption so true 100%

"So true 100%" — shared by @happywellbeing_, a returning guest

"You've moved from an inward, cocooned state of stillness and reflection to a more awakened, expressive, and outwardly directed energy — while still maintaining core emotional calm."

Her interpreter reading, comparing portraits taken a year apart — an aura obscura session in May 2024, and the lululemon × aura obscura pop-up in May 2025.

Good to know

I don't know anything about auras — is this for me?
Especially for you. Nothing is expected of you: you sit, rest your hands on the sensors, and five minutes later you're holding your print. Every portrait comes with a written guide in plain language, so you can read what your colors mean without knowing a thing beforehand — and the online aura interpreter answers questions afterwards at your own pace.
Do I have to believe in it?
No. Plenty of guests come purely curious, or because a friend dragged them, and leave with a portrait they love regardless. Take the interpretation as seriously or as lightly as you like — the print is yours either way.
How does the aura camera work?
Biofeedback sensors under your hands read the same family of signals a lie-detector test measures — tiny shifts in the skin's electrical activity — and translate them into color, exposed over your portrait on instant film. Non-invasive, nothing emitted, completely safe.
How long is a session?
Quick — the portrait itself is a single exposure of up to fifteen seconds, and most guests are in and out within about five minutes.
Is this like omikuji or a tarot reading?
Same curiosity, different starting point: instead of drawing a fortune, the sensors read your body and the camera prints what it finds. You leave holding a physical portrait plus a written interpretation — and the online aura interpreter can talk it through in Japanese or English.
What should I wear?
Solid dark tops photograph best. Remove large or heavily reflective accessories before your slot, including smart rings and fitness trackers.
Can two people be in one portrait?
Yes — the couple's package includes two individual portraits plus one combined-aura duo portrait, reading the shared field between you.
When is aura obscura coming to Kyoto?
Tour stops are announced a few weeks ahead, and the waitlist hears first. Join the Kyoto waitlist to get first pick of slots.

Your colors are already there.
Come see them.

Want Kyoto next? Your signup is the vote — and your place in line when dates drop.

Join the Kyoto waitlist Book Kyoto