I had a relatively different experience at Arashiyama bamboo grove when I was there for Arashiyama autumn illumination back in Dec 2016. I was there in the afternoon, and the bamboos were surprisingly still green and lush despite already going into winter. There are certainly tourists around, but not that much. The atmosphere is so peaceful. If anything, I heard Koreans and Filipinos talking loudly instead (not shouting, just relatively louder than usual). If one is willing to wait, definitely can get some nice shots without other people in the background.
After finishing the entire trail, we went back to the start of the trail and waited till 5pm for the illumination light up. This time it was significantly more crowded, but still no pushing or shouting. Just a collective gasp heard when the lightup started zhun zhun at 5pm. This time walking through the trail again is slightly different experience as it is difficult to stop to take photos due to the massive crowd around us. But still... No shouting or anything. When we exited the whole trail and walked back to the main train station (not the JR station), we saw a huge massive queue that extended way beyond Togetsukyo Bridge, all quietly queueing to go into the illuminated grove. Despite the huge amount of people there, I hardly heard any noise from them. I can't tell if they were mostly locals or not,l because it was already very dark, but I did see some rolling their luggages along as they moved in the queue....
Maybe I'm lucky that the day I went didn't have unruly tourists...?