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Kyoto

Kyoto is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a close to 1.5 million. Formerly the of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto , as well as a major part of the -Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.

Although places the first human settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, relatively little is known about human activity in the area before the 6th AD. During the 8th , when the powerful clergy became involved in the affairs of the , the chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the influence. Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province, for this honor.[1]

The new city, Heian-kyō (平安京 “tranquility and peace capital”), became the seat of Japan’s imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. In Japanese, the city has been called (京), (都) or no (京の都). In the 11th , the city was renamed Kyoto (”capital city”).[2] Kyoto remained Japan’s capital until the transfer of the government to Edo in 1868 at the time of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is still a legal capital: see Capital of Japan.) After Edo was renamed Tokyo (meaning “Eastern Capital”), Kyoto was known for a short time as Saikyo (西京 Saikyō, meaning “Western Capital”).

An obsolete spelling for the city’s name is Kioto; it was formerly known to the West as Meaco or Miako (Japanese: 都; , meaning “the seat of Imperial palace” or “capital”.). Another term commonly used to refer to the city in the pre-modern period was Keishi (京師), meaning “metropolis” or “capital”.
Kyoto, view from temple
Kyoto, view from temple

The city suffered extensive destruction in the Ōnin War of 1467-1477, and did not really recover until the mid-16th . Battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, and came to involve the court nobility (kuge) and religious factions as well. Nobles’ mansions were transformed into fortresses, deep trenches dug throughout the city for defense and as firebreaks, and numerous buildings burned. The city has not seen such widespread destruction since. There was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II because, as an intellectual center of Japan, it had a “better able to appreciate the significance of the weapon.” [3]In the end it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets due to the insistence of Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. The city was largely spared from conventional bombing as well, although small-scale air raids did result in casualties.

As a result, Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities that still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. However, modernization is continually breaking down the traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the Kyoto Station complex.

Kyoto became a city designated by government ordinance on September 1, 1956. In 1997, Kyoto hosted the conference that resulted in the protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that bears the city’s name.

[edit]
Autumn in Kyoto attracts throngs of tourists to temples like this.
Autumn in Kyoto attracts throngs of tourists to temples like this.
Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)*
Site
State Party Japan
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iv
Reference 688
Region** Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription 1994 (18th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by .

Kyoto is located in a valley, part of the Yamashiro (or Kyoto) Basin, in the eastern part of the mountainous region known as the Tamba highlands. The Yamashiro Basin is surrounded on three sides by mountains known as Higashiyama, Kitayama and Nishiyama, with a height just above 1000 meters above sea level. This interior positioning results in hot summers and cold winters. There are three rivers in the basin, the Ujigawa to the south, the Katsuragawa to the west, and the Kamogawa to the east. Kyoto City takes up 1.9% of the land in the with an area of 827.9 km².

The original city was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese geomancy following the model of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang’an (present-day Xi’an). The Imperial Palace faced south, resulting in Ukyō (the right sector of the capital) being on the west while Sakyō (the left sector) is on the east. The streets in the modern-day wards of Nakagyō, Shimogyō, and Kamigyō still follow a grid pattern.

Today, the main business district is located to the south of the old Imperial Palace, with the less-populated northern area retaining a far greener feel. Surrounding areas do not follow the same grid pattern as the center of the city, though streets throughout Kyoto share the distinction of having names.

Kyoto sits atop a large natural water table that provides the city with ample freshwater wells. Due to large scale urbanization, the amount of rain draining into the table is dwindling and wells across the area are drying at an increasing rate.

[edit] Politics and government

The directly elected executive mayor in Kyoto as of 2008 is Daisaku Kadokawa, an independent supported by the Liberal Democratic Party. The legislative city assembly has 68 elected members.

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