Kyoto (京都市, Kyōto-shi) - A city in the
central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a
population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial
capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture,
as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan
area.
Geography
Kyoto was 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 prefecture 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.
Culture
Although ravaged by wars, fires, and earthquakes during its
eleven centuries as the imperial capital, Kyoto was spared
from the firebombing of World War II. With its 2000 Buddhist
temples and Shinto shrines, as well as palaces, gardens and
architecture intact, it is one of the best preserved cities
in Japan. Among the most famous temples in Japan are
Kiyomizu-dera, a magnificent wooden temple supported by
pillars off the slope of a mountain; Kinkaku-ji, the Temple
of the Golden Pavilion; Ginkaku-ji, the Temple of the Silver
Pavilion; and Ryōan-ji, famous for its rock garden. The
Heian Jingū is a Shinto shrine, built in 1895, celebrating
the Imperial family and commemorating the first and last
emperors to reside in Kyoto. Three special sites have
connections to the imperial family: the Kyoto Gyoen area
including the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Sento Imperial
Palace, homes of the Emperors of Japan for many centuries;
Katsura Imperial Villa, one of the nation's finest
architectural treasures; and Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, one
of its best Japanese gardens.
Other notable sites in Kyoto include Arashiyama and its
picturesque lake, the Gion and Pontochō geisha quarters, the
Philosopher's Walk, and the canals which line some of the
older streets.
The "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" are listed by the
UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. These include the Kamo
Shrines (Kami and Shimo), Kyō-ō-Gokokuji (Tō-ji),
Kiyomizu-dera, Daigo-ji, Ninna-ji, Saihō-ji (Kokedera),
Tenryū-ji, Rokuon-ji (Kinkaku-ji), Jishō-ji (Ginkaku-ji),
Ryōan-ji, Hongan-ji, Kōzan-ji and the Nijo Castle, primarily
built by the Tokugawa shoguns. Other sites outside the city
are also on the list.
Kyoto is renowned for its abundance of delicious Japanese
foods and cuisine. The special circumstances of Kyoto as a
city away from the sea and home to many Buddhist temples
resulted in the development of a variety of vegetables
peculiar to the Kyoto area (kyōyasai 京野菜).
Japan's television and film industry has its center in
Kyoto. Many jidaigeki, action films featuring samurai, were
shot at Toei Uzumasa Eigamura[1]. A film set and theme park
in one, Eigamura features replicas of traditional Japanese
buildings which are used for jidaigeki. Among the sets are a
replica of the old Nihonbashi (the bridge at the entry to
Edo), a traditional courthouse, a Meiji Period police box
and part of the former Yoshiwara red-light district. Actual
film shooting takes place occasionally, and visitors are
welcome to observe the action.
The Kyoto International Manga Museum is also situated in
Kyoto. For an entrance fee visitors are able to view
exhibitions and read as much manga as they desire. It is
trying to acquire every manga ever published and so far
houses approximately 200,000 titles.
Major festivals punctuate Kyoto's calendar. The first is the
Aoi Matsuri on May 15. Two months later (July 14 to 17) is
the Gion Matsuri, culminating in a massive parade. Kyoto
marks the Bon Festival with the Gozan Okuribi, lighting
fires on mountains to guide the spirits home (August 16).
The October 22 Jidai Matsuri, Festival of the Ages,
celebrates Kyoto's illustrious past.
History
Although archaeological evidence 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 century AD. During the 8th century, when
the powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs
of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate
the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence.
Emperor Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in
the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province, for this honor.
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 the 11th
century, the city was renamed Kyoto ("capital city"). 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;
miyako, 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".
The city suffered extensive destruction in the Ōnin War of
1467-1477, and did not really recover until the mid-16th
century. 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. Although there was some consideration by
the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at
the end of World War II, in the end it was decided to remove
the city from the list of targets because, as an
intellectual center of Japan, it had a population "better
able to appreciate the significance of the weapon." The city
was spared from conventional bombing as well.
As a result, Kyoto is the only large Japanese city 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.
Information source: “Kyoto.” wikipedia.org. Article
date: 18 Feb. 2008. Retrieved: Wikipedia. 4 Mar. 2008 <Kyoto>. |
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