100 Fun Facts About Kyoto

Kyoto became the seat of Japan's imperial court in which year, chosen by Emperor Kanmu?

The new city was laid out on a Chinese-style grid, and emperors ruled from it for eleven centuries.

What was the original name of the city founded in 794, meaning 'capital of tranquility and peace'?

Late in the Heian period people simply called it Kyōto, 'capital city'; after the move to Tokyo it was briefly Saikyō, 'western capital'.

Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Kyoto partly to escape Buddhist clergy in which city?

His final choice fell on the village of Uda in Yamashiro Province.

The imperial court left Kyoto for Tokyo in which year, at the time of the Meiji Restoration?

Kyoto responded with a canal and Japan's first commercial electric railway to shore up its economy.

Which decade-long conflict of 1467-77 left Kyoto in ruins, with trenches dug through the streets?

The city did not really recover until the mid-16th century and has never seen such destruction since.

Which warlord rebuilt Kyoto in the late 16th century, ringing it with earthwork walls called odoi?

He also gathered the city's temples into Teramachi Street, still a Buddhist temple quarter today.

Which US Secretary of War insisted that Kyoto be struck from the list of atomic bomb targets in 1945?

Nagasaki replaced it; as a result Kyoto kept an abundance of prewar buildings and was headquarters of the US Sixth Army in the occupation.

Kyoto's 20 km canal, completed in 1890, brought water and hydroelectric power from which body of water?

From 1895 the canal's electricity powered Japan's first commercial electric railway.

Kyoto is nicknamed the 'thousand-year capital' because it served as Japan's capital from 794 until when?

The Tokugawa shoguns actually governed from Edo, but the emperor stayed in Kyoto until the Restoration.

Roughly how many temples and shrines does Kyoto contain?

Seventeen of the most important were inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

Kinkaku-ji is famous for its pavilion whose top two floors are coated in what?

Officially named Rokuon-ji, 'Deer Garden Temple', it began as the villa of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1397.

The Golden Pavilion seen today dates from 1955 because the original was destroyed how in 1950?

Hayashi Shoken, aged 22, then tried to kill himself on the hill behind; Yukio Mishima fictionalised the crime in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of Inari, the kami of what?

Merchants also worship Inari as patron of business, which is why every torii gate at the shrine was donated by a company.

Roughly how many vermilion torii gates line the trails of Fushimi Inari-taisha?

About 800 stand in a row as the Senbon Torii tunnel; the shrine was founded in 711 by the Hata clan, immigrants from the Korean Peninsula.

Which animals, regarded as Inari's messengers, are found as statues throughout Fushimi Inari-taisha?

The mountain trails climb 233 metres past many smaller shrines and take about two hours to walk.

The Japanese phrase 'to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu' means roughly what?

Edo-era tradition held that anyone surviving the 13-metre jump from the temple's wooden stage would have a wish granted.

Since 1995, Kiyomizu-dera has hosted which annual ceremony every 12 December?

The temple's name means 'Pure Water Monastery', after the Otowa waterfall on its grounds, and it predates the founding of the capital.

Kyoto's geisha do not call themselves geisha; what local term do they use?

The word means essentially 'a woman of art'; Gion houses two hanamachi, Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi, split since 1881.

The Gion district grew up as an entertainment quarter in front of which place of worship?

The name Gion is the Japanese rendering of the Buddhist term Jetavana; Ponto-chō is the city's other famous geisha quarter.

The Gion Matsuri's float processions are held on which two July dates?

It began in 869 as a purification rite; on the yoiyama evenings before each parade, old houses open their doors to show family heirlooms.

The Gion Festival originated in 869 as a ritual to appease the gods during what?

Emperor Seiwa ordered prayers to the god of the Gion shrine, and the practice was repeated wherever outbreaks recurred.

The flatland castle in central Kyoto was ordered built in 1601 by which founder of a shogunate?

All the feudal lords of western Japan had to contribute, and it was finished under his grandson Iemitsu in 1626.

The corridors of the Ninomaru Palace are famous for 'nightingale floors' that do what?

The palace was finished under the third shogun in 1626 using parts of Fushimi Castle.

At which Kyoto site did the last shogun announce the return of authority to the emperor in 1867?

The declaration ended some 265 years of Tokugawa rule and opened the way to the Meiji Restoration.

Ryōan-ji's celebrated dry rock garden contains how many stones?

They sit in five groups amid raked white gravel, and from the veranda at least one stone is always hidden from view.

What is the Japanese term for the 'dry landscape' style of Zen garden exemplified at Ryōan-ji?

Larger rocks are set amid pebbles raked into linear patterns to aid meditation; the temple's name means 'Dragon at Peace'.

The Arashiyama district on Kyoto's western edge is famous for a grove of what?

Its Moon Crossing Bridge, Togetsukyō, frames the cherry blossom and autumn colours, and 170-odd wild monkeys live at the Iwatayama park.

What does the name Arashiyama mean?

It refers to the mountain across the Ōi River; Tenryū-ji, head temple of a Rinzai Zen branch, stands in the district.

Which video game giant, founded in the 19th century as a card maker, is headquartered in Kyoto?

Craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi started it; the company moved into toys in the 1960s and released Donkey Kong in 1981.

Founder Fusajiro Yamauchi originally made what product at the company that became a video game giant?

Its first console, the Color TV-Game, came in 1977; Kyoto is also home to Kyocera, Omron and Nidec.

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in the city on 11 December 1997, committed countries to reducing what?

It extended the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and entered into force in 2005; Canada withdrew in 2012.

Kyoto Tower, opposite the main station, is the city's tallest structure with a spire at what height?

The 800-ton steel tower stands on a nine-storey hotel building and was planned to coincide with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The Kyoto Station building opened in 1997 marked which anniversary of the city?

Its 15-storey roof covers a mall, hotel, cinema and Isetan department store, making it Japan's third-largest station building.

Kyoto's original street plan followed feng shui and the model of which ancient Chinese capital?

The palace faced south, so Ukyō, the 'right' sector, lies to the west; central wards still keep the grid, and streets have names, unusual in Japan.

Kyoto's basin is enclosed on three sides by mountains named for which directions?

Higashiyama, Kitayama and Nishiyama rise to about 1,000 metres, giving the city hot summers and cold winters.

Which river runs along the eastern side of central Kyoto?

The Uji flows to the south and the Katsura to the west; the city sits on a large natural water table that feeds its wells.

Kyoto's population of about 1.46 million makes it roughly which-ranked city in Japan by population?

It was Japan's largest city until the late 16th century, when Osaka and Edo overtook it.

Kyoto University, the second-oldest in Japan, counts how many Nobel laureates among its alumni?

Two Prime Ministers of Japan also studied there.

On 16 August Kyoto marks the Bon Festival with the Gozan no Okuribi, which involves what?

The fires guide ancestral spirits home; the Daimonji character on Mount Daimonji is the most famous.

The Jidai Matsuri, held on 22 October, celebrates what?

Its name means 'Festival of the Ages'; the Aoi Matsuri on 15 May is the year's first great festival.

Kyoto is the premier centre of manufacturing which traditional garment?

Its weavers are renowned; sake brewing is another old industry, with Gekkeikan and Takara headquartered in the city.

Which local club, an amateur non-company side from the 1920s, won the 2002 Emperor's Cup?

Since 2020 it has played home matches in nearby Kameoka.

The 400-year-old Tōshiya exhibition held at Sanjūsangen-dō temple is a contest in which discipline?

The city also hosts the Kyoto Marathon and the All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships.

Many samurai action films, or jidaigeki, were shot at which Kyoto studio park?

Kyoto's dialect, Kyō-kotoba, is a branch of the Kansai dialect heard in those films.

The Haruka express reaches Kyoto Station from Kansai International Airport in about how long?

The station also serves the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, five JR West lines, a Kintetsu line and the subway.

Kyoto's traditional wooden townhouses, many of which survived the war, are known as what?

Modernisation keeps eroding them, the vast Kyōto Station complex being the most obvious example.

The 1864 Hamaguri rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate burned roughly how many houses in Kyoto?

It came at the very end of the Edo period, when Kyoto was one of the three great cities alongside Osaka and Edo.

Which 1895 French Second Empire-style fine-arts building was called discordant for the old imperial capital?

Ryukoku University's brick-and-timber main hall of 1879 had followed British collegiate models.

In which year was Kyoto's modern municipality formed from the Kamigyō and Shimogyō wards?

Its population passed one million by 1932, and the city grew to eleven wards.

Which of Kyoto's great traditional festivals is held on 15 May each year?

Kyoto's traditional festivals have run for over 1,000 years; the Gion Matsuri follows with its great parade on 17 July.

The huge veranda of Kiyomizu-dera's main hall was famously built without a single what?

Tall pillars in the kakezukuri style hold the stage out over the hillside. Big verandas like this were added at popular temples in the Edo period simply to fit more pilgrims.

What does the name Kiyomizu, as in the temple Kiyomizu-dera, mean?

The name comes from the Otowa waterfall beneath the main hall, where three channels of water still fall into a pond and visitors queue to drink.

Which narrow downtown arcade of about 130 food shops is nicknamed 'Kyoto's kitchen'?

Fish has been sold on the site since 782 thanks to cold groundwater that kept it fresh. The arcade runs about 400 metres, one block north of Shijō Street.

The Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in temple appears on which Japanese coin?

The hall, completed in 1053, is the temple's only surviving original building. The phoenix from its roof also turns up on the 10,000 yen banknote.

Gekkeikan, a Kyoto company founded in 1637, is one of the world's oldest makers of what?

Founded by Jiemon Ōkura, the company belongs to the Henokiens, a club of family firms over 200 years old. Its US arm controls about a quarter of the American market.

The town of Uji has been famous for centuries as a producer of what?

The Tsuen tea shop by Uji Bridge has been serving since 1160 and claims to be the oldest tea shop in Japan, possibly the world.

Iwatayama park above Arashiyama is home to a troop of over 120 free-roaming what?

Staff hand out corn and wheat every two hours, which is the main reason the wild troop stays put. Keepers know every animal by name, and one was nicknamed Cooper.

Saihō-ji in western Kyoto earned its nickname from a garden carpeted in 120 kinds of what?

The carpet was never planned. It crept in during the Meiji era when the monastery was too poor to maintain its grounds, and is now the whole point of visiting Koke-dera.

Kyoto Tower, completed in 1964, was designed so its smooth white shaft resembled what?

Unlike lattice towers such as Tokyo Tower, it is built from stacked steel rings clad in thin steel sheets. It was rushed to open in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Yatsuhashi, Kyoto's best-known souvenir sweet, is flavoured with which spice?

The baked version is a hard cracker shaped like a koto harp. The soft, unbaked nama yatsuhashi wrapped around bean paste only dates from 1960 but now outsells it.

Parts of which 2003 film were shot at Kyoto's Nanzen-ji temple?

The Kyoto detour is the film's quiet interlude away from Tokyo. Nanzen-ji's giant Sanmon gate was rebuilt in 1628 and has stairs up to a viewing gallery.

Which warlord razed Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei in 1571, slaughtering its monks?

At its peak the monastery had some 3,000 sub-temples and its own army of warrior monks, who had marched on the capital for centuries to enforce their demands.

Ginkaku-ji is the 'Silver Pavilion' because of plans for silver foil that were what?

Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa began it in 1482 to rival his grandfather's golden pavilion, but the Ōnin War stalled the work. The unfinished look is now prized as wabi-sabi.

Lonely visitors to Jishu Shrine at Kiyomizu-dera walk between two 'love stones' how?

The stones sit 10 metres apart, and reaching the second one is said to mean you will find true love. The shrine is dedicated to Ōkuninushi, a god of good matches.

How many standing Thousand-armed Kannon statues fill Sanjūsangen-dō's 120-metre hall?

Only 124 survived a blaze in 1249; three rival schools of sculptors spent 16 years carving 876 replacements. They stand in 10 rows of 50 around a giant seated Kannon.

Tō-ji's five-storey pagoda, the tallest wooden tower in Japan, rises roughly how high?

The current pagoda dates from 1643, the fifth on the site after four predecessors burned or fell. Tō-ji was one of only three temples allowed in the new capital in 796.

Two philosophy professors from which school gave the Philosopher's Walk its name?

Nishida Kitaro and Hajime Tanabe are said to have used the canal-side path for daily exercise. It links Ginkaku-ji to the Nanzen-ji area and takes about 30 minutes.

What 1890 structure, odd for a Zen temple, cuts through the grounds of Nanzen-ji?

The Roman-looking arches carry irrigation water across the temple precinct and have become one of Kyoto's most photographed backdrops.

Kyocera's name is a contraction of what original 1959 company name?

Founder Kazuo Inamori started with fine ceramics and later branched into solar panels, printers and even Yashica and Contax cameras. He retired in 1997 to become a Zen monk.

Kitano Tenmangū's grounds are filled with which tree, a favourite of the deity Tenjin?

A blossom festival has been held on 25 February for about 900 years to mark the deity's death. It coincides with the shrine's famous monthly flea market.

Whose surprise 1582 attack on Honnō-ji forced his warlord master to commit seppuku?

He led 13,000 men into the city before dawn, and his motive is still debated. The famous cry 'The enemy awaits at Honnō-ji!' was probably invented by later writers.

In 1864, which shogunate police unit led by Kondō Isami stormed Kyoto's Ikedaya inn?

Kondō went in with just ten men while a second squad under Hijikata arrived later. Anti-shogunate rōnin had been using the inn at Sanjō-Kawaramachi as a staging post.

Heian courtiers prized the site of Katsura Imperial Villa as a spot for viewing what?

Prince Toshihito modelled the villa on passages from The Tale of Genji, which describes the reflection on the water at Katsura as clear and tranquil.

Kurama, in the hills north of Kyoto, is called the birthplace of which 'energy therapy'?

The mountain is also folklore's home of the long-nosed tengu, and its temple is a favourite with Japanese visitors drawn by its many mysteries and occult tales.

Adopted in the city in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol did not enter into force until which year?

It took more than seven years to gather enough ratifications. The United States never ratified, and Canada later withdrew, effective December 2012.

Kyoto's municipal subway has only two routes: the Karasuma and the what?

The two lines meet at just one station, Karasuma Oike. The Karasuma Line's first stretch opened in 1981, half a century after the city first proposed a 'high-speed railway'.

Which Tosa-born reformer shot his way out of an 1866 ambush at Kyoto's Teradaya inn?

The weapon was a Smith & Wesson. He survived that night but was assassinated at another Kyoto inn, the Ōmiya, in December 1867, aged 31.

The name of which Kyoto geisha district is thought to come from a Portuguese word?

'Ponto' is believed to derive from 'ponte', and the kanji used to write it were chosen purely for their sound. The narrow alley runs beside the Kamo River.

The last ten chapters of The Tale of Genji play out in which town near Kyoto?

The town on the river south of Kyoto was also the scene of three medieval battles, the first of which opened the Genpei War in 1180.

Of 234 recorded Edo-era leaps from the Kiyomizu stage, roughly what share survived?

Survivors of the 13-metre drop were supposed to have their wish granted. The practice was banned in 1872.

Kitano Tenmangū was built in 947 to appease the angry spirit of which exiled scholar?

Deified as Tenjin in 986, he became the patron of learning, and students still flock to the shrine before exams.

Who founded Enryaku-ji, the Tendai monastery on Mount Hiei above Kyoto, in 788?

Also known as Dengyō Daishi, he brought Tendai Buddhism from China and ordained a hundred disciples in 807. The monastery is home to the 'marathon monks' of kaihōgyō.

UNESCO's 1994 listing 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto' covers how many sites?

They span the 10th to 19th centuries and spill into two neighbouring cities, Uji and Ōtsu, the latter in Shiga Prefecture.

An umbrella tucked into the rafters of Chion-in's main hall is meant to ward off what?

The idea was that an umbrella invites rain. It is counted among the temple's 'seven wonders', alongside a squeaking nightingale corridor that betrayed intruders.

Chion-in houses Japan's largest temple bell, cast in 1633; roughly how much does it weigh?

The same temple has Japan's largest surviving Sanmon gate, built in 1619, and its roof beams all carry the three-hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa family who rebuilt it.

Which architect designed the glass-and-steel Kyoto Station building opened in 1997?

Locals were wary of such a futurist structure in a heritage city. Under its 15-storey roof sit a hotel, a department store, a theatre and government offices.

Kyoto-raised Hideki Yukawa won the 1949 physics Nobel for predicting which particles?

He published the theory in 1935; the pi meson was finally detected in 1947. He taught physics in Kyoto, where his father had been a geology professor.

Tōfuku-ji, famed for its autumn maples, also preserves Japan's oldest communal what?

It dates from the first half of the Muromachi period. The temple's name splices together Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji, two great temples of Nara.

Kyoto's Omron built the world's first what, later honoured as an IEEE Milestone?

Founded by Kazuma Tateishi in 1933, the company took its name from Omuro, the Kyoto district where it began, and was also an early maker of cash machines.

Which employee of Kyoto instrument maker Shimadzu won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

Embarrassed that its laureate held such a junior rank, the company promptly promoted him to research fellow and named a laboratory after him.

Hydropower from Kyoto's great canal, finished in 1890, enabled Japan's first what?

The canal was part of a push to keep Kyoto relevant after the emperor left for Tokyo in 1869 and the city's standing suddenly looked precarious.

Emperor Meiji left the city in 1869, yet his grave lies in which Kyoto ward?

He was born in 1852 in a small house at the north end of the Gosho, the old palace grounds, so his life began and ended in the same city.

The sliding doors of the Ninomaru Palace are painted by artists of which school?

The castle was finished in 1626 under the third shogun, with every lord in western Japan ordered to chip in. Its inner ward burned in a citywide blaze in 1788.

Which two 20th-century emperors were still enthroned at the Kyoto Imperial Palace?

The palace had been rebuilt eight times in the Edo period alone; the version standing today was completed in 1855 in a conscious imitation of Heian style.

Kyoto's Nishijin weaving district is named for the wartime camp of which general?

The name means 'western position'. Weavers who fled the fighting returned in the 1480s and settled on the ground his army had held, and the brocade trade revived there.

What does the name of the Kyoto brewer Gekkeikan literally mean?

The company's American subsidiary is based in Folsom, California, and holds about a quarter of the US market.

Ashikaga Takauji founded Tenryū-ji in 1339 in memory of which emperor, once his foe?

The emperor had ordered Takauji hunted down after the failed Kenmu Restoration. The temple's name, 'sky dragon', came from a dream of a golden dragon over the Ōi River.

Which celebrated garden designer was summoned in 1339 to revive Saihō-ji as a Zen temple?

He renamed the temple to reflect its new Zen orientation, and the stone arrangements in its rock garden are still held up as proof of his genius.

The Tale of Genji's author served at the Heian court as lady-in-waiting to which empress?

Fujiwara no Michinaga recruited Murasaki Shikibu around 1005, probably for her literary fame. After five or six years she retired with the empress to the Lake Biwa area.

Kyoto and Osaka are the only prefectures designated with which suffix instead of 'ken'?

Kyoto Prefecture stretches from the Sea of Japan coast toward the Kii Peninsula, and the city itself holds about 57 percent of its 2.58 million people.