100 Fun Facts About Kyoto

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

Emperor Kanmu moved his court to the new capital in 794, laying it out on a Chinese-style grid; emperors resided there for nearly eleven centuries.

What was Kyoto's original name when Emperor Kanmu founded it?

Heian-kyō, the 'capital of peace and tranquility', gave its name to the Heian period; by its late centuries people simply called it Kyōto, 'capital city'.

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

The powerful Buddhist temples of Nara had meddled in court politics, so Kanmu left in 784 for Nagaoka-kyō and a decade later settled at the village of Uda in Yamashiro Province.

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

Emperor Meiji settled in Tokyo in 1869, a year after Edo was renamed; the court's departure cost Kyoto much of its population and trade.

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

The Ōnin War of 1467-77, a succession feud among the Ashikaga shogunate's great houses, turned Kyoto into a battlefield; much of the city burned and took decades to recover.

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

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, master of Japan by the 1580s, ringed Kyoto with the Odoi earthworks in 1591 and gathered its temples along Teramachi Street.

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

Henry L. Stimson, who had visited Kyoto and admired it, overruled the Target Committee; Nagasaki took the city's place on the list, sparing its prewar buildings.

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

The Lake Biwa Canal, dug between 1885 and 1890, carried water from Japan's largest lake through the Higashiyama hills; its Keage plant was Japan's first commercial hydroelectric station.

Which tea master, perfecter of wabi-cha, was ordered to commit seppuku in Kyoto in 1591?

Sen no Rikyū, who shaped the austere wabi style of tea, lost his patron's favour and was ordered to kill himself at his Kyoto residence in 1591.

Roughly how many temples and shrines does Kyoto contain?

Kyoto holds roughly 2,000 religious sites, about 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, a legacy of its eleven centuries as the imperial capital.

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

Gold leaf covers the pavilion's second and third storeys, mirrored in the Kyōko-chi pond below; the temple's official name is Rokuon-ji, 'Deer Garden Temple'.

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

The pavilion burned in 1950 through arson by a novice monk, Hayashi Yōken, who 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?

Inari is the kami of rice and agriculture, later also of business prosperity; the shrine's torii gates are donated by companies and individuals seeking the deity's favour.

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

Roughly 10,000 torii, each donated by a worshipper, line the 4 km of trails up Mount Inari; the shrine was founded in 711 by the immigrant Hata clan.

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

Stone foxes, often holding a key or a jewel in their mouths, guard the shrine as Inari's messengers; the trails climb 233-metre Mount Inari past many smaller shrines.

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

'Kiyomizu no butai kara tobioriru' means to take the plunge on a bold decision; Edo-era belief held that anyone surviving the 13-metre leap would have a wish granted.

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

The Kanji of the Year, chosen by public vote and organised by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, is brushed by Kiyomizu-dera's head priest on 12 December, Kanji Day.

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

Geiko, 'child of the arts', is the Kyoto term for a fully fledged geisha; the city's five hanamachi include Gion Kobu and Gion Higashi, separated in 1881.

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

Yasaka Shrine was called Gion-sha until the Meiji era, and the town that grew before its gate to serve pilgrims became the Gion quarter; Gion renders the Buddhist name Jetavana.

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

The Yamaboko Junkō parades on 17 and 24 July, the Saki and Ato Matsuri; the 24 July procession was revived in 2014, and on the yoiyama evenings before each, old houses display family heirlooms.

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

In 869 a plague swept the capital; 66 halberds, one per province, were raised at the Shinsen-en garden in a goryō-e rite to appease the spirits, and the festival grew from its repetitions.

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

Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the castle in 1601 as his Kyoto residence, levying the daimyō of western Japan for the work; his grandson Iemitsu completed it in 1626.

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

The uguisubari floors chirp when walked on because the nails rub against metal clamps beneath the boards, a sound said to warn of intruders.

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

Tokugawa Yoshinobu gathered his retainers in Nijō-jō's Ninomaru Palace in November 1867 to announce the Taisei Hōkan, ending some 265 years of Tokugawa rule.

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

The 15 stones sit in five groups amid raked white gravel, arranged so that from any point on the veranda at least one is hidden from view.

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

Kare-sansui, literally 'dry mountain-water', uses rocks and raked gravel to suggest islands and sea without water; Ryōan-ji's name means 'Temple of the Dragon at Peace'.

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

The Sagano bamboo grove's towering stalks line a path near Tenryū-ji, and the Togetsukyō bridge spans the river at the district's heart.

What does the name Arashiyama mean?

Arashi means storm and yama mountain, so Arashiyama is 'Storm Mountain', the peak across the Ōi River from the district; Tenryū-ji, head of a Rinzai Zen branch, stands nearby.

Which video game giant, founded in the 19th century, is headquartered in Kyoto?

Nintendo, started by Fusajiro Yamauchi in the Meiji era, moved into toys in the 1960s and released Donkey Kong in 1981 before the Famicom of 1983.

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

Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards by hand in the Meiji era, later adding Western-style cards; the firm did not release a console until the Color TV-Game of 1977.

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

The Kyoto Protocol bound industrialised nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 5% below 1990 levels over 2008-12, extending the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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

The 131 metres comprise a 100-metre steel shaft on a nine-storey building; the 800-ton structure opened in December 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics.

Which Kyoto temple, head of a Jōdo Shinshū branch, holds the Hiunkaku pavilion?

Nishi Hongan-ji, head temple of the Honganji-ha branch, holds the three-storey Hiunkaku, counted with the Golden and Silver Pavilions as Kyoto's three great pavilions.

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

Chang'an, the Tang dynasty capital, supplied the model: a palace at the north end facing south over a symmetrical grid, with Ukyō, the 'right' sector, lying to the west.

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

Higashiyama, Kitayama and Nishiyama, the east, north and west mountains, hem the basin in and leave it open only to the south, which brings hot summers and cold winters.

Which river runs along the eastern side of central Kyoto?

The Kamo flows south past Shimogamo Shrine and Gion, forming the eastern edge of the old centre; the Katsura runs along the west side of the city.

What is the name of the Kyoto Imperial Palace's main ceremonial hall?

The Shishinden, with a cherry tree and a tachibana orange before its steps, was the hall for enthronements and other state ceremonies of the imperial court.

Kamigamo Shrine's courtyard is famous for two sacred cones made of what?

The tatesuna at Kamigamo Shrine are two cones of sand about a metre high, representing Kōyama, the hill where the shrine's deity is said to have descended.

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

Lighting giant fires on five mountains around the city sends the ancestral spirits back at the close of Obon; the 'dai' character on Mount Daimonji is the best known of the five shapes.

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

A procession in costumes from every era marks Kyoto's history through the ages, walking backwards in time from the Meiji Restoration to Emperor Kanmu's court; it began in 1895.

Kyoto is the premier centre of manufacturing which traditional garment?

Kimono making is Kyoto's signature craft: Nishijin weavers produce brocade obi and Kyō-yūzen dyers hand-paint the silk for the garments.

Kyoto Sanga, founded in 1922 as Kyoto Shiko Club, won which national trophy in 2002?

Kyoto Purple Sanga beat Kashima Antlers 2-1 in the final played on 1 January 2003 to lift the Emperor's Cup, the club's first major trophy.

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

Tōshiya archery began in the early 1600s, with samurai shooting arrows the length of Sanjūsangen-dō's veranda; a January archery meet beside the hall keeps the tradition alive.

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

Toei Uzumasa Eigamura, the studio park opened in 1975 beside Toei's Kyoto studios, keeps Edo-period street sets where jidaigeki such as Mito Kōmon were filmed.

Which private railway runs from Osaka-umeda to Kyoto-kawaramachi, with a branch to Arashiyama?

Hankyu's Kyoto Line links Osaka-umeda with Kyoto-kawaramachi in the Shijō shopping district, and its short Arashiyama Line branches off at Katsura.

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

Kyō-machiya are long, narrow wooden townhouses with lattice fronts and inner gardens; tens of thousands survive, though many have been lost to redevelopment since the 1990s.

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

The fighting at the Hamaguri Gate of the Imperial Palace set off a blaze that burned some 28,000 houses across central Kyoto, a disaster locals called the Dondon-yake.

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

The Kyoto National Museum's red-brick main hall, designed by Katayama Tōkuma and completed in 1895 as the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, struck critics as out of keeping with the old capital.

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

Kyoto City was founded on 1 April 1889 under the new municipal code, merging the Kamigyō and Shimogyō wards; later annexations raised the count to eleven wards.

Which festival's procession runs from the Imperial Palace to the Shimogamo and Kamigamo shrines?

The Aoi Matsuri, named for the hollyhock leaves its participants wear, sends a court-costumed procession of some 500 people from the Imperial Palace to the two Kamo shrines on 15 May.

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

The stage uses not a single nail: massive zelkova pillars locked together by joinery in the kakezukuri style hold it about 13 metres above the hillside.

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

Kiyomizu means 'pure water', after the Otowa waterfall beneath the main hall, where three channels fall into a pond and visitors drink from long-handled cups.

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

Nishiki Market, a covered lane of about 130 shops running some 390 metres one block north of Shijō, began as a fish market; cold groundwater beneath it kept the catch fresh.

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

The 10 yen coin has carried the Phoenix Hall since 1951; the hall, completed in 1053, is the temple's only surviving original building and a National Treasure.

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.

Which product has made the town around Byōdō-in famous for centuries?

Green tea has been grown around the town since the 13th century, and the Tsuen tea shop by its bridge, open since 1160, claims to be Japan's oldest.

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

About 120 Japanese macaques roam the park on Mount Iwata; visitors feed them from inside a caged hut, the reverse of a zoo, and staff feed the troop regularly to keep it on the mountain.

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

Moss was never planned: it crept over the 14th-century garden during the Meiji era, when the temple was too poor to maintain the grounds, and gave Saihō-ji the nickname Koke-dera, 'Moss Temple'.

Kyoto Tower's smooth white shaft, completed in 1964, is often likened to what?

The slim white shaft, a stressed-skin cylinder of welded steel plates rather than a lattice, is widely likened to a Japanese candle; the tower opened on 28 December 1964.

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

Cinnamon, called nikki, gives yatsuhashi its flavour; the baked kind is a hard cracker shaped like a koto, while soft nama yatsuhashi folded round bean paste dates only from 1960.

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

In Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson's Charlotte takes a day trip to Kyoto, walking through Nanzen-ji and watching a wedding party at a shrine; Nanzen-ji's Sanmon gate dates from 1628.

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

Oda Nobunaga, at war with the temple's allies the Azai and Asakura, burned Enryaku-ji's 3,000 buildings in 1571 and killed thousands of monks and civilians on the mountain.

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

Ashikaga Yoshimasa began the villa in 1482 to echo his grandfather's golden pavilion; the silver-foil plan was never carried out, and the bare dark wood is now prized as wabi-sabi.

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

Walking the 10 metres from one stone to the other with eyes closed is said to bring true love; the shrine honours Ōkuninushi, a god of good matches.

How many Thousand-armed Kannon statues, standing and seated, fill Sanjūsangen-dō's hall?

The hall holds 1,001 Kannon: 1,000 life-size standing figures flanking a giant seated Kannon at the centre; 124 statues survived a blaze in 1249, and sculptors carved 876 replacements over 16 years.

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

At 55 metres, Tō-ji's pagoda is the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan; the present tower, donated by shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in the 1640s, is the fifth on the site after four burned.

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

Kyoto University philosophers Nishida Kitarō and Tanabe Hajime are said to have walked the canal-side path daily; it follows a canal branch from Ginkaku-ji toward Nanzen-ji for about 2 km.

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

The Suirokaku, a brick aqueduct of Roman-looking arches built for the 1890 canal, carries water across the precinct and has become one of Kyoto's most photographed backdrops.

Kyoto-based Kyocera took over which camera maker, holder of the Contax licence, in 1983?

Kyocera bought the struggling Yashica in 1983, gaining its Contax partnership with Carl Zeiss, and made cameras under both names until quitting the camera business in the mid-2000s.

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

Some 1,500 plum trees fill the grounds; the Baikasai plum-blossom festival on 25 February marks the death day of the scholar deified as Tenjin and coincides with the shrine's monthly flea market.

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

Akechi Mitsuhide turned his 13,000 men on the temple before dawn on 21 June 1582; his motive was never settled, and the cry 'The enemy is at Honnō-ji!' was probably a later invention.

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

The Shinsengumi, a rōnin corps policing Kyoto for the shogunate, raided the Ikedaya on 8 July 1864: Kondō went in with ten men and Hijikata Toshizō's squad arrived later.

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

The moon over the Katsura River was a classical poetic theme; Prince Toshihito built the villa in the early 1600s with a moon-viewing platform, echoing the Tale of Genji's description of the site.

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

Reiki traces to Mikao Usui, who said he received the healing method during a 21-day fast on Mount Kurama in 1922; the mountain is also the folklore home of the tengu.

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

The protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005, 90 days after Russia's ratification pushed the signatories' share of 1990 emissions past the required 55%; the United States never ratified.

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

The Tōzai Line, opened in 1997, runs east-west and crosses the north-south Karasuma Line at a single station, Karasuma Oike; the Karasuma Line's first stretch opened in 1981.

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

Sakamoto Ryōma fired a Smith & Wesson revolver to escape the shogunate's men at the Teradaya; he was assassinated at the Ōmiya inn in December 1867, aged 31.

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

Ponto-chō's name is usually traced to the Portuguese ponto ('point') or ponte ('bridge'), with its kanji chosen for sound alone; the alley runs between the river and Kiyamachi Street.

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

Uji, on the river south of Kyoto, is the setting of the 'Uji chapters' that close the novel; the town also saw 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?

Temple records from 1694 to 1864 list 234 jumps with 200 survivors, about 85%; the soft earth and trees below cushioned many falls, and the practice was banned in 1872.

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

Sugawara no Michizane, exiled to Dazaifu in 901 and dead there in 903, was blamed for lightning strikes and deaths at court; enshrined at Kitano, he became Tenjin, patron of learning.

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

Saichō, known posthumously as Dengyō Daishi, built a small hall on Mount Hiei in 788 and returned from Tang China in 805 to establish the Tendai school; the monastery's kaihōgyō 'marathon monks' keep its ascetic tradition.

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

The 17 sites include Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Ryōan-ji and Byōdō-in, and spill beyond the city into two neighbours, one of them Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture, home of Enryaku-ji.

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

Fire was the temple's great fear, and since an umbrella invites rain, the 'forgotten umbrella' in the Mieidō rafters is counted among Chion-in's seven wonders as a charm against it.

Chion-in's giant bell, one of Japan's three great bells, weighs roughly how much?

Cast in 1636, the bell weighs about 74 tons and needs a team of seventeen monks to swing its striker for the New Year's Eve ringing.

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

Hiroshi Hara won the 1991 international competition with a 470-metre glass-and-steel hall; the 15-storey building holds a hotel, a department store and a theatre.

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

Hideki Yukawa proposed mesons in 1935 as carriers of the nuclear force binding protons and neutrons; Cecil Powell's team found the pi meson in 1947, and Yukawa became Japan's first Nobel laureate.

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

The tōsu, a Muromachi-period communal toilet for a hundred monks, is Japan's oldest surviving one; the temple's name splices together Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji, two great temples of the earlier capital.

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

Omron's electronic ticket gate, installed at a railway station north of Osaka in 1967, earned an IEEE Milestone in 2007; the name Omron comes from Omuro, the Kyoto district where the firm settled in 1945.

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

Koichi Tanaka, a 43-year-old engineer with only a bachelor's degree, shared the prize for soft laser desorption of proteins; Shimadzu promptly made him its first Fellow and named a laboratory after him.

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

Power from the Keage hydro plant let the Kyoto Electric Railway open Japan's first electric tram line in February 1895, part of a push to revive a city the imperial court had abandoned.

Daigo-ji, whose pagoda of 951 is Kyoto's oldest building, belongs to which Buddhist school?

Daigo-ji is the head temple of the Shingon school's Daigo branch; its five-storey pagoda, completed in 951, is the oldest surviving building in Kyoto and a National Treasure.

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

Kanō Tan'yū and his school painted the Ninomaru's gilded screens of pines, tigers and leopards in 1626, with the fiercest subjects placed in the outer rooms to overawe visiting lords.

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

The Taishō and Shōwa emperors held their enthronement rites in 1915 and 1928 in the palace's main hall, following the pre-war Imperial House rules; the present buildings date from 1855.

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

Yamana Sōzen's western army camped there against Hosokawa Katsumoto's eastern army during the war of 1467-77; weavers returning in the 1480s settled on the old 'western camp', and Nishijin brocade revived.

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

Gekkeikan, 'laurel wreath', was adopted as the brand in 1905, evoking the victor's crown; the company had traded as Kasagiya since its founding in 1637.

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

Go-Daigo, who died in exile at Yoshino in 1339 after Takauji broke with his Kenmu Restoration, was honoured with the temple; its 'heavenly dragon' name came from Tadayoshi's dream of a golden dragon over the river.

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

Musō Soseki, the Rinzai master who also became Tenryū-ji's founding abbot, rebuilt Saihō-ji in 1339 and laid out its two-level garden, whose upper dry-rock arrangement is among the earliest of its kind.

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

Empress Shōshi, daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, took Murasaki Shikibu into her service around 1005, probably on the strength of the early Genji chapters; Murasaki's diary records life in Shōshi's household.

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

Fu, 'urban prefecture', was given to Kyoto and Osaka at the start of the Meiji era as the former capital and the commercial hub; Tokyo's 'fu' became 'to' in 1943, leaving the pair alone.