Kyoto (city)

Kyoto the former capital and cultural center of Japan, is one of the country's largest cities. Located in the southern part of Hunshu island, Kyoto served for many centuries as the center of Japanese civilization, a role now held by Tokyo. Kyoto, with a population of 1,386,000 still plays an important role in the nation's cultural and educational life. The city is well known for its handicraft industries that once catered to the upscale tastes of the imperial court. These include the weaving and dyeing of fine silks and the making of embroidery, ceramics, lacquer and cloisonné ware, and damascene work. Kyoto has long promoted traditional Japanese arts such as the nkno drama, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony. Japan's emperors are still enthroned in the former imperial palace, which is set in spacious grounds in the center of the city.

Education

Kyoto University, founded 1897, has become one of Japan's leading universities; Doshisha University was founded as a Christian college in 1875; Ritsumeikan University was founded in 1900.

History

Emperor Kammu selected the site for his capital in 794 AD. The new city was laid out as a checkerboard, with north-south and east-west axes. The imperial palace was built at the northern end of the central axis. It was modelled after Ch'ang-an, the capital of the T'ang dynasty in China, which was well-known to Japanese diplomats. Kyoto gradually expanded east across and beyond the Kamo River (which now flows through its center) to the foot of the eastern hills. Emperor Kammu named the city "Heian-kyk," ("Capital of Peace and Tranquility"); people called it simply Miyako or Kyoto, both meaning "Capital."

The imperial coourt remained in Kyoto until 1869. Its heyday was the era of the cultivated, aesthetic Heian court, which was at its height in the 11th century. From 1192 to 1333 Japan was controlled by shoguns, or hereditary military dictators, who ruled from Kamakura in the east. The shogun then moved to Kyoto, while the powerless emperor also was in residence. Kyoto was badly samaged in multiple civil wars of the times, notably by the Onin War of 1467-1477, so that by 1500 the authority of both court and shogunate was at a low ebb. However, after 1560 a series of powerful shoguns based in Kyoto revitalized the shogunate and the city, notably Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. They reunified Japan, and restored their capital to its former glory, erecting many strikingly beautiful buildings. They include Nijo Castle; the Katsura Imperial Villa and its famed landscape gardens; Golden Pavilion (reconstructed in 1955 after a fire); the Silver Pavilion (1479), with its sand garden; the stone garden of Ryoanji temple; Daitokuji temple, with priceless paintings; Chion-in temple with its massive two-storied gate and huge bell; and Kiyomizudera temple, clinging to the edge of a cliff.

After 1603 the shogunate, and with it the center of political power, shifted once more to the east, to Edo; the imperial court remained in Kyoto as a ceneter of ceremony. In 1868 the capital of Japan was officially transferred to Edo, renamed Tokyo, or "Eastern Capital."

The "Kyoto School" a movement in political philosophy was developed 1913-45 by Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) of Kyoto University and Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962). It called for Japanese econoic, political and spiritual supremacy in Asia.

Kyoto was the only major Japanese city not bombed in World War II; it was put off-limits by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, who appreciated its cultural importance.

The controversial Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1997) called for long-term reduction in carbon emissions by the industrial countries.

Bibliography

• Szostak, John Donald. "The `Kokuga Sôsaku Kyôkai' and Kyoto Nihonga Reform in the Meiji, Taishô and Early Shôwa Years (1900-1928)." PhD dissertation U. of Washington 2005. 656 pp. DAI 2006 66(7): 2419-A. DA3183429 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses