Origins Ample
archeological evidence suggests human settlement in the area of Kyoto began as early as the
Paleolithic period, although not much published material is retained about human activity in the region before the 6th century, around which time the
Shimogamo Shrine is believed to have been established. Before Kyoto became the imperial capital,
immigrants from mainland Asia contributed to the development of the area. During the 8th century, when powerful
Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the imperial government,
Emperor Kanmu chose to relocate the capital in order to distance it from the clerical establishment in
Nara. His last choice for the site was the village of Uda, in the Kadono district of
Yamashiro Province. The new city, , modeled after Chinese
Tang dynasty capital
Chang'an, became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794, beginning the
Heian period of
Japanese history. Although military rulers established their governments either in Kyoto (
Muromachi shogunate) or in other cities such as
Kamakura (
Kamakura shogunate) and
Edo (
Tokugawa shogunate), Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the imperial court to
Tokyo in 1869 at the time of the
Imperial Restoration.
Feudal period In the
Sengoku period, the city suffered extensive destruction in the
Ōnin War of 1467–1477, and did not really recover until the mid-16th century. During the war, battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, and came to involve 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. In the late 16th century,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi reconstructed the city by building new streets to double the number of north–south streets in central Kyoto, creating rectangle blocks superseding ancient square blocks. Toyotomi also built earthwork walls called encircling the city.
Teramachi Street in central Kyoto is a Buddhist temple quarter where Toyotomi gathered temples in the city. File:Kanō Eitoku - Rakuchū rakugai zu (Uesugi) - right screen.jpg|
Rakuchū rakugai zu, a 16th-century depiction of central Kyoto including
Gion Matsuri floats (center) and
Kiyomizu-dera (upper right)
Early modern period In 1603, the
Tokugawa Shogunate was established at
Edo (present-day Tokyo), marking the beginning of the
Edo period. Nevertheless, Kyoto flourished as one of three major cities in
Japan, the others being
Osaka and Edo. At the end of the period, the
Hamaguri rebellion of 1864 burned down 28,000 houses in the city, which showed the rebels' dissatisfaction towards the Tokugawa Shogunate. File:Scenes_in_and_around_Kyoto_Funaki_1.jpg|Scenes in and around Kyoto () File:1696_Genroku_9_%28early_Edo%29_Japanese_Map_of_Kyoto%2C_Japan_-_Geographicus_-_Kyoto-genroku9-1696.jpg|Map of Heian-kyō, 1696 File:伏見桃山城06.jpg|
Fushimi Castle Modern period At the start of the
Meiji period, the emperor's move from Kyoto to Tokyo in 1869 threatened Kyoto's economic and administrative standing, prompting the city government and local interests to undertake a coordinated plan to strengthen its industrial base and modernize.
Key industrial developments •
Lake Biwa Canal: Construction of the Lake Biwa Canal began in 1885 and was completed on 9 April 1890. The 20 km waterway linked Lake Biwa to Kyoto, supplying drinking water, irrigation, and, from 1895, hydroelectric power for factories and street lighting. It also enabled Japan's first electric tram line in Kyoto. •
Rail, Road and Feeder Canals: Branch rail lines connected Kyoto to the
Tōkaidō Main Line, while expanded roadways and secondary canals improved the flow of goods and raw materials. In 1895, Kyoto introduced the country's first commercial electric railway, powered by Lake Biwa Canal
hydroelectricity. File:Kyoto National Museum (2020) - img 05.jpg|Kyoto National Museum File:170422 Ryukoku University Omiya Campus Kyoto Japan01s.jpg|
Ryukoku University The modern city of Kyoto was officially formed on April 1, 1889, and by 1932, the
population of the city exceeded one million. File:Kyoto View from Kiyomizudera 1870s.jpg|alt=View of Kyoto from beside the Hondō of Kiyomizudera. – 1870s|View of Kyoto from beside the Hondō of Kiyomizudera – 1870s File:Nanzen-ji, Suirokaku (Lake Biwa Canal) -1 (November 2008) - panoramio.jpg|Nanzenji aqueduct
Contemporary history There was some consideration by the
United States of targeting Kyoto with an
atomic bomb at the end of
World War II because of the possibility that the city's importance was great enough that its loss might persuade Japan to surrender. In the end, at the insistence of
Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, the city was removed from the list of targets and replaced by
Nagasaki. The city was largely spared from conventional bombing as well, although small-scale air raids did result in casualties. During the occupation, the
U.S. Sixth Army and
I Corps were headquartered in Kyoto. As a result, Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities that still have an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as
machiya. However, modernization is continually breaking down traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the
Kyōto Station complex. Kyoto became a
city designated by government ordinance on September 1, 1956. In 1994,
17 historic monuments in Kyoto were inscribed on the list as
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 1997, Kyoto hosted the conference that resulted in the
protocol on greenhouse gas emissions (
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). ==Geography==