KYOTO HISTORY
 Kyoto
history - brief overview of the history of Kyoto the former capital
of Japan.
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 Yamashito 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. Later, 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 "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 defence 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
due to the "beauty of the city" (See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki), and the city was spared 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.
A common English pronunciation of Kyoto has three syllables as
/key-oh-toe/ [kʰi'otəʊ]; however, the Japanese pronunciation has
only two: [kʲoːto].
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(Article
based on
Wikipedia article and used under the
GNU Free Documentation License)
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