Kyoto had been the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years, from the year 794 through1869. The historic city is said to have more than one thousand Buddhist temples and hundreds of Shinto shrines. This site introduces about 100 temples and shrines as well as other places of interest that are selected arbitrarily. In addition, photographs of festivals and other information such as brief descriptions of history and climate of Kyoto, etc. are presented.

Historical Structures

Kyoto has variety of historical buildings ranging from big Buddhist temple halls to small roadside shrines or glittering Golden Pavilion to frugal looking tea ceremony huts. A lot of photos of these structures are presented in this site.

About 70 percent of this country is forest and abundant wood resources are available, while earthquakes are frequent in this country. Because of these facts, and maybe some others, almost all historical buildings are made of wood.

Since the buildings are wooden, they easily catch fire and were repeatedly lost by lightning strikes or fires of war. Especially, during Onin civil war (1467-1477), many buildings of temples and shrines burned down. Still, some of them survived. The five-story pagoda of Daigo-ji temple (photo left) has been keeping original structure for more than 1,000 years. If a wooden building would not catch fire, it could not stand forever. A temple called Kiyomizu-dera has planted trees that will be needed to rebuild their buildings 500 years later.

Gardens

Most gardens introduced here are those of temples or shrines. Karesansui, or dry landscape garden, of Ryoan-ji temple (photo right) and Chisen Kaiyushiki Teien, or a pond stroll garden, of Kinkaku-ji temple would be of prime interest. One of the techniques to design a garden that is called Shakkei or "borrowed scenery" is also interesting. Typical examples of this technique can be seen at Entsu-ji or Shoden-ji temples.

Figures

Many of Buddhist images are artistic and worth seeing. But, photography is forbidden in many temples so that only a few photographs are carried in this site.

Other figures such as those of Emperors or Shogun are in similar situation.

Paintings

There are many beautiful fusuma-e or shoheki-ga paintings in Kyoto but most of these are also put under ban of photography. Again, only a few photographs are carried in this site.

Festivals and Events

Many festivals and events are held throughout the year in Kyoto. The biggest and most interesting of them is Gion Matsuri festival that is held in the whole month of July. Yamaboko Junko and Shinko-sai held in July 17 are the main events of the big festival.

In addition to Gion Matsuri, Aoi Matsuri held in May 15 and Jidai Matsuri in October 22 are also big festivals and attract many visitors every year.

Photos and information of these festivals are presented in this site.