Kyoto became Japan’s imperial capital in 794 AD under Emperor Kanmu, who named his new city Heian-kyo. It held that position — seat of the imperial court — for over a thousand years, right up until the capital formally shifted to Tokyo in 1868 following the Meiji Restoration. That extraordinarily long run as Japan’s political and cultural heart is exactly why the modern city still carries such an unusual concentration of temples, shrines and palaces.
Here’s something worth knowing before you visit: many of Kyoto’s most famous structures, including several of its best-known temples, have been rebuilt multiple times over the centuries after fires — a recurring hazard for traditional wooden construction. So what you’re looking at today is often a more recent reconstruction, even if it’s spiritually and historically continuous with a much older original.
Kyoto’s survival through the Second World War without significant bombing damage — unlike Tokyo, Osaka and most other major Japanese cities — is widely credited to its removal from the American target list, specifically over concerns about destroying irreplaceable cultural heritage. Whatever the full complexity behind that decision, it left Kyoto’s historic urban fabric remarkably intact.
The geisha tradition centred in Gion traces back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when the district originally served travellers and merchants along the Kamo River. It’s continued in a recognisably similar form ever since — making Gion one of the only places in Japan where this particular hospitality and entertainment culture is still genuinely active rather than purely historical.