Kyoto is a city of around 1.5 million inhabitants in Japan. From 794 to 1868 it was the capital of the Asian country. Today Tokyo is the capital of Japan, but Kyoto is still the capital of the Prefecture of the same name.
Kyoto is located in the Kansai region on the main Japanese island of Honshū.
The city is surrounded by mountains in three directions. Three rivers flow through the Yamashiro (or Kyoto) Basin. The Kamo River with its wide riverbanks is a popular walking spots for residents and visitors.
In 794 ◼Heian-kyō, the then name of Kyoto, was chosen as the new capital by the then Emperor Kanmu. Before that the nearby Nagaoka-kyō was the seat of the Emperor for 10 years.
Following the example of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang’an, today Xi’an, the city centre of the new capital was designed. We worked according to the principles based on Chinese Feng shui. The layout of Heian-kyō was plotted as a square city.
The Nijō Castle is a flatland castle in downtown Kyoto. It has a surface area of 275,000 square meters. The palace is surrounded by two rings consisting of a wall and a wide moat filled with water.
The flatland castle was built 1603 as the Kyoto residence of the first shogun of the Edo Period, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is one of the seventeen UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto.
