Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto

Site information

• Official name: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji, and Otsu Cities)
• Location: Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 1994

The Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto comprise seventeen sites in Kyoto and Uji Cities in Kyoto Prefecture and Otsu City in Shiga Prefecture. Founded in the eighth century and modeled on the Chinese capital of Chang'an, Kyoto served as the capital of imperial Japan until the middle of the nineteenth century and has remained a cultural center and important symbol of Japanese history and identity into the twenty-first century. Most of the 198 buildings and twelve gardens that make up the component parts of the property were built or designed between the tenth and the eighteenth centuries.

History

In 794 CE, Emperor Kammu established the city of Kyoto, or Heian-kyo (meaning "the capital of tranquillity and peace"), as the imperial capital of Japan. During this period, Japanese culture was heavily influenced by China, and Kyoto was designed as a scaled replica of the Chinese Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an. Aspects of Chinese culture, such as Buddhism and Taoism, were strong influences on the urban development of the city, which included the construction of many Buddhist temples. Kyoto quickly developed into the largest and most significant city in Japan and during this era provided the setting for the production of several major artistic works, including The Tale of Genji, an eleventh-century work by Murasaki Shikibu that has been called the world's first novel.

The Heian period came to an end, however, in 1155, when the rise of military powers displaced the civilian authority of the emperor and the central dominance of the Fujiwara clan. This inaugurated a period often termed feudal, or medieval, Japan in which, in a process very similar to the development of feudalism in Europe, central authority declined and power increasingly came to be placed in the hands of a warrior class, called samurai, and the various lords who held their authority. Although Japan retained an emperor and Kyoto continued to serve as the imperial capital, the emperor increasingly lost authority and was ultimately reduced to just being one warring regional lord among many. For a time, Japan effectively ceased to exist as a united political entity and was characterized by constant wars.

Despite the regional displacement of power, Kyoto remained the largest city in Japan and held deep political and symbolic significance. However, this very political significance contributed to the sharp and violent decline of the city for it came seen as a prize that regional lords fought over. The Onin wars, a series of battles fought between 1467 and 1477, were effectively one long, ongoing war over Kyoto and its symbols of authority. This proved particularly devastating for the city. Kyoto was invaded multiple times, which led to depopulation, the destruction of large areas of the city, and even the impoverishment of the imperial court.

In the sixteenth century, Japan was gradually unified in a series of military campaigns which culminated in the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who established the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, effectively unifying Japan and inaugurating more than 250 years of peace. Kyoto was rebuilt and revitalized in this period, but it never regained its former glory. The center of culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries moved increasingly to Tokyo (termed Edo in this period), while other cities became more economically significant. In 1868 the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown in a revolutionary upheaval termed the Meiji Restoration after the imposition of a series of unequal trade treaties with the West provoked a major political crisis. This revolution reestablished the authority of the emperor, entirely abolished the authority of the samurai class, and inaugurated a period of rapid industrialization and institutional development. However, although the emperor was reinstated as a political authority, Tokyo was officially redesignated as the capital and new site of the imperial court, so the status of Kyoto as the political center of Japan was finally officially ended.

Significance

Although Kyoto no longer holds political significance in Japan, its cultural significance has only increased in the contemporary era. Kyoto is seen as a symbol of old Japan and memorialized as the "thousand year capital." Most significantly, Kyoto is by far the most historically well preserved city in Japan. During World War II, the vast majority of Japan's major cities were very heavily bombed and suffered very substantial damage. Kyoto, however, escaped the bombing virtually unscathed and is thus one of the very few cities in Japan that retains a substantial number of historical buildings.

The thirty-eight buildings designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the historical monuments of Kyoto are only a small sample of the vast array of historic buildings in the city. However, they were chosen as representative of the array of historical buildings present in Kyoto and because they span the range of Japanese history, including properties from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. Kyoto is particularly notable for its Buddhist temples but also houses important Shinto shrines, a historic castle, and major historical administrative buildings and monuments.

Bibliography

Gordon, A. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Oxford UP, 2003.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities). World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. whc.unesco.org/en/list/688.

Howland, D. R. "Samurai Status, Class, and Bureaucracy: A Historiographical Essay." The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 60, no. 2, May, 2001, pp. 353–80.

Sango, Asuka. The Halo of Golden Light: Imperial Authority and Buddhist Ritual in Heian Japan. U of Hawai'i P, 2015.

Walker, Brett L. A Concise History of Japan. Cambridge UP, 2015.