The Retirement of Kyoto as Imperial Capital

Abstract

Underlying the critique that Kyoto has turned into a theme park of Japanese culture is the sentiment that this city could do better than function as a site of leisure and amusement for visitors. Such a status is beneath a former imperial capital with a political and cultural history unmatched by any other Japanese city in longevity and significance. Kyoto’s struggle against obsolescence dates back to the time of the establishment of a rival centre, the shogun’s capital in Edo in early seventeenth century. This article argues that in the ensuing three centuries, Kyoto underwent a gradual retirement as imperial capital until the year 1895, when the celebration of the 1,100th anniversary of the city’s foundation catalysed the museumification process. Considering Kyoto from the perspective of architectural history, it examines the formal and spatial expression of the making, unmaking, and memorialising of imperial authority.