Kyoto After the Tokyo Tento

The emperor's move to Tokyo and "tento"

In the 7th month of Meiji 1 (1868), an imperial rescript renaming Edo as Tokyo was issued, and in the 9th month of that year Emperor Meiji traveled to Tokyo. The emperor returned to Kyoto once, but on the 28th day of the 3rd month of Meiji 2 (1869, lunar calendar) he arrived in Tokyo again, and the Daijōkan (Council of State), the center of government, was also moved inside Tokyo Castle. In this way Kyoto, the capital since Heian-kyō, in effect ceased to be the capital.

However, the Meiji government never officially announced a transfer of the capital (sento) to Tokyo, and neither an imperial rescript nor a government proclamation was issued. The Ishinshi (History of the Restoration), compiled by the Ministry of Education in 1941 (Shōwa 16), likewise uses not "sento" (遷都, transferring the capital) but "tento" (奠都), a word that simply means "establishing a capital."

The population's fall and recovery

In the Edo period, Kyoto was one of the largest cities in Japan, home to about 300,000 people. When court nobles (kuge) and officials moved to Tokyo after the Tokyo tento, merchants also left Kyoto, and the city faced a crisis of urban decline.

Kyoto's population (Kamigyō and Shimogyō) in 1873 (Meiji 6) was about a fifth below that of the Edo period, and it was slightly lower still in the survey for 1878 (Meiji 11). It turned upward only after that. The 1912 figure includes the areas added to Kyoto City when it expanded in 1902.

A revival that began with schools and industrial promotion

The first major move was in schools. In 1869 (Meiji 2), 64 bangumi elementary schools were opened, one for each bangumi, the units formed by reorganizing the machigumi (neighborhood associations), and Makimura Masanao, who later became the second governor of the prefecture, strongly pushed forward their construction. Nagatani Nobuatsu, the first governor of Kyoto Prefecture, also set about revival measures, for example in a memorial he submitted in 1870 (Meiji 3).

In Meiji 3, Kyoto Prefecture established the Seimikyoku (chemistry institute) and the Jusanjo (vocational center), and in 1871 (Meiji 4) it set up the Kangyōba (Industrial Promotion Office), using as capital funds such as those granted by the emperor at the time of the Tokyo tento. With the Kangyōba as a base, support for Nishijin weaving and Kiyomizu ware and the building of factories for beer, paper, and leather goods followed one after another.

Exhibitions were held early too. The exhibition held at Nishi Hongan-ji in Meiji 4 was the first exhibition in Japan, and the next year, 1872 (Meiji 5), the Kyoto Exhibition Company, formed by Kyoto Prefecture and private citizens, held the First Kyoto Exhibition with Nishi Hongan-ji, Kennin-ji, and Chion-in as its venues. The Gion song and dance performed as an entertainment there was the beginning of today's Miyako Odori.

Electricity from the canal and the trams

Kitagaki Kunimichi, who became the third governor of Kyoto Prefecture in February 1881 (Meiji 14), pushed ahead with building a canal to bring water from Lake Biwa, hoping to restore vitality to a Kyoto that had sunk low after the Tokyo tento. The plan aimed at transport, irrigation, power, and drinking water; construction began in 1885 (Meiji 18), the First Canal, from Ōtsu to the confluence with the Kamo River, was completed in 1890 (Meiji 23), with a completion ceremony on April 9.

During construction it was decided to adopt hydroelectric power, and the Keage Power Station was completed in 1891 (Meiji 24). On February 1, 1895 (Meiji 28), the Kyoto Electric Railway ran Japan's first city trams on its electricity. In the same year, Heian Shrine was founded on March 15 to coincide with the Commemorative Festival for the 1,100th Anniversary of the Transfer of the Capital to Heian-kyō, and on April 1 the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition opened in Okazaki. It drew more than 1.13 million visitors in four months, and the trams also carried people to the exhibition grounds.

After the canal was completed, holding the commemorative festival, hosting the National Industrial Exhibition, and building a railway between Kyoto and Maizuru were called the "Three Great Issues" in Kyoto, and the city's political and business leaders, seeing them as a chance to modernize, worked hard to make them happen.

The Three Great Projects at the end of the Meiji era

Kyoto City was born in 1889 (Meiji 22), and when the special municipal system (shisei tokurei), under which the prefectural governor performed the duties of mayor, was abolished at the end of September 1898 (Meiji 31), Naiki Jinzaburō became the first mayor. Naiki's plan for a Second Canal was carried on by the second mayor, Saigō Kikujirō (son of Saigō Takamori), and was realized as the "Three Great Projects": building the Second Lake Biwa Canal, laying a water supply system, and widening roads and laying municipal tram lines.

Construction of the Second Canal began in 1908 (Meiji 41) and it was completed in March 1912 (Meiji 45), and in April water supply began from the Keage Water Purification Plant. On June 11 the Kyoto City municipal trams began operating, and the completion ceremony for the Three Great Projects was held the same month.

Places to trace Kyoto's Meiji revival

The Kyoto Municipal Museum of School History (Gokōmachi-dōri Bukkōji sagaru, Shimogyō Ward) uses the building of the former Kaichi Elementary School and presents the history of education in Kyoto, centering on the 64 bangumi elementary schools. It is open 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30) and closed on Wednesdays (or the next weekday if Wednesday is a holiday). Admission is 400 yen for adults and 150 yen for elementary, junior high, and high school students, and elementary and junior high school students in Kyoto City are free on Saturdays and Sundays (as of October 2026).

The Lake Biwa Canal Museum of Kyoto (Nanzenji Kusagawa-chō, Sakyō Ward; a 7-minute walk from Keage Station on the Tōzai Subway Line) is free and open 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30); it is closed on Mondays (or the next weekday if Monday is a national or substitute holiday) and over the New Year period (December 29–January 3). Okazaki Park (Sakyō Ward) opened on the former exhibition site in 1904 (Meiji 37), and Heian Shrine, art museums, and a library now stand around it. The Former Main Building of the Kyoto Prefectural Office (Kamigyō Ward), completed on December 20 of the same year, is open free of charge Tuesday to Friday and on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturdays, 10:00–17:00 (except holidays and the New Year period). A place connected with the municipal trams that opened in 1912 is the Tram Plaza (Shiden Hiroba) in Umekōji Park (Shimogyō Ward).