The city of Kyoto is the spiritual home for many of the Japanese people. The city is dotted with many temples and shrines, including structures which have been registered as World Heritage Cultural Property. Walking through the city, one still finds streets lined with antique houses, and throughout the year the city is filled with tourists, both from within the country and from abroad. Indeed, it can be said that Kyoto is a city overflowing with the quintessence of 1200 years of Japanese culture.

From its very founding in 794, however, Kyoto has been an international city. The city itself was built through cultural exchange from overseas. Laid out like a chessboard with streets running north/south and east/west, it was modelled after Chang'an, the capitol of China during the Teng dynasty. The entrance to the city was also patterned after the Chinese capitol, and comprised a magnificent gate (the gate no longer exists). The newest technology of the era was used in construction, and craftsmen from the Korean peninsula were employed.

One of the representative arts of Japanese culture is the tea ceremony. Tea, however, was imported with Buddhism from China. In the beginning, tea was used as medicine, but developed into the art known as tea ceremony during the 16th Century. Kyoto provided the setting for the development of not only the manner involved in tea ceremony, but also the development of the tea bowls, the utensils, and even the buildings and gardens used in the ceremony. The stage arts such as Noh and Kabuki were also born and developed in Kyoto.

Topographically, Kyoto is shaped like a basin, and is surrounded by mountains on three sides. As a result, the summers in Kyoto are hot and humid. Each year during the heat of summer, a festival, known as the Gion Festival, is held. Though the festival is actually of religious origin, people are captivated more by the ornamental floats, called 'hoko' which are erected in the narrow streets. These 'hoko', which stand as tall as 20 meters, are constructed without nails or bolts. They carry figures from Japanese and Chinese legends, and are decorated with elaborate tapestries. The tapestries which cover the 'hoko' were not all woven in Japan, but also include extremely valuable tapestries that were woven in Europe and imported many hundreds of years ago. Even so, these 'hoko', and indeed the overall festival itself, are characterized by a harmony which is very Japanese in nature.

In 1868, after a history of more than 1000 years as the capitol of Japan, Kyoto relinquished the title to Tokyo. Known as the Meiji Restoration, this marked the sudden, and rapid modernization of Japan. No longer the capitol of the country, Kyoto did not immerse itself in the traditions of the past, but instead set upon creating new traditions in accordance with the currents of modernization. Throughout history Kyoto had assimilated the very best from China, the Korean peninsula, and even Europe, and in so doing, had transformed it into something completely all its own. The creation of new traditions now was accomplished in much the same way. The construction of the first electrical power plant in Japan, as well as the first street trolley both took place in Kyoto. Just as Kabuki was first performed on the Kyoto stage, the first movie shown in Japan also opened in Kyoto.

The many temples and shrines in Japan indicate that Kyoto had served as a center of learning, a tradition which Kyoto maintains to this day. With a population of only 1.4 million, Kyoto boasts as many as 22 universities (20 of which include graduate schools) and 14 junior colleges, with a total enrollment of approximately 140,000.

Kyoto has always been very aggressive in incorporating that which is new or different, and converting it into something unique to the city itself. Even today, this trend continues, and Kyoto is an ideal environment for venture enterprises. Indeed, it was here in Kyoto that the Mario Brothers and the Pocket Monsters, known and loved by children the world over, were born.

Kyoto is a city which continues its own historical tradition of creating and maintaining the traditions of the entire country.