This street corner holds the site of the Omiya Inn, a soy sauce merchant shop that once served as a sanctuary for those plotting the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In November eighteen sixty-seven, the influential samurai Sakamoto Ryoma…
Takase River Historic Canal Walk
This walking tour traces the shallow, willow-lined canal that served as Kyoto's vital commercial shipping artery for three centuries, showcasing its fully preserved first boat landing and the dramatic samurai-era monuments that lined its banks.
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1. Site of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro’s Assassination (Site of Omi-ya Inn)
2. Rissei Garden Hulic Kyoto
Rissei Garden Hulic Kyoto is a distinctive complex that frames a green public square with the restored, cream-colored concrete walls of the former Rissei Elementary School. Completed in nineteen twenty-eight, this school building was once…
3. Ikedaya Incident Site
The site of the Ikedaya Inn is currently occupied by an izakaya restaurant, a modern building that stands where a pivotal clash occurred on July 8, 1864. You can recognize the location by the historical markers that commemorate the site of…
4. Ikedaya Incident Sword-scarred Giboshi
The Sanjō Ōhashi bridge features onion-shaped railing posts known as giboshi, and the second post from the west on the south side carries a distinct, jagged scar. Local lore identifies this mark as a sword strike from the Ikedaya Incident…
5. Statue of Kogoro Katsura / Site of Choshu Domain Residence
A bronze statue of Kogoro Katsura stands near the entrance of the Hotel Okura in Kyoto, marking the site where the Choshu Domain once maintained its local residence. Katsura, later known as Kido Takayoshi, served as a vital liaison for the…
6. Takase River Boat Landing
The Takase River Boat Landing, or Ichi-no-Funairi, is a rectangular inlet that cuts at a sharp angle into the west bank of the Takase River. It is the only surviving example of the nine original boat basins that once functioned as loading,…