For a millennium, Kyoto was the seat of power in Japan. Today it is the cultural heart. The modern city, with its 1600 Buddhist temples, 400 Shinto shrines, and its exquisite palaces and gardens, is a center of tradition – a worldly metropolis that treasures its heritage.

It is also a place of learning, for Kyoto is home to about 40 colleges and universities. At one of these schools, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS), students and faculty are working together in the ‘Kyoto Research Project’ to create the website you are now visiting. Explore our site and enjoy learning all about the unique character of Kyoto and of Japanese culture – just as we delight in all that we learn by creating the articles and images you’ll find here.

Our aim is to offer you, in seven different languages, fascinating knowledge that is easy to understand, and we promise to keep in mind the points-of-view and interests of non-Japanese visitors from around the world. Student researchers and writers work under the guidance of native-speaker instructors. While all have studied English since junior high school, most of the students writing here in other languages began their studies only recently at our university. Our website is linked with Kyoto City’s. Since it is also a work-in-progress, please bookmark our site and check back with us as we add many more articles. There’s no end to learning about Kyoto!

See the directory below and browse our collection of articles in English.

Regions of Kyoto

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