Kyoto held the emperor from 794 to 1868, so its history is layered rather than linear: Heian courtiers, Ashikaga shoguns, the Onin War's ashes, Tokugawa castles and Meiji-era reinvention all left addresses you can still walk to.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's 1603 Kyoto residence, where the last shogun returned power to the emperor in 1867. Ninomaru Palace keeps its nightingale floors and Kano-school tiger screens. Open 08:45–16:00 (entry to 17:00), closed Tuesdays in Dec/Jan/Jul/Aug.
The last surviving fragment of Emperor Kanmu's 794 palace garden, once a private imperial pleasure park where Kukai is said to have prayed for rain in 824. Free to enter; the on-site Heian restaurant serves lunch sets beside the dragon boat pond.
Home of the emperors from 1331 until the 1869 move to Tokyo, rebuilt in 1855 in Heian style. The Shishinden enthronement hall hosted three coronations. Free entry, no reservation needed, 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays and 28 Dec–4 Jan.
Kyoto's oldest shrine, predating the city itself — the Kamo clan worshipped here before 678 AD, and it guarded the capital's unlucky northeast gate. The two sand cones, tatesuna, represent the sacred mountain. Grounds open dawn to dusk.
Opened 1897 in Katayama Tokuma's French-Renaissance Meiji brick hall, now a National Important Cultural Property. The Heisei Chishinkan wing shows Heian sculpture, medieval scrolls and archaeology. 09:30–17:00, closed Mondays.
Japan's only museum dedicated to the Bakumatsu era — the violent 1853–1868 collapse of shogunal rule. Letters, swords and the bloodstained pillar relating to Sakamoto Ryoma, assassinated nearby in 1867. Closed Mondays.
Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro are buried on this hillside with roughly 1,300 imperial loyalists killed in the Meiji Restoration struggle. The terrace looks straight across the city they fought to reshape. Open 08:00–17:00.
A one-metre-wide lane licensed for teahouses in 1712 and rebuilt after the Meiji-era fires, still lined with machiya bearing the plover crest of the Pontocho guild. Riverside kawayuka terraces run May to September over the Kamo.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's 1397 retirement villa, turned Zen temple at his death in 1408. The pavilion you see is a 1955 reconstruction — a novice monk burned the original down in 1950, the arson Mishima turned into a novel. Open 09:00–17:00.
Weaving has run in these lanes since the Onin War (1467–1477), whose western army camp gave Nishijin its name. Orinasukan, a working machiya workshop, shows Noh costumes and obi looms in use. 10:00–16:00, closed Mondays.
Founded 1164 by Taira no Kiyomori for retired emperor Go-Shirakawa, rebuilt 1266 after fire. 1,001 gilded Kannon statues stand in a 120-metre hall, 124 of them originals rescued from the blaze. Samurai archery contests were held along the veranda.
The only surviving ageya banquet house of Shimabara, Kyoto's licensed quarter from 1641, where Bakumatsu loyalists and Shinsengumi swordsmen drank — sword gouges remain in the woodwork. The great gate of 1732 still stands at the entrance.