Senbon Street (千本通せんぼんどおり ''Senbon dōri'') is one of the major streets running from north to south in the city of

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It extends from the Takagamine area of the Kita-ku (north) to the vicinity of Nōso, in the Fushimi-ku (south).

History

The section of present-day Senbon Street located between Nijō and Kujō streets corresponds to the

Suzaku Avenue is the name given to the central avenue leading to the Imperial Palace from the south in Japanese capitals. Traditionally the Imperial palace complex faces south, whilst Suzaku Avenue leads directly away from the main gate. Cities were often ba ...

, the central and most important road of the ancient

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mov ...

, which was 84 meters wide and approximately 4 km long. Later, one thousand (千本 ''senbon'')

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

s were built as an offering and it is believed that because of this the current name of the street came to use.

Relevant landmarks along the street

Kyoto railway museum main building 1F 20160508

Bukkyo University is a private university in Kita-ku, Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The school's predecessor was founded in 1912, and it was chartered as a junior college in 1949. Bukkyo means Buddhism in Japanese, and the university's philosophy is based on ...

Nijō Campus. * Nijō Station. *

Ritsumeikan University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, that traces its origin to 1869. With the Kinugasa Campus (KIC) in Kyoto, and Kyoto Prefecture, the university also has a satellite called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) and Osaka-Ibaraki Campus (OIC). Tod ...

Nijō Campus. *

Tambaguchi Station is a railway station in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Lines * West Japan Railway Company (JR West) ** Sagano Line (Sanin Main Line) Layout The elevated station has an island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform ...

. * Umekoji Park. *

Kyoto Railway Museum The (formerly the until 2016) is a railway museum in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The original Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum opened in 1972, but was expanded and modernized in 2016, becoming the Kyoto Railway Museum. The museum is owned by We ...

. *Site of the Heian Kyō Rashōmon (

Rajōmon , also called , was the gate built at the southern end of the monumental Suzaku Avenue in the ancient Japanese cities of Heijō-kyō (Nara) and Heian-kyō (Kyoto), in accordance with the Chinese grid-patterned city layout. At the other far nor ...

) Gate.

References

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Links

Kyoto Railway MuseumUrban Hotel Kyoto-Nijo Premium
Streets in Kyoto Odonyms referring to religion