Changes

The [[Kamo River]], which enters the city from the north and passes between the two [[Kamo Shrines]] near the northern edge of the ancient city, originally marked the eastern edge of Heian-kyô, though the city later expanded beyond it.

The [[Kamo River]], which enters the city from the north and passes between the two [[Kamo Shrines]] near the northern edge of the ancient city, originally marked the eastern edge of Heian-kyô, though the city later expanded beyond it.

*Higashiyama

*Higashiyama

[[Nishijin]], an area to the west of the Imperial Palace, with its center to the north of Shinmachi-Imadegawa, has remained the premier textile district in Japan for centuries.

[[Nishijin]], an area to the west of the Imperial Palace, with its center to the north of Shinmachi-Imadegawa, has remained the premier textile district in Japan for centuries.

Historically, the city was, for the most part, divided simply into areas associated with the Court, those controlled by temples & shrines, and the rest. However, beginning in the late 16th to early 17th century, Kyoto came to be geographically more strictly divided according to social status. [[Nijo castle|Nijô castle]], constructed in [[1626]] to the southwest of the Imperial Palace, was intended to serve as a shogunal palace, though no shogun visited Kyoto between the 1630s and the 1860s. Nevertheless, the shogunate's administrative buildings in the city were crowded around Nijô castle, along with the residences of many samurai families. The mansions of court nobles were, for the most part, relocated to be clustered around the Imperial Palace. Merchants and artisans gathered in certain neighborhoods, and areas on the edges of the city were designated for the ''eta'' and ''hinin'', the lowest classes, who were considered non-human and inherently impure.

The [[Shimabara, Kyoto|Shimabara]] was established in [[1640]] as a licensed pleasure district, geographically consolidating licensed prostitution in the city　within a walled area between Gojô and Shichijô avenues in southwestern Kyoto.

 

Roughly half of the daimyô in Tokugawa Japan, that is, at least 105 of them, maintained mansions in Kyoto, operated by a ''rusuiyaku'' when the lord was not present.<ref name=moriya>Moriya, Katsuhisa. Ronald Toby (trans.) "Urban Networks and Information Networks." in Chie Nakane and Shinzaburô Ôishi (eds.) ''Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan''. University of Tokyo Press, 1990. pp97-123.</ref>

==History==

==History==