The Full History of Capital Relocation in Japan

“Have you ever wondered why Tokyo and Kyoto have such similar names? Watch till the end of this video to find out!“

If you study Japanese or plan on visiting Japan, you may have noticed that two of the major cities, “Tokyo” and “Kyoto” have very similar names. Tokyo is considered the capital of Japan now, but if you take a look at the history, Kyoto was actually the capital before Tokyo.

When and why did the capital of Japan change from Kyoto to Tokyo?

Today, I will talk about the history of the capital relocation of Japan, and when and why the capital became Tokyo city as it is today. Also, at the end of the video, I would like to introduce an interesting theory that states Kyoto is still the capital of Japan! I hope you can watch till the end to find out what this means.

[Time codes]
0:00 Let's START!
1:31 The history of the capital of Japan
9:03 Kyoto is still the capital of Japan?
11:11 Today's conclusion

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Hello everyone, and thank you for watching my videos!

I’m Shogo, a Kyoto born & Hiroshima raised Japanese, that grew up in Michigan USA for 6 years, and studied Mandarin in Beijing university for a year! I live in Kyoto now, as I train in Iaido(katana), Sado(tea ceremony), and Noh theatre(traditional stage art).

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♪Music♪
おとわび
H/MIX GALLERY

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かわいいフリー素材屋 いらすとや

#tokyo #kyoto #japancapital #tokyokyotodifferences #japanesehistory

[GaijinGoombah]

I'm always fascinated with the info you bring. If you're ever interested in collabing, let me know!

[Nekogrl]

A dozen years ago, I made a tour of the historic capitols of Japan: Nara, Kamakura, Kyoto, and Tokyo. But I had no idea that there are a few people who still insist that Kyoto is the capitol of Japan! Thank you for this edifying video, as always, Shogo.

[brandonbentley]

Just excellent channel. Love the mix of history, backstories, and of course swordsmanship. Grounds everything and brings them up to speed of today.

[kacperdadela]

When you accidentally use uno reverse card on your capital and suddenly syllables in its name change their order

[dandreMccray]

Thanks for the info. Everything before the Sengoku Jidai I didn’t know about, so thanks for enlightening me.

[themountainpiratestv]

History of Japan is so fascinating.

Greetings from Philippines

[jozef_chocholacek]

Switzerland, where I live, has officially no capital at all, as there is no law stating what city is the capital. Bern is the de facto capital, because of the parliament and government, but e.g. the three highest courts (constitutional, administrative, and penal) are spread across the country in Lausanne, St. Gallen and Bellinzona, respectively. And economically, the capital is definitely Zürich.

[therockgirl]

You are an excellent professor! Love your videos

[GlenHunt]

Since I am feasting on your videos, this is appropriate: ごちそうさま
I am from Japan and did not live there long, but went back later for a little while. It was wonderful to see and learn where I was from and to experience a sense of connection with everything that surrounded my birth (including the little typhoon). I was glad that many of the old ways exist loud-and-proud in everyday life, and others exist as vestiges if you know where to look. Living in the US, there's so little opportunity to continue to learn about the country, the history, the people and the funny stuff. Your channel is exactly what I need. Thank you so much for doing what you're doing. I often put on a live stream and just let it play for some sense of belonging even though I don't speak the language.

[photographywebernorbert]

Thank you for your absolutely brilliant and interesting videos. Respect 🙏

[kronosful]

I love this channel. You are cool and down to earth. I love japan and im puertorrican .

[FaisLittleWhiteRaven]

Ah these are always so fun to watch. Thank you Shogo for making such fine content~

As for my country's capital... Canberra the capital of Australia was pretty much entirely built only because the States of New South Wales and Victoria were so fiercely competitive over which of their respective capital cities (Sydney and Melbourne) would become the main capital of the country that in the end neither was chosen and eventually a compromise of a city being built within NSW but over 100 miles/160 km away from Sydney was agreed upon.

So yeah, city planned and built from the ground up with the intention of being the political centre of the country, with the location specifically chosen as a compromise between competitive States who could only agree on the single idea that if they couldn't be the country's capital, then at least that title wouldn't go to their rivals.
To the point the Canberra area is officially not considered part of NSW but rather it's own state with its own laws named the 'Australian Capital Territory' or ACT for short~ XD

As for the capital's name, Canberra is definitely a native Indigenous Australian name but the meaning is apparently unknown as there are several claimed meanings and origins for the name but a lot are kind of shaky. The most popular claim is that it's a word from the Ngunnawal peoples language meaning 'meeting place' but there's no actual evidence to support that so... *Shrugs a tad helplessly at that*

-
Side note: The site of Canberra was originally inhabited by several Indigenous Australian groups with the Ngunnawal people being the main ones for up to 21, 000 years and apparently they're still in the area and becoming more visible, and actively involved in things at a local and national level but well... Looking them on the government's site about Canberra, the note of "government policies and the pressures of this new occupation created severe social pressures on the Ngunnawal community and neighbouring Indigenous peoples" has me rather worried about what isn't being listed (our Government LOVES to downplay 'unpleasant happenings' in regards to how our indigenous people have been treated in the past so that line is probably a extreme understatement). So yeah. Bit of a downer but figured it needed to be noted.
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Anyway, hope you found that kinda interesting and thanks again for making these great videos. Only found you in the last few days but definitely subscribing and recommending this channel to my friends and family as a great look into Japanese history and culture (also your vid with you and your wife on Chinese and Japanese relationship difficulties and the wedding style differences was the cutest/most inspiring thing ever and I wish you both all the best with everything and yeah. If I hadn't been won over by the rest of these great vids already those two *definitely* ensured I hit that subscribe XD).

[davidfromkyushu]

I'd read a book on Meiji that covered the 'Kyoto is still the capital idea" because when Meiji initially left to "visit" Edo, his new government promised the people of Kyoto that the Emperor was just going on a trip but Kyoto was, and will always be, the capital. Meiji's "visit" lasted a decade before a brief return to Kyoto, during which time the government decreed all organs of government would move to Tokyo and any new ones would be setup in Tokyo.

[OllamhDrab]

Well, in the US, there was a bit of shifting between New York City and Philadelphia, early on, until Washington DC was asically built from scratch, the idea being it was neither North nor South an centrally located and once, basically neutral and doing not much more than housing the federal government. Of course it's a real multifaceted city long since, now. :)

[sabatiniontech]

Very good video but you missed two points,
1 in Japanese Kyoto literally means capital city and that Tokyo's original nam was Tokyoto or literally east capital city, later shortened to just Tokyo.
2) You did not discuss the interference by the Shinto and later Buddhist monks in the government. The capital was moved from Nara to Kyoto to remove temple politics from the government, temples do not move and Kyoto being farther from Nara than a monk could walk in a day greatly diminished the temples power. Like wise the move to Edo left the monks far from the levers of power after all the big temples grew up in Kyoto.

[kesseli_guy]

I’ve always wondered why Tokyo and Kyoto are anagrams of each other. Thank you!

[jeeperstrippers]

i love those katana on your back planning to get one

[clementyap]

The capital in Nara was built based on the similar structure of the Tang Dynasty.

[DonS]

I like Kyoto more.. Less crowded than Tokyo 😂😂

[aliciasschorra]

In the netherland the capital is neither the place where the royal family lives and neither the political city that is the city the hague but the capital is Amsterdam why I dont know