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Now overrun by young crowds, the Shinkyogoku area originally was temple land: in the late 16th century Hideyoshi, in his remaking of the city, moved two temples, Seiganji and Konrenji here (Konrenji has since moved again). The area became a “town in front of the temple gate”, with theaters and teahouses and that is how it spent the Edo-period.

[Shinkyogoku seen from Sanjo - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The next change came in early Meiji, when Kyoto governor Makimura Masanao in order to revitalize the city which had just lost the Emperor and his court, tried to create the same type of modern entertainment district here as in Tokyo’s Asakusa or Osaka’s Sennichimae. And indeed, like Asakusa it became the place where the first cinemas sprang up in the early 20th c. - and there are still some cinemas left. The name, Shinkyogoku, by the way, was taken by the governor from the street that ran in this vicinity in the Heian period: that was Kyogoku - so this became “New Kyogoku.”From a street where local souvenirs where sold, and therefore popular with tourists in the second half of the 20th c., it now has changed into a sort of Harajuku, but that is all in the game - I am sure it will keep changing.

[Seiganji - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

The temples, unchanged, are still there - especailly Seiganji is an impressive establishment of Pure Land Buddhism (another favorite is Tako Yakushi, about which I have written before) and sometimes, behind the walls and the shops, you can spot the old graveyards, as memento mori right in the middle of this pleasure district.