All the pictures were taken and put together by Designcraft, a Kyoto-based design studio. We simply wanted to capture the scenes that we felt were somewhat impressive – those things that we felt were particular to Kyoto, whether they are historical temples or just fragments of everyday life.

 

This website is not a tourist information site and therefore may not necessarily cover all the famous tourist destinations. As a Kyoto-native, we simply wanted to capture the scenes that we felt were somewhat impressive – those things that we felt were particular to Kyoto, whether they are historical temples or just fragments of everyday life.

  Another important purpose of this site is to keep a record of the beautiful scenery and townscape of Kyoto, which has been seeing gradual changes in the past decades. Especially in the last few decades, many traditional wooden townhouses (machiya) have been torn down and new concrete buildings—mostly condominiums and more recently economic hotels—have been built. Among those new buildings, there are some that look aesthetically unique, but we are afraid the uniformity of the city landscape is collapsing in a rapid pace.

 

Before everything is lost and changed in this historically and culturally unique city, we want to let as many people as possible know the beauty and valuableness of these townscapes and the culture behind them.

 

We hope this small effort may help somehow to preserve—and even restore—the uniformed beauty of this city in the future.