Oideyasu! Please take off your shoes.
The Black Turtle of the North on a lantern at Heian Shrine. the Northern Turtle is represented by Funaoka-yama in the city. Kyoto today fills the valley, but when the emperor Kammu decided to move the capital here in A.D. 794, it needed much less space, and turtle-esque Funaoka-yama (just a hill, really) was selected as the northern centerpoint, running down to the Rashomon (yes, that Rashomon) gate in the south. The original Heian Palace was built just south of Funaoka-yama, which now is quite a bit west of the current center of town.
The history lessons, as always, are good reading. I was going to ask if Funaoka-yama still exists, but a quick Google search shows that it has not yet been bulldozed.
Posted by: Jerry on January 19, 2006 10:22 AM
