Kiyamachi-dori

photo by yasunari · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by Mariemon at jp Wikipedia · CC BY 3.0

In 1611 a canal brought timber from Osaka: a hundred boats travelled up it every day.

The street runs along the Takase Canal, dug in 1611 by the merchant Suminokura Ryōi to link central Kyoto with the river port of Fushimi: flat boats with shallow bottoms (高瀬舟, takase-bune), which here gave their name both to the canal and to the navigation technique, travelled up the canal in their dozens (more than a hundred at peak times) laden with goods from Osaka. The street's name, ‘street of the timber warehouses’, came in the eighteenth century when timber merchants settled along the embankment. Today the canal, barely a few metres wide, runs between bars and restaurants on both sides.

The street runs parallel to the Kamo River, one block to the west, between the Sanjō and Shijō neighbourhoods, right in the centre of Kyoto.

ℹ️ A public street, open at all times. The venues keep their own hours, mostly in the evening; the atmosphere changes radically between the day, which is quiet, and the evening, when the signs light up.

🚉 Kyoto Kawaramachi · 9 min walk

Sources: keihan.co.jp · www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp

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