Kyoto Pride
Claiming Kyoto heritage is a big deal. Most of the people I’ve met in this city were born here and have deep family ties in this city, something they’re quite proud of. According to the locals, Kyoto is the real Japan. There’s a funny rivalry with Tokyo. Even before arriving here I had heard mixed reviews about kansai-ben, the Kyoto dialect of Japanese. Tokyo people say it sounds funny, mostly everyone else says it’s the most elegant and beautiful Japanese, and Kyoto people seem to much prefer it over the “harsh” Japanese of Tokyo’s kanto-ben. Recently I’ve learned that Kyoto-ites (Kyoto-ins? Kyoto-kids?) jokingly refer to Tokyo as East Kyoto. Here’s why.
Check out the Kanji for Kyoto:
The first part, kyo (京), means capital. The second part, to (都), means metropolis or city. So Kyoto means “capital city”.
Now take a look at the Kanji for Tokyo:
Looks a bit familiar right? Let me break it down for you. The first part (東) can also be pronounced higashi, meaning East. The second part (京), is the same kyo from Kyoto, meaning capital. Therefore, Tokyo literally means East Capital. What’s the West Capital? Kyoto, of course, which locals here will claim is the real capital of Japan.
It gets better.
43 of the 47 prefectures of Japan are designated as ken (県), meaning “prefecture”. For example, the prefecture East of me is Shiga-ken. Hokkaido has do (道), meaning territory. Kyoto and Osaka are both fu (府), meaning “a core urban zone of national importance”. So I live in Kyoto-fu.
Only one Prefecture, Tokyo, uses to (都), meaning “metropolis”. Did you catch that? Let’s take a closer look.
= to
So the full Kanji of Tokyo prefecture, pronounced To-kyo-to, is this:
Now here’s the kanji for Kyoto again:
hmmm
So the Kanji for Tokyo Prefecture translates at “East Capital Metropolis”, or simply “East Kyoto”.
A fellow English teacher (and proud citizen of Kyoto) explained this to mean during our car ride to my visit school one morning, and we shared a good chuckle over it. Oh the pride of this city.
まゆまろ!
Meet Mayumaro! He is the official mascot of Kyoto Prefecture. Every prefecture in Japan has an adorable mascot like this, but Mayumaro is totally the coolest. In homage to Kyoto’s historical silk industry and it’s famed kimonos, Mayumaro is a silkworm larvae.
KonnichiWhatsup 