Saga Toriimoto

The Saga District had been used as an open cemetery by Kyoto residents since time immemorial, and up to recent times this has been the boundary where the periphery of Kyoto meets the countryside beyond. The modern village still retains a mixture of wooden latticed, tile roofed townhouses, and the simpler, thatched roofed farmhouses. For its preservation of traditional townscape, the immediate area surrounding the Torii gate (Saga-Toriimoto) has been designated as one of the four Traditional Structure Conservation Districts with the City of Kyoto, which places it on the same level of cultural and aesthetic importance as the famous Gion and Sanneizaka. Considering the 1200-year-old history of Kyoto, this is no small recognition.