Clear the Kyoto Local Quiz and earn the Kyoto Local title. Want to know Kyoto even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
Can you name the streets of Kyoto's grid the way locals learn them, with a children's song? This quiz approaches the old capital from many angles: temples and shrines such as Kinkaku-ji and Fushimi Inari Taisha, the Gion Matsuri and the Gozan no Okuribi bonfires, kyo-yasai vegetables like Kamo eggplant and Kujo leek, and the soft cadences of Kyoto speech, from "hannari" to the famous bubuzuke anecdote. The World Heritage sites of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto appear too, along with place names few can read at first sight. Questions climb tier by tier, from nationwide trivia toward puzzles worthy of a true Kyoto Expert. Practice questions let you feel how it plays before you commit, and every answer arrives with its sources.
Q1.In what year (CE) did Emperor Kanmu move the capital to Heian-kyō (the relocation of the capital to Heian-kyō)?
794
1603
1192
710
Hint: There's a famous Japanese mnemonic for the year — a warbler's song hides the digits.
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answer794
In 794 (Enryaku 13), Emperor Kanmu moved the capital from Nagaoka-kyō to Heian-kyō. Kyoto then remained Japan's capital for over a millennium, until the seat of government shifted to Tokyo. Among the other choices, 710 marks the move to Heijō-kyō and 1603 the founding of the Edo shogunate.
Q2.Kiyomizu-dera is one of the component sites of the World Heritage "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto."
True
False
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerTrue
Kiyomizu-dera is one of the 17 component sites of the World Heritage listing "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto," inscribed in 1994. The sites span Kyoto, Uji, and Ōtsu — home of Enryaku-ji — and range from temples and shrines to Nijō-jō Castle, tracing the capital's history from Heian to Edo times.
Q3.Which shrine in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, is famous nationwide for its "Senbon Torii" (Thousand Torii Gates)?
Shimogamo-jinja
Kamigamo-jinja
Fushimi Inari-taisha
Kitano Tenman-gū
Hint: The head shrine of all Inari shrines across Japan.
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerFushimi Inari-taisha
Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of the roughly 30,000 Inari shrines said to exist across Japan, worshipped for prosperous business and rich harvests. Its Senbon Torii — tunnels of vermilion gates on Mount Inari — grew gate by gate from worshippers' dedications, each one an offering of prayer or thanks.
Q4.Which shrine hosts the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages), one of Kyoto's three great festivals?
Heian-jingū
Yasaka-jinja
Kitano Tenman-gū
Shimogamo-jinja
Hint: Founded to mark 1,100 years since the capital moved to Heian-kyō
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerHeian-jingū
The Jidai Matsuri is the festival of Heian-jingū, founded to mark the 1,100th anniversary of the capital's move to Heian-kyō, and one of Kyoto's three great festivals. Around October 22 each year, its costumed procession walks from the Kyoto Imperial Palace to the shrine, moving backward through history from Meiji to Heian.
Q5.Arrange the following events related to Kyoto from oldest to newest.
The Ōnin War
The relocation of the capital to Heian-kyō
The Taisei Hōkan (restoration of imperial rule)
The construction of the Golden Pavilion (Rokuon-ji)
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerThe relocation of the capital to Heian-kyō → The construction of the Golden Pavilion (Rokuon-ji) → The Ōnin War → The Taisei Hōkan (restoration of imperial rule)
Oldest first: the move to Heian-kyō (794), the building of the Golden Pavilion (c. 1397, at Yoshimitsu's Kitayama villa), the Ōnin War (1467–77), and the Taisei Hōkan (1867). Together they bracket Kyoto's story — the capital's birth, Muromachi splendor, the war that burned the city, and the shogunate's end.
