Shōgun-zuka

A still-popular spot from which to view Kyoto today, Shōgun-zuka (lit. "mound of the Shogun(s)") is located close to the peak of Mt. Higashiyama. From the beginning of inbound tourism to Kyoto in the early 1870s, guidebooks recommended Shōgun-zuka to visitors as the conventional starting point to a Kyoto tour. 

After a short climb, it could be reached easily from the Yaami and Miyako hotels, allowing a traveller to get their bearings before heading out into the city. The introduction to Kyoto in Keeling's Tourists' Guide (1880) — a passage copied almost wholesale from Stray Notes on Kioto (1878) (cf. Chiyoma 2022) — delineates well this dual process of viewing Kyoto and mapping out one's potential itinerary from the mound (see below).

Although, in the 1890s and early 1900s, guidebook writers complained about the view being obscured by trees, Shōgun-zuka continued to be celebrated for its scenery through the 1920s and 1930s. 

Some of the various explanations and appraisals of Shōgun-zuka given in guidebooks over this period are displayed below. More about the establishment and history of Shōgun-zuka can be found here, in the unit on Modern Kyoto's War Sites.