War and armed conflict have brought about vast changes — often gradual but at other times sudden — to Kyoto’s built environment and layout across its millennium-plus history. Political conflict bordering on civil war, as well as natural disasters and the establishment of a new imperial lineage, prompted Emperor Kanmu (735–806) to relocate the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō, then, just ten years later in 794, to the Yamashiro (Kyoto) Basin (Van Goethem 2008). Warriors were essentially prohibited from entering the city, thus limiting their political influence (Stavros 2014, p. 2). 

Although, for much of the Heian period (794–1185), the city arguably lived up to its original name as the “Capital of Peace and Tranquility” (Heiankyō 平安京), war can be said to have greatly shaped the city from its foundation. At first, fear of attack from the Emishi tribes to the northeast prompted the capital to be located in the mountain-fortified Yamashiro Basin — which was thereby accorded the status of “mountain fortress” (山城). Furthermore, the financial costs of these wars likely prompted the emperor to halt the city’s development — including the building of a city wall — just a decade after establishment (Stavros 2014, pp. 4–10). 

There were fears that the capital could be attacked from the northeast, which intertwined with geomantic beliefs in the northeast as an inauspicious direction. These are said to have played a pivotal role in the establishment of Enryaku-ji, headquarters of the Tendai Buddhist sect, on Mt. Hie. Legend holds that this unease also led to the creation of Shōgunzuka (将軍塚).