Kansai

Kansai was where the Japanese state took shape. The great keyhole-shaped burial mounds of the 4th to 6th centuries cluster on the Osaka plain and in the Nara basin, and Buddhism arrived at the Yamato court in the 6th century; Horyu-ji was founded near Nara in 607. In 710 the court built its first permanent capital, Heijo-kyo, at Nara, and there Emperor Shomu dedicated the Great Buddha of Todai-ji in 752.

In 794 the capital moved to Heian-kyo — Kyoto — which remained the imperial seat until 1868. Its court produced the Tale of Genji, while the monk Kukai founded the Shingon monastery on Koyasan in the early 9th century and emperors made the long pilgrimage to Kumano. Kyoto was burned in the Onin War of 1467–77, then rebuilt by the unifiers: Toyotomi Hideyoshi raised Osaka Castle in the 1580s, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's victory at Osaka in 1615 ended the Toyotomi line. Under the Tokugawa, Osaka became the nation's rice market and "kitchen", and the Ikeda lords completed Himeji Castle.

When the emperor moved to Tokyo after 1868, Kansai turned to commerce. Kobe opened to foreign trade in 1868 and grew into a major port, and Osaka became an industrial giant. American bombing burned much of Osaka and Kobe in 1945, while Kyoto and Nara were largely spared. The Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995 killed more than 6,000 people, mostly in Kobe. Osaka hosted Expo 1970 and, in 2025, a second World Expo.

Kansai has a long-standing rivalry with Tokyo. Kansai-ben, the regional dialect, is instantly recognisable — "ookini" for thanks, "akan" for no good — and is the language of Japanese comedy: Osaka's manzai double acts and the Yoshimoto entertainment company made the city synonymous with laughter. Kansai people are often seen as pragmatic, down-to-earth and quick with a joke.

Kyoto keeps the high traditions alive: the tea schools, ikebana, Nishijin silk weaving, Kiyomizu pottery, and the geiko and maiko of Gion and Pontocho. Osaka gave the country bunraku puppet theatre, and Takarazuka, in Hyogo, is home to the all-female Takarazuka Revue. Religion here runs deep: the Ise Grand Shrine in Mie is the holiest site of Shinto, Koyasan and Mount Hiei were the great monastic centres, and Kyoto alone has some 2,000 temples and shrines.

The festival year is crowded. Kyoto's Gion Matsuri fills July with towering floats, Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri ends in a river procession and fireworks, and Kishiwada's Danjiri Matsuri sees heavy wooden carts pulled at a run around street corners each September. Baseball loyalty is fierce too: the Hanshin Tigers play at Koshien Stadium, which also hosts the national high-school tournament every summer.

About 22 million people live in the region, most in the continuous urban belt of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto. Osaka city has about 2.7 million people, Kobe about 1.5 million and Kyoto about 1.4 million, while Nara, Otsu and Wakayama are smaller prefectural capitals. Away from the cities, the mountain villages of southern Nara and Wakayama are ageing and emptying fast.

The economy is manufacturing, trade and services: Panasonic, Sharp and Kyocera have roots here, Kobe is a busy container port, and Kyoto is home to Nintendo and a cluster of electronics firms. Tourism has grown enormously, and the pressure of visitors on Kyoto — crowded buses, short-term lets, tour groups photographing geiko in Gion — is a major local issue. Kyoto University and many other universities make Kyoto a student town.

Daily rhythms follow the commuter train: Osaka's Umeda and Namba stations handle huge crowds, and the city's quirks include standing on the right side of escalators, the opposite of Tokyo. Evenings mean izakaya, standing bars and eating out in Osaka's Minami district, while Kyoto closes earlier and more quietly.

Osaka calls itself the nation's kitchen, and its motto is kuidaore — eating until ruin. Its street food is takoyaki, batter balls with octopus, and okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake of cabbage and batter, along with kushikatsu, deep-fried skewers served with a shared sauce that must not be dipped twice. Kitsune udon, topped with sweet fried tofu, is an Osaka creation, and Kansai dashi is lighter and clearer than Tokyo's.

Kyoto's cooking is the refined counterweight: kaiseki banquets, yudofu (simmered tofu) near the temples, shojin ryori vegetarian temple food, and tsukemono pickles sold at the Nishiki market. Its sweets include yatsuhashi, a cinnamon-flavoured rice-flour confection, and Uji, south of the city, grows some of Japan's most prized green tea and matcha.

Wagyu is a Kansai speciality: Kobe beef from Tajima cattle in Hyogo, Matsusaka beef in Mie and Omi beef in Shiga. Nara has kakinoha-zushi, fish sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves; Shiga has funazushi, fermented crucian carp from Lake Biwa; and Wakayama grows ume plums for umeboshi and is known for its own soy-and-pork ramen. Ise gives akafuku, rice cakes with sweet bean paste. The Nada district of Kobe and Nishinomiya and the Fushimi district of Kyoto are two of Japan's great sake-brewing centres.

Kyoto needs days: Kiyomizu-dera on its wooden stage, the torii tunnels of Fushimi Inari, the Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji, the rock garden of Ryoan-ji, the Arashiyama bamboo grove, the Philosopher's Path and the old lanes of Gion. Beyond the city lie Byodo-in's Phoenix Hall at Uji and, far to the north on the Sea of Japan, the pine-covered sandbar of Amanohashidate. Nara offers Todai-ji, the lantern-hung Kasuga shrine, the deer park and Horyu-ji, and in spring the hillside cherries of Yoshino.

Osaka has its reconstructed castle, the canal-side neon of Dotonbori, the Kuromon market and the Umeda Sky Building. Kobe has its harbourfront, the old foreign merchants' houses of Kitano and the hot springs of Arima over the Rokko mountains. Westward, Himeji Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the grandest original castle in Japan. In northern Hyogo, Kinosaki's riverside bathhouses are visited in yukata, and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge crosses to Awaji Island.

To the east, Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, is ringed by Hikone's original castle and the temple complex of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei above Otsu. In the south, the Kii Peninsula's mountains hold Koyasan, with its temple lodgings and the Okunoin cemetery among giant cedars, and the Kumano Kodo trails, linking the Kumano grand shrines and the Nachi waterfall — together part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the peninsula's Mie side stands the Ise Grand Shrine, and on the Wakayama coast the hot-spring resort of Shirahama.