WI: Kyoto remains Japan's Capital?

By the time of the Meiji Restoration Japan had had two capitals for centuries. Kyoto, the official, formal capital of the Emperor, and Edo (remained Tokyo) the true capital of the Tokugawa Shoguns. Now after the restoration the Meiji Emperor and the Imperial Court moved to Tokyo, making the city the de jure as well as de facto Capital. So what if the Emperor didn't move the capital to Edo and instead stayed in Kyoto, moving the administrative organs of the old shogunate government to the old Capital? Would this change anything, other then Kyoto being the capital bombed in WWII? Would the Kuge (Nobility attached to the Imperial Court rather than the Shogunate) regain more of their lost authority if the capital was in their power base? Would such a move (or rather lack of a move) of keeping the capital in Kyoto anger the daimyo who brought about the restoration? Would it cause Japan to be set back in its rapid modernization?
 
I had an interesting tour of Kyoto's water supply network. Basically I don't think there's enough water for Kyoto to be a major city. They first brought in Europeans to build a Roman aqueduct, and it remains oddly out of place amongst the Buddhist temples. Elaborate attempts were made to modernize the city's water supply, but there was only so much you can do in the mountains. It probably won't suit the Meiji reforms if their seat of power was located at an economic backwater.
 
I think another factor was that Edo by this point in time was by a gigantic margin Japan's largest city. To give you an idea, in 1873, Tokyo had a population of close to 600,000, while Kyoto was less than 300,000.
 
I had an interesting tour of Kyoto's water supply network. Basically I don't think there's enough water for Kyoto to be a major city. They first brought in Europeans to build a Roman aqueduct, and it remains oddly out of place amongst the Buddhist temples. Elaborate attempts were made to modernize the city's water supply, but there was only so much you can do in the mountains. It probably won't suit the Meiji reforms if their seat of power was located at an economic backwater.

That makes sense. I had read somewhere that Kyoto's location was chosen because of its proximity to rivers and closer to the center of the country. But poor water supply makes sense. Like when Rome's aqueducts were cut
during the Gothic wars.

I think another factor was that Edo by this point in time was by a gigantic margin Japan's largest city. To give you an idea, in 1873, Tokyo had a population of close to 600,000, while Kyoto was less than 300,000.

That also makes sense. With Edo being the largest city and a possible major port it would make sense to move the Capital there.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
would it possible for Emperor to develop Osaka as port and industrial center for Meiji government ? Kyoto become bureaucratic capital and Imperial residence, surely just adding several thousand bureaucrat and parliamentarians to Kyoto wouldn't push water supply to the limit ? Expelling and Banning commerce and industries from Kyoto could reduce populations further.
 
would it possible for Emperor to develop Osaka as port and industrial center for Meiji government ? Kyoto become bureaucratic capital and Imperial residence, surely just adding several thousand bureaucrat and parliamentarians to Kyoto wouldn't push water supply to the limit ? Expelling and Banning commerce and industries from Kyoto could reduce populations further.

Bureaucratic capitols are extremely rare anywhere and unheard of in East Asia. The guy in charge needs to be at the center of the action, or he is perceived to be not really in charge.
 
Bureaucratic capitols are extremely rare anywhere and unheard of in East Asia. The guy in charge needs to be at the center of the action, or he is perceived to be not really in charge.

Really? How much of that is the capitol moving to the economic center and how much is the economic center moving to the capitol I wonder?
 
I imagine that the standard dialect of the Japanese language would be different.
In OTL, Standard Japanese is based on the dialect spoken by the educated class in Tokyo.
 
Edo (now Tokyo) was largest city in Japan. Surrounding area of Edo was largest agricultural land of Japan. That's way it give great wealth to Shogun's. So leaving this center of power was not acceptable to Reformists. IMO, Reformists wanted to destroy power base of Shogun (which was Edo) at the same time cementing their authority....
By making Edo seat of Government, Reformists gained direct control of largest and wealthiest part of Japan as well as most populous.
 
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