Futagaoka

Narabigaoka: Three Hills in a Row Above Kyoto

Three wooded hills rise in a line along the western rim of the Kyoto basin, each lower than the one before it as the row runs south. The northern and highest, Ichi-no-oka, reaches roughly 116 meters; Ni-no-oka stands at about 102 meters; San-no-oka settles at around 78 meters. That neat descending sequence gave the place its name. Narabu means to line up or stand side by side, and Narabigaoka means little more than "the hills in a row."

The site lies in the Omuro district of Ukyo ward, a few minutes on foot from the great temple of Ninna-ji. It was designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty in November 1941. Japan grants that status to landscapes judged to hold aesthetic or cultural value, and Narabigaoka entered the register under the heading reserved for notable viewpoints, recognized for the panorama it opens over the former capital.

Hunting Grounds, a Minister's Villa, and a Famous Recluse

For much of the classical period these hills belonged to the world of the court. Heian-era emperors and nobles used the slopes and the open ground around them as hunting grounds, and poets named the place often enough that it became a fixed setting in classical verse.

One early resident left his mark on local memory. Kiyohara no Natsuno, a Minister of the Right who died in 837, kept a villa at the eastern foot of the hills and was known to his contemporaries as the Narabigaoka Minister. The temple of Hokongo-in, just east of the hills, is traditionally held to occupy the ground where that villa once stood.

Narabigaoka is most often linked, though, to Kenko, the monk-essayist remembered as the author of Tsurezuregusa, or Essays in Idleness. Compiled in the early fourteenth century, the work gathers some 243 short reflections on nature, manners, art, and the passing of things, and it sits beside The Pillow Book and Hojoki as one of the three classic Japanese essay collections. Tradition places Kenko's later years in a hermitage at the foot of these hills. Recent scholarship has shown that much of the conventional biography attached to him took shape after his death, so the connection is best treated as a cherished local tradition rather than settled fact. The promenade laid out along the eastern slope still carries the name Tsurezure-no-michi, the Path of Idleness, in a quiet nod to the book.

A Hillside of Ancient Tombs

Long before the courtiers arrived, Narabigaoka was a burial ground. Spread across the three hills are 24 tumuli, collectively known as the Narabigaoka tomb cluster, raised between the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Most are modest circular mounds 10 to 20 meters across, gathered along the valleys between the hills.

One stands apart. Tomb No. 1, near the summit of Ichi-no-oka, is a circular mound about 44 meters in diameter and close to 8 meters high, the largest of the group and the earliest, built around the late sixth century. A 1980 excavation revealed a corridor-style stone chamber of the two-flanged type, its burial chamber roughly 6 meters long, opening toward the southwest. The dig recovered Sue and Haji earthenware, iron implements, gold earrings, and fragments of a tuff sarcophagus. Because parts of the stonework risked collapse, the chamber was packed and sealed again after the survey, though a section of it remains visible low on the southwest side.

The scale of Tomb No. 1 points to someone of real standing. Archaeologists associate it with a chieftain of the Hata, the immigrant clan that developed the nearby Uzumasa and Sagano districts. A stone stele in front of the mound names Kiyohara no Natsuno instead, reflecting an older belief that this was his grave; the excavation placed the mound centuries before his lifetime, and the marker now reads as a record of that earlier tradition.

From a Threatened Hillside to a Protected Landscape

The 1941 designation honored the view, but it did not, on its own, shield the hills from change. In 1964 a plan emerged to sell part of Narabigaoka for hotel construction. Residents organized against it, and the project was dropped.

That dispute did not stay local. Around the same time, a development fight at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura and pressure on the Wakakusa hillside in Nara had stirred similar alarm. The three cities worked together, and their campaign helped bring about the 1966 Law Concerning Special Measures for the Preservation of Historic Natural Features in Ancient Cities, usually called the Ancient Capitals Preservation Law. Narabigaoka was placed within a special preservation zone under that law, which restricts development on the hills.

The land had passed to Ninna-ji after the war. In 1978 Kyoto City brought part of it into public ownership and began work on paths and clearings, and the hills were opened to general visitors in 1986.

Walking the Hills and the View from the Top

Narabigaoka asks little of a visitor. The climb from the eastern foot to the crown of Ichi-no-oka takes only a short while, though a few stretches near the top are steep and the descent calls for steady footing. Wooded paths thread all three hills, and benches and explanatory boards mark the easier stopping points.

The reward waits at the summit of Ichi-no-oka. From the small clearing beside Tomb No. 1, the rooftops of Ninna-ji and the Omuro district lie spread out below, with the hills of Sagano and Arashiyama to the west. A separate clearing partway up, named Tomi-no-hiroba (the "far-view plaza"), looks east across the city toward Mount Hiei. Locals come up in the evening for the lights of Kyoto.

The eastern slope offers a gentler experience. Along the Path of Idleness the city has planted cherries and other flowering trees and set out two grassy clearings, one for blossom viewing and one for dappled shade, both pleasant for an unhurried hour.

Around Narabigaoka

Few hills in Kyoto sit so close to so much. Ninna-ji, founded in the late ninth century and registered as a World Heritage site, stands just to the north and is known for its late-blooming Omuro cherries. Ryoan-ji, with its celebrated rock garden, is a short distance beyond. To the east lies the broad temple complex of Myoshin-ji, the head temple of one branch of Rinzai Zen. Hokongo-in, with its summer lotus pond, sits at the eastern foot near Hanazono station.

The hills have no parking. Most visitors arrive by the Randen tram to Omuro-Ninnaji station, a walk of a few minutes, or by JR to Hanazono station, about ten minutes away. City buses also stop nearby.