Although Edo was the center of power where the shogun had his castle, Kyoto-ites could console themselves with the thought that theirs was the emperor’s city, home to the imperial court. They were the upholders of taste, class, and the aristocratic old ways.For a few years as valiant young samurai crowded the teahouses of Gion, plotting and roistering, Kyoto had seethed with passion and politics. Then suddenly a deathly hush fell. Dust began to gather on the white-walled imperial palace with its red pillars and silent expanses of raked sand. The emperor, the courtiers, the princes, the lords, even the flunkies had gone. The swashbuckling samurai and their geisha mistresses, merchants, writers, and artists packed their possessions, hired palanquin bearers and headed for the glittering streets of the new capital, Edo, now renamed Tokyo.What was to become of Kyoto? What role did the ancient capital have to play in this brave new world? For a while a pall of gloom hung over the beautiful valley with its purple hills and crystalline rivers.
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