Kyoto's Flowing Vein (Japan, Kyoto)

The Kamo-gawa (鴨川), or “Duck River,” is more than just a waterway in Kyoto: it is a living axis of the city, both a symbolic artery and a social space. It crosses the imperial city from the Kitayama Mountains in the north to its confluence in the south, and has structured the lives of its inhabitants for over a millennium.

East side: the old neighborhoods, the machiya (traditional wooden houses), the temples, and the Noh theater stages. West side: the cyclists, the lovers sitting in silence, the passersby in a hurry. Between the two, a moving line—that of time, the city, the seasons.

Historically, the Kamo-gawa was used to purify ritual objects , to practice cormorant fishing, to evacuate waste water, but also to organize the city according to fengshui principles imported from China : the river to the east, the mountains to the west.

Today, it embodies a form of fluid coexistence : between old and new, between nature and urbanity, between the Japan of yesterday and that of today. Even its floods have shaped the city, forcing the architecture to adapt, and the population to come to terms with its rhythm.

Here, more than anywhere else, urban planning is an art of compromise. And water, a slow memory.