Kyoto City Museum Search

Learn Kyoto’s history from a mountain of documents

This facility opened in the spring of 2017 as a successor to Kyoto Prefectural General Archives, which had been a hub for comprehensive collection, preservation, and exhibition of materials related to Kyoto for over 50 years. In addition to the function of supporting research on the history and culture of Kyoto, it also has the function as a new hub for cultural and educational exchange. Its collection includes not only approximately 900,000 materials related to Kyoto that were collected and housed in General Archives, such as books, historical documents, administrative documents, and photographs, but also the collections of the Kyoto Prefectural University Library and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Library, which total some 200,000 books and 2,000 academic journals. Visitors can browse these materials. The exhibition room hosts special exhibitions and collection exhibitions featuring valuable documents, including the Toji Hyakugo Monjo, a National Treasure owned by Kyoto Prefecture, as well as artworks and crafts. Also running the websites “Historical Document Archives” and “Hyakugo Archives WEB,” the facility makes full use of its extensive collection of materials to broaden the appeal of “Kyoto studies.”