[2] According to historian Herbert E. Plutschow, "To allow a river to flow through and thereby divide a capital would have symbolized potential disunity of the nation.

The city was laid with its northernmost boundary at the present confluence of the Kamo and Takano rivers (just south of today's Imadegawa Street).

[4] In Japanese the river is called Kamo-gawa, officially written using the kanji compound 鴨川.

[5] The geographical area called Kamigamo, around the mouth of the valley leading into the Kyoto Basin, became the home grounds of the Kamo (賀茂) clan in ancient times.

Emperor Shirakawa recited his three unmanageable things: Sōhei (armed monks of Enryaku-ji), dice, and the water of the Kamo River.

In the past, the river was a crucial source of relatively pure drinking water for Kyoto residents.

The river is also the source of the stone that is a glaze ingredient used in traditional Japanese raku pottery.

In 1603 Izumo no Okuni formed a troupe of female dancers and began performing on a makeshift stage, on the dry bed of the river.