It connects the cities of Kyoto, Uji, and Nara, and competes with the Nara Line of West Japan Railway Company (JR-West), which also connects those cities.

The Kyoto Line was built by Nara Electric Railway (奈良電気鉄道, Nara Denki Tetsudō) in November 1928 as dual track electrified at 600 V DC.

[1] The railway provided the through services to the lines of Kintetsu (originally, Osaka Electric Tramway) from the beginning.

Through a deal between the two major shareholders, the shares owned by Keihan were transferred to Kintetsu in April 1962 and the company was merged into Kintetsu from October 1963.

[1] Between 1945 and 1968, there were through services with the Keihan Main Line using crossovers at Tambabashi.