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> 作家の小説は **京都を舞台にした** ものが多いです。  
>  Many of the author's novels are set in Kyoto

In this sentence we have 京都を舞台にした, with a literal translation of "made Kyoto
the setting". In English the words 'Kyoto' and 'setting' are interchangeable
without any significant change in meaning ("made the setting Kyoto"). I can
see no reason the same wouldn't be true in Japanese. Is

> 作家の小説は **舞台を京都にした** ものが多いです。

an equally natural sentence? If not, is there an obvious reason why the two
words cannot be exchanged?

Note that I'm not saying X and Y should always be interchangeable; just this
case specifically.
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question
grammar
XをYにする -- interchangeability of X and Y
it works in some cases but not in others. Your example seems to belong to the
latter category.

Let’s look at an example in which X and Y can be safely exchanged.

> 日本協会は京都を試合会場にした。  
>  The Japanese Association picked Kyoto as the venue of the match.

> 日本協会は試合会場を京都にした。  
>  The Japanese Association set the venue of the match in Kyoto.  
>  (The Japanese Association decided on Kyoto for the venue of the match.)

I wouldn’t say they are completely interchangeable, but both sentences are
grammatical and they basically mean the same thing (at least the same result).

The following pair brings them closer to your example, and they still work.

> 作家は京都を小説の舞台にした。  
>  The author picked Kyoto as the setting of her novel.

> 作家は小説の舞台を京都にした。  
>  The author set her novel in Kyoto.  
>  (The author decided on Kyoto for the setting of her novel.)

However, the original example is closer to the following pair, and this is
where the X and Y seem to stop being exchangeable.

> 小説は京都を舞台にしている。  
>  The novel has Kyoto as its setting.

> 小説は舞台を京都にしている。[unnatural]  
>  (*) The novel has its setting as Kyoto.

The second sentence clearly sounds unnatural, and that’s also the case with
the following pair.

> 試合は京都を会場にしている。  
>  The match has Kyoto as its venue.

> 試合は会場を京都にしている。[unnatural]  
>  (*) The match has its venue as Kyoto.

So the problem is not with the word 舞台. The difference in aspect, between した
and している, doesn’t seem to matter either.

It’s probably the subject and how the `XをYにする` construct is interpreted in
combination with it. As my translations show, the natural-sounding examples
can be understood as referring to some kind of conscious decision, and this
seems possible because the (topicalized) subject is someone or something that
can make such a decision.

`XをYにする` seems to require a different interpretation when the subject is
something like 小説 or 試合. The most natural would be to understand it in the
sense of “have X as Y”, but X and Y are not always interchangeable in this
construct.

For the sentence to sound natural with 舞台 as X and 京都 as Y, it would require a
verb with a more specific meaning than just する. For example, the following
sounds OK.

> 小説は舞台を京都に設定している。  
>  The novel has its setting (set) in Kyoto.
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answer