Walled "free cities" from Japan’s past

If you’ve ever had the experience of walking along the narrow streets of European bastides (castle towns surrounded by a wall) and tiny villages, while you were walking you probably remarked, “Japan never had anything like this.” You can have this experience time and again in Italy—walking the labyrinth streets and lanes of towns surrounded by high walls, where the people live in houses lined up eve on eve with the upper stories connected by bridges at times. In small towns like Siena where you see banners and crests distinctive of each district, you cannot help wondering about the administrative encumbrances of these autonomous municipalities. Japan too, during the Sengoku (Warring States) Period, had towns where people lived on streets surrounding the castle. Did the street composition of these towns resemble those of Europe? It may be that Terauchi-cho, Imai, Kashihara City in Nara Prefecture is one town in Japan that retains the bastide visage. With a Medieval castle at the center, it was an autonomous town surrounded by a moat during the Edo Period. Buildings dating from that period still remain and citizens continue to conduct their ordinary lives. Walking the streets, the town may appear “ordinary,” but such a town is rare for Japan.

Walking the streets:
Terauchi-cho, Imai, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture