City Planning Theories

In the

ancient city planning of Japan, streets

formed a grid pattern. This way of planning is
called the J-B system. This system of planning
is borrowed from Chang'an, the
capital
of Tang Dynasty China.
Nara (Heij-Ky), as the capital of
Japan
from 710 AD to 784 AD (with a few
interruptions), adopted the Chinese
gridpattern system. Suzaku-ji Street,
the
central axis, separated the city into Saky, the
Left (East) City,
and Uky, the Right (West) City, each of which
was divided into a matrix of nine j (rows) and four b (columns). Each city block of
532 meters square bounded by major streets was also called b. Each b was again
subdivided into 4-by-4 cells called tsubo, the size of which was 133 meters square.
Every place in the city was specified by row and column numbers in a way somewhat
similar to the Cartesian coordinate system.
The palace site in the center of the north side of the city included the Imperial Palace
and government offices. There were two official marketplaces, one each located in the
Left and the Right City. Near the palace site, remains of large plots for nobles'
residences have been discovered. These residences sometimes occupied
several tsubo. Away from the palace site, each tsubo was divided into smaller plots to
provide living quarters for the common people. Nara was abandoned as a capital in
784, and most of its area reverted to rice paddies. The above aerial photo, taken in
1961, is of the central area of Heij-Ky, where the ancient plan is well preserved. It
shows traces of the old grid pattern in the rectangular reservoirs and the paths between
rice fields.
Geky, the Outer City, had been added to the northeast side of the city. Major
Buddhist monasteries such as Kfuku-ji and Gang-ji were situated there, and Tdaiji, which is famous for its enormous statue of Buddha, was built adjacent to the area.
Due to the influence of these monasteries, this part of the city remained an urban
settlement after the capital was moved to Nagaoka-Ky and later to Heian-Ky
(Kyoto). Geky is the core of today's Nara City. The other ancient capitals of Japan,
such as Fujiwara-Ky (694-710) and Heian-Ky (794-1868), also adopted gridpattern planning. This Chinese planning system was widely shared by the East Asian
states of the time.

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