[Kyoto Trivia 30] (Kyoto is supposed to be laid out in a grid, but why are the intersections misaligned?) Kyoto's roads intersect vertically and horizontally at right angles, forming a "grid pattern," which is said to have originated in Heian-kyo and is based on the "Jōbō system" (a system of road divisions) (Sugawara no Michizane also said so). But when you actually walk around, the roads are quite misaligned. Some places even seem to be dead ends. Why is this? In fact, from the late Heian period, illegal buildings called "sajiki" appeared on the streets of Heian-kyo. These narrowed the roads and made the wall lines uneven. From the Kamakura period onward, large-scale redevelopment was repeated, making Kyoto's roads narrower and creating misalignments at intersections. Furthermore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's reconstruction of Kyoto increased the number of misaligned intersections. The Tokugawa shogunate's policies reduced the number, but in the end, not all intersections were neatly aligned in a cross shape, and this has been passed down to the present day. This video will introduce how this has even caused traffic problems.