Urban morphology in Japan: researching castle towns

Abstract

Castle towns are one of the main types of urban settlement in Japan. This paper reviews current research on the castle towns in that country, especially in the fields of historical geography, architectural history, and the history of urban planning. The results of research in each of these three fields are introduced; the building and transformation of traditional private houses termed machiya, in the commercial areas of cities, are described; several morphological approaches to the castle town of today are considered; and finally, the application in urban design of knowledge gained from castle-town research is discussed.