Jōkamachi

In the midl-16th century, the castle towns proliferated and became both the residence of the daimyo and the political centre of the domain (sengoku jōkamachi).

Jōkamachi flourished even more under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's regime, whose political and commercial epicenter Osaka-jōka became very prosperous as the center of commodities.

In the Edo period, jōkamachi served less as a military base and more as a political and economic capital for the shogunate government and domains of feudal lords.

This shift was a result of the lack of warfare throughout the Edo period and the fact that most of the Han lords were occasionally transferred from one domain to another and thus had little attachment to the city per se (although crop yields remained matters of attention).

The design of a jōkamachi aimed to stimulate commerce by reworking the closest main road to pass through the city so that traffic occurs within the jōka.

The main road passed through the front of the castle rather than the back to demonstrate the power of the authority, regardless of geographical concerns that might exist.

To prevent invasions, it cleverly used rivers and other terrains, dug moats, built earth mounds and stone walls, and sometimes constructed heavy gateways like Masugata gates if the city was deemed strategically important.

Smaller sections of the city built fences and wooden gates, shutting them at night with guards to ward off intruders.

These cities tended to exist around river terraces in eastern Japan and deltas facing the ocean in western Japan, while cities like Hikone, Zeze, and Suwa are adjacent to a lake as part of the "lake type" jōkamachi.

People at a lower status like Ashigaru were often forced to live at the outer rim of Chōnin districts.

Chōnin-chi was smaller in land size per family compared to Samurai-machi and were tightly aligned along the streets.