A closer look
Modern urban planners try to make cities easy to navigate, but Tokugawa-era Japanese warlords actively hated you and wanted you to get lost. When Edo (now Tokyo) was built, it was designed with a spiraling, moat-filled layout known as the 'koukaku' pattern. Streets deliberately curved to limit line-of-sight for archers, and bridges were constructed with intentional bottlenecks. If a rival samurai army ever tried to siege the shogun, they would find themselves funneled into brutal kill zones disguised as lovely residential merchant blocks. It was pure architectural hostility.
