There are numbers of alleys in the central area of Kyoto City. Alleys in Kyoto are built in its long history of urbanization from medieval times. Along alleys there are a lot of Machiyas remaining. Machiyas and alleys together are seen as elements of historical streetscape. Building activities on sites along narrow alleys are limited in several ways by the building standard law. Those restrictions are set because of the disadvantages of alleys in the viewpoint of urban disaster prevention, but it is also doubted it might be a cause of decrepitude of houses and housing vacancies along alleys.
City of Kyoto recently announced new alley policy, which added the conservation of historical streetscape along alleys as a new policy objective. Historical streetscape depends a great deal on the existence of Machiyas. This paper analyses the relationship between the distributions of sites along alleys and that of Machiyas in the central area of Kyoto city.
First, this paper shows the distribution of sites along alleys in the central four wards, Kamigyo-ku, Nakagyo-ku, Shimogyo-ku, and Higashiyama-ku. By ordinary, the number of miles of road is used to show the amount of alleys, but here the number of sites along alleys is chosen in order to compare the distribution of Machiyas. We use the information of the number of sites of which is indicated by the former investigation executed by Kyoto City in 2006. The alleys narrower than 1.8 meter width are eliminated by that investigation, so that we count up the number of sites along those alleys using the information of the location of those and the residential map. As a result of comparing the distribution of sites along alleys and Machiyas, it clarifies sites along alleys and Machiyas are closely overlapping, especially those of blind alleys and Machiyas. Sites along alleys and Machiyas both locate a lot especially in Nishijin area, which is the west part of Kamigyo-ku.
Next, this paper examines the detailed overlapping location of sites along alleys and Machiyas on two specific areas. One is Ninna district, which is in the west of Nishijin area, and the other is Yurin district, which is in the south-east part of the urban center of Kyoto city, so-called Tanoji area.
Through the analysis on Ninna district, it is pointed out that the sites along alleys, especially blind alleys, are clustered inside blocks and make up crowded wooden dwellings area. In Ninna district, almost half of the all sites in this area are the sites along alleys. By the examination of the relationship of the sites along alleys and Machiyas, it is clarified that Machiyas do not situate exclusively on the sites along alleys. It means, Machiyas and alleys both situated much in this district, but the both sides are not necessarily lap over. To make an observation on individual alleys in this district, it can be found that several Machiyas locate alongside alleys and make historical streetscape.
The characteristic of distribution of alleys on Yurin district is that relatively short blind alleys extended into the city blocks are dominant. The percentage of Machiyas on the sites along alleys is considerably higher than the percentage on non-alleyside sites. It can be said that Machiyas located more on the sites along alleys than other sites in this district, contrary to the result of Ninna district.
The conclusion is about as follows. Sites along alleys and Machiyas are closely overlapping in regard of the distribution of those in the central four wards. The concentration of Machiyas on the sites along alleys is not applicable in Ninna district, to the contrary in Yurin district.
