Karasuma-Oike and the merchant machiya
The old merchant grid — surviving townhouses, a brick former bank, and the sake and textile shop-fronts. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. The Museum of Kyoto Annex
Start at the red-brick former Bank of Japan branch, a 1906 Meiji-era pile now part of the city museum. The banking hall inside is kept as it was — free to walk into, and the best surviving piece of Kyoto's brief love affair with Western architecture.

2. Sanjo-dori brick row
West along Sanjo-dori, a short run of early-20th-century brick and stone fronts — old banks, a postal building, the SACRA building of 1916. Look up; the ground floors are shops now but the upper storeys are intact. Covered arcade further west if it rains.

3. A surviving machiya block
South into the lanes off Sanjo, where the wooden *machiya* (merchant townhouses) survive in runs — narrow lattice fronts, *noren* curtains, the deep 'eel-bed' plan behind. Some are now cafés and shops; many are still homes. Walk slowly and look at the latticework.

4. A long-standing sake merchant
The grid still holds old trade houses — sake brewers and dealers with cedar-ball *sugidama* hung at the door to mark the new season's brew. Step in where a shop is open; tasting is often welcomed, buying never required.

5. A Nishijin textile shop-house
Kyoto's weaving trade ran just north of here, and old kimono and obi merchants keep shop-fronts in the grid — bolts of *Nishijin* silk, tatami showrooms, the loom still audible in some. Browse without buying; the fabric is the exhibit.

6. Oike-dori back to the subway
North to broad Oike-dori and east along it — the modern face of the district, ginkgo trees and city hall — back to Karasuma Oike. A clean contrast to end on: the old grid below, the wide avenue above.

Karasuma-Oike and the merchant machiya