Muromachi to Kitano

Recent research has revealed that the Muromachi residential headquarters of the Ashikaga shogunate, established by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1379, was built to align with the Shōkokuji pagoda and the 'mountain' gate of the Shōkokuji monastery. Together, the three sites constituted a sprawling temple-palace complex.

I have discovered, however, that there are even more striking alignments worthy of our attention. Notice how in this map, for example, the Muromachi Palace aligns perfectly with the Kitano Shrine (and other sites). The spatial relationship is much too clean to be coincidence, especially in light of how strongly the Ashikaga patronized Kitano. ©March 2018 Matthew Stavros.