ys, and averaged about four to five feet wide. The Outer Moat took a bit longer, and averages some six to nine feet in width. Though much of the Inner Moat has been filled in, large sections of the Outer Moat still remain. The earth removed from the moat was piled into ridges along the inner side, as an added defense measure. By the end of the Edo period, ordinances from the city were issued demanding people stop building houses on top of the ridges, and demanding they clear silted-up sections. Similarly, houses began to fill in the firebreaks throughout the city, and even began to appear on temple property in the Teramachi (temple-town) district to the south of the city.
The Hokuriku Highway passed through Kanazawa, dog-legging around the castle. The front entrance of the castle was to the north, as it was this road that the Maeda lords took when they went to Edo � as they had to do every two years through the Alternate Attendance system (sankin kotai). The entrance to the city was originally marked by a small cluster of pine trees, later replaced with a gate called the Pine Gate, and a bridge. From here the road passed along between merchant houses, and straightened out as it neared the Asano river. As is typical of town planning in Japan, there was a large open space where people tended to congregate at the foot of the bridge. There were guard huts and a gate there, and it was also one of the places where public notices were displayed. Kanazawa was flanked by two rivers, and for defensive reasons there were only two permanent bridges across the Asano river, with just one across the rougher Sai river. However there were also pontoon bridges and ferries. The present bridge across the Asano river dates back from the Taisho period � the original wooden ones tended to get swept away in flood every so often � especially the Sai river ones.
The main street of Kanazawa in the Edo period was Owari-cho. A relatively wide road, lined with large merchant
