Inu-yarai, Kyoto house bamboo skirts

Visiting Kyoto, you will notice that the traditional townhouses (and also some of the modern ones) are protected by a curved bamboo fence, like a skirt covering the lower part of the wall.

These fences are called inu-yarai, and their name suggests (inu means "dog") that they were originally designed to stop the dogs from soiling the walls. Other possible purpose was to protect the walls during the rainy season against the dirty water on the road... But whatever their original function was, they are today an original feature, nicely embellishing the buildings.