This is the most coveted and affluent part of the Merchant Quarter, because it's closest to the Noble Quarter. The streets are clean, the merchants prosperous, it has street lamps lit promptly every night and shows every sign of being orderly and well kept.
However, appearances can be deceiving. Since the Little Dock is here, and samurai go through this area on their way to and from the Licensed Quarter, there is a certain tension. The samurai don't want to be seen going. The residents don't want to see them coming back (when they're often drunk and sometimes abusive). Yet both have to coexist in the same space. Conflicts are unavoidable, and sometimes result in the blood of the wrong merchant being spilled. The merchants have no official redress - but money talks with a loud voice in Ryoko Owari.
Many of the merchants in this area specialize in services or crafts that are of interest to samurai - sword polishers, saddle-makers, fine tailors and sculptors of netsuke.
The Downhill neighborhood stretches from the Gate of Condescension (L9) to somewhere around the Grand Wharf. Its southeast boundary is Gold Avenue.