directional taboo avoidance travel
Archaic Heian-period practice: departing the night before a planned journey, traveling in a different direction to avoid an unlucky direction, staying overnight, and then proceeding to the actual destination the next morning. Related to the concept of 方塞がり (katatagari).
See also: 方塞がり
During the Heian period, people would sometimes deliberately set out the night before to perform katatagai.
Compound of 方 (kata, 'direction') and 違い (tagai, 'difference' or 'avoidance'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term is firmly associated with Heian-era directional taboos.