Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine the size of “han” (numbers of house and extent of“han”), which constitutes a fundamental organization in rural communities, and to collect basic ma-terials of spacial planning in rural settlements.
This research data is acquired in 27 settlements in 6 prefectures, using field surveys, consisting of a questionnaire, interviews, a sign-map and observation methods.
The main results are as follows:
1. The organization of “han” reflects geographical features and frame of roads, but in one settlement, “hans” tend to be similar to each other.
2. Changes in our society, relationship of regions, human relations, features of groups and differential time of settlements cause transformations of “han”.
3. The size of “han” at present is 60-320 meters in length and consists of 4-11 houses.
4. Taking into account neighbourhood domain and neighbourhood association, the size of partial organization is usually 250 meters and in special cases the size is 460 meters, and consists of 10 houses, which is a guideline of spacial palnning in rural settlements.
