In Japan, until the administrative villages were formed in 1889, the Meiji Goverument had been reorga-nizing the new adrninistrative areas repeatedly through trial and error for about twenty years. Therefore, many case studies have been done on how the modern administrative areas were forrned and on the rela-tions between the feudal administrative areas and the modern ones. This paper aims to understand the formation and its factors of every administrative area and to make clear the ralations between these areas and rural communities (Mura) in the Meiji era of Bizen province (Kuni). Bizen province is located in the southern part of the present Okayama Prefecture. The coastal region in Seto Inland Sea was economicaily very active and densely populated, whereas the mountainous region was economically poor and rarely populated. The author analyzed how the administrative areas within Bizen province in the Edo era such as the "Go", which had been a local administrative unit comprised of several viuages, and squire area (Ohjaya-ku) had effects on the formation of administrative areas like ward-subward (Daiku-Shoku) in 1872, union of vil-lage offices (Rengo-kucho-yakuba) area in 1884 and administrative village in 1889. As a result, the author found some spatial type classifications such as mountain, plain, peninsula and newly reclaimed land (Shinden) areas, so that he detailed each area with some examples; especially he re-seached the spatial relationship between rural communities and these administrative areas. Through such analysis, the following four types have been recognized due to the spatial difierences of natural and socio-historical conditions. 1) Mountainous type In Tsudaka, Akasaka and lwanashi counties (Gun), the social associations arnong the feudal villages (Hansei-son) were closely interlinked to some extent owing to the remaining functions of the "Go" and the restriction by the valley. Therefore, the adrninistrative areas of these regions have not altered so much in spite of the Central Government's reorganization policy in the Meiji era. 2) Plain type There were no natural barrieres in Mino, Jodo and Oku counties (Gun) in Okayama plain. The "Go" had akeady lost its functions in the late Edo era. The connections among former feudal viffage were not closely interlinked and the new admiunistrative areas were repeatedly altered in pararel with the radical changes of local governrnent system. 3) Peninsula type In Kojima county (Gun), forrner feudal vmages included in every administrative area were the smallest in number because of the larger settlement. The "Go" which had aiready lost its functions did not exert an influence on delinuting the administrative areas in the early Meiji era. 4) Newly reclaimed land (Shinden) type In the new]y reclaimed land in the Bay of Kojima, the connections among the feudal viuages were so closely interlinked that the administrative areas have not reorganized at all during the early Meiji era be-cause it was reclaimed at the same time though the "Go" had not been formed. In delimiting the administrative villages in 1889, the irrigation area played more important role than the area of a tutelary deity (Ujiko-ken). After the formation of the administrative villages, the Central Govern-ment tried to strengthen the intra-village connection by coordinating the school district to the newly reorga-nized administrative areas and by unifying au tutelary deities in an administrative village. But there remained the community functions, so that inhabitants were unwilling to accept the Government's policy in the urrification of the tutelary deities.
