Abstract
A modern, uncommon castle-town has many medieval characteristics. The castle has a form of old mountain castle and retainer's dwelling-places that surround the lord's settlement have “uchizange” style. The town scatters very much over the land and modern town planning is not sufficiently carried out there. In terms of function, this town is not sufficiently urbanized. Agriculture and commerce of the town are not separated enough from each other. It has a lot of military elements but less economical ones. It is certain that the castle-town is not modern and uncommon.
It has two kinds: one is “Karasuyama” Style and the other “Takatori” Style. I think in the form the former is new and the latter old. However, in the study of early castle-towns it is not appropriate to classify them only in terms of form. The writer classified them into rural castle-towns and semi-urbanized castle-towns. This classification was made in view of the degree of urbanization or function of the town. It is a characteristic of the early castle-town that there is no def irate mutual relation between function and form.
I cannot think that the uncommon castle-town has a medieval style. The reason why this town came into being was the special circumstances of the “han” (_??_). In short, such a castle-town is unreasonable, but it was inevitable that it came into existence.
