Abstract
This is a case study on the subject taking up the villages in Aichi prefecture as an instance. The ownership of common owned by the village during this period shows the following changes.
(1). Iriaichi (common) owned by the village was open to the common use of the villagers since the government estates and private estates had been differentiated in 1876, and its control was exercised by yoriai (meeting) of the whole villagers. Therefore, iriaichi owned by the village in this stage belonged, as a private estate, to the customary village as a community of the whole villagers.
(2) Then it was changed by the reorganization of murakata-system and the formation of the landholder system under the three new laws of 1878. That is, as a result of the establishment of the town and village assemblies and the controlling power of the landholders over the community, the power to control and dispose of iriaichi owned by the village was shifted from the group of the whole villagers who had iriaiken to the legislatures of the village or town. Consequently iriaichi owned by the village became to be regarded as a property of the village as an administrative unit.
(3) After the establishment of kochokanku (the sphere under the control of kocho) in 1884, the villages differentiated into two types : an independent village as administrative unit and a village as united kochokankus. The ownership of iriaichi also differentiated accordingly.
