“Kishu” is a district situated on the Pacific coast of the central part of Japan. Taking up this district as an example, I made a study of the administrative village in the Edo Era (1603-1867). The administrative village in those days was a section which was locally composed of several natural villages, and it was jointly placed under the tax obligation. Some of the administrative villages were composed of one natural village, and others several natural villages. The former was found mostly in a plain area, and the latter in a mountainous area. An administrative village in a mountainous area included an increasing number of natural villages in the deeper area. The daily life of the villagers in the administrative village of the time was carried on under the system of self-government with a village master called Shoya as their leader, but with the exception of the tax obligation. Therefore one administrative village in a mountainous area included some communities in it, and each community was, moreover, divided into smaller communities. This kind of community was called Kona. Kona was, from the geographical point of view, a group of some natural villages or a natural village itself. Of all Konas a remotely situated Kona was called Edago, a branch village. Edago belonged to an administrative village, but the people living there carried on their daily life a little away from the other Konas.
When the Meiji Era (1868-1912) began after the Edo Era, some of these administrative villages were as a group united, and a new administrative village was organized. And the new village was endowed with a modern administrative feature which was different from that of the Edo Era. The villagers, however, did not try to break the community organization right away to which they were accustomed in the Edo Era.
