This study examines the formation of Makinome settlement in Iwafune County, Echigo (Niigata Prefecture), through the analysis of consanguineous groups (makis) and the changes in settlement morphology and in irrigation systems for rice production.
Irobe, who was the lord of a manor, lived in Irobe before the Sengoku period. There were many temples and shrines around his house. Paddy fields occupied a small ravine nedr the house. In the Sengoku period the Irobe family moved to Hirabayashi. The name of the area of the Irobe's old residence was changed to Ko-Irobe (Old Irobe). The landscape of the area changed with the establishment of Makinome settlement. Ko-Irobe became a part of Makinome village.
Makinome settlement was formed under the rule of the Irobe family at the end of the Sengoku period in the 16th century. It was located on a lowland near Lake Iwafune. According to the 1671 cadastre, old settlers owned the fields developed in earlier periods, while newcomers and branch families tended to possess fields reclaimed later.
Makinome had two distinctive features among the nearby settlements. First, it consisted of as many as 12 maki. Second, most of them belonged to temples different from one another: only two maki shared affiliation with the same temple. These characteristics resulted partly from the conditions under which the reclaimed fields were expanded and many settlers from various places organized under Irobe's rule.
