2025 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 34-43
The rural planning of the former Senya Village (now Misato Town) in Senpoku, Akita, is known for its characteristic cedar tree-lined landscape. This plan should be remembered as a pioneering physical planning project that was planned and promoted under the guidance of the wealthy farmer Riichiro Sakamoto in the late Meiji era. The plan was created in the wake of the Rikuu Earthquake (1896) and implemented over 45 years, while being repeatedly revised by four successive village mayors. It consisted of two main elements. The first was the formation of a central district to eliminate conflicts of interest between regions after the merger of former villages and form a new sense of community through the implementation of the town and village system (1889). The second was the development of a road network as a core facility for promoting agriculture and other industries. In the central area, land for public facilities such as town halls and elementary schools was neatly divided and straight roads were arranged geometrically radiating towards each village. The road network was not only laid out within the village, but also connected through a prefectural road to Omagari Station on the Japanese National Railways, which was a distribution hub. Similar physical planning was rarely carried out in rural planning during the Choson Ze period, and the fact that Senya villageʼs plan remained isolated without being evaluated symbolizes the characteristics of rural planning in Japan.
