2025 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 56-65
This study examines the results of the rural development method Hotoku-shiho implemented by Kinjiro Ninomiya. It primarily targeted Monoi village in Sakuramachi territory (currently Moka City, Tochigi Prefecture) using two maps created in the Genroku era and early Meiji era. A noteworthy feature was the implementation of a physical plan that integrated production and living spaces as a rural reconstruction measure, and constructed a new regional spatial structure. Regarding the production space, we improved the working environment within the framework of labor-intensive early modern farming methods by reshaping farm plots and straightening, hierarchically structuring roads to improve labor efficiency. We actively built a network of roads for the convenience of traffic within the region and also from the perspective of regional management based on markets outside the region. Concerning the living space, road layouts and integrated village restructuring were promoted and housing construction and environmental improvement were actively supported. This was based on the viewpoint that an improved living environment leads to improved life attitudes and motivation for farming. Kinjiro's attitude is also evident empirically in his survey of ruined settlements, and he had a strong interest in the land-use and ownership relationships of settlements. Interestingly, Kinjiro worked on measures for settlements in Japan at the end of the early modern period (1920s-1950s) from an environmentally deterministic standpoint.
