Geographical Review of Japan
Online ISSN : 2185-1719
Print ISSN : 0016-7444
ISSN-L : 0016-7444
Volume 31, Issue 4
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
  • Takeo TANIOKA, Kenji HIRANO, Kinji TANAKA, Tadashi ASHIDA, Jun INOUE
    1958Volume 31Issue 4 Pages 191-205
    Published: April 01, 1958
    Released on J-STAGE: December 24, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    One of the oldest cadastral maps (drawn in 751 A. D.) kept by Shosoin, is that of the Minuma manor in Omi province of the Todai-ji temple. It shows the “Joni”-system which was the land system of ancient Japan. As result of our research on the “Jori”-system of Inukami county in Omi, it was proved that the area in the map corresponds to the domain of the modern village, Binmanji, in the east of Hikone City. We made a general and intensive survey by means of reading air photographs, land measurements, soil analysis, studying old documents and archeological excavation of the domain of the manor. The results are as follows:
    1) The Minuma manor belonging to the Todai-ji temple occupied the Inukami river's fan in the middle of the lake Biwa plain about the middle of the 8 th century. Inspite of fierce overflows at heavy rains, it was neccessary first of all to built a reservior and an irrigation canal for the management of paddy fields, because the ordinary quantity of water supplied by the river was insufficient and the soils of this fan was osmotic.
    2) Below the soils now under cultivation, there spreads the stratum of the anciently cultivated soils and it is probably the same stratum as the one containing the remains which are supposed to be belong to 8th century.
    3) Judging from the roads the reservoir, some parts of land division and the black coloured soils found by excavation, we think that the “Jori”-system was put in operation over this area to the same direction as the other parts of Inukami county.
    4) The land division in most parts of lands now under cultivation is very much different from the “Jori”-system in Inukami county, and it is adapted to the land form.
    5) It is better to consider that the Todai-ji manor has occupied this area based on the “Jori”-system. But there are some differences between the old lands of the manor and the present ones. The reasons would probably be due to the overflows or changes of various human geographical conditions.
    6) The history of the settlements of this area began in Nara era, at the establishment of this manor.
    7) The houses which occupied the hilly land consisting of the old aluvial strata, remained for considerably long period. And the houses which were situated on the flood plain of the river seem to have been lost by overflows and lateral erosion of the Inukami.
    8) The site of the present village seems to correspond to Shibahara (brush fields) on the map, and the village has the character of a “Monzen-Machi” of the Binman-ji temple which was built up in Heian era. Probably the movements of the residents from hilly land to the present site were done gradually over the long period before Meiji revolution.
    9) Considering the land from, the land system and the result of the archeological excavation, we conclude that contents of the map was not so different from facts.
    10) And so we can say that the Todai-ji manor in this area was established not through the acquirement of already cultivated lands, but through the clearing of lands which were hard to cultivate. In this, we recognize the peculiar character of the Todai-ji manor in Nara era, and this character was common the other manors of this temple.
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  • Yôko ÔKURA
    1958Volume 31Issue 4 Pages 206-219
    Published: April 01, 1958
    Released on J-STAGE: December 24, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    At the northeastern foot of the Abukuma Plateau, broad uplands of Tertiary rocks are distributed along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. These uplands have been reported to be marine terraces according to previous studies. The writer, however, thinks that on the basis of the analysis of topographical maps of this area, most of the uplands are fluviatile surfaces. So the writer investigated the terrace topograhy and terrace deposits, in detail, to explain the forming process and the environment of deposition, and if possible, the Pleistocene crustal movements in this area.
    Method of study
    The distribution and the altitudes of terraces were identified by her field survey, and at the same time, the condition of the surface soil overlying the terrace plains were observed. The observation and analysis of the terrace deposits were made as follows:
    (1) The measurement of thickness of the gravel bed at many stations in every terrace.
    (2) Sampling and analysis of gravels. For the sampling stations, about 50 outcrops were selected from the 3rd, 4th and 5th terraces and from the present river beds and sea beach in order to compare the present environment of the deposition with that of the past.
    Samples were measured in their (a) grain size distribution, (b) rate of gravel lithology and (c) roundness of gravel. (a) Sieving the samples of 20_??_60kg at each station by phi scale, the writer obtained weight percentage, size frequency distribution, cumulative frequency distribution and the phi median value. (b) The gravels of different sizes were classified lithologically into two major groups. The one is the granitic rocks or green metamorphic rocks originated from the Abukuma Plateau, and the other is the chert gravel. Perhaps the latter might have been transported by a sort of longshore current from other regions. (c) Roundness of gravels was measured by the comparison method with Krumbein's chart for size and kind.
    Results
    The following conclusions were reached in this study.
    (1) The uplands are classified into five terraces, 160m (1st), 100m (2nd), 100-50m (3rd), 20_??_30m (4th) and 10_??_15m (5th) in height. Since the Pleistocene, intermittent uplifts have been repeated in this area. Evidence of submergence, however, is not yet recognized.
    (2) Among these terrace, the 3rd terrace shows the most extensive distribution and is correlated with the middle marine terrace in adjacent regions. So that, it is presume that the land had relatively been stable for a long time in large area during the formation of the 3rd terrace.
    (3) There is a red soil layer with 3-5m in thickness covering the terrace deposits of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd terraces. This soil seems to be correlated with the Kanto volcanic ashes from its facies.
    (4) Most parts of the 3rd terrace were formed by lateral planation with slight deposition by the rivers which flow eastward from the Abukuma Plateau. That is, they are fluviatile surfaces. Marine terrace is present only in restricted areas. This difference in the origin of the 3rd terraces is distinguished by the facies of granels previously mentioned.
    (5) The ancient strand line of the 3rd terrace, wherever it is observed, is about 50m in altitude, so the total amount of uplift is about same throughout this area.
    (6) Judging from the position of the present rivers and the 3rd terrace, however, it is considered that there was a southward tilting of very small amount at the beginning of the uplift of the 3rd terrace and accordingly the rivers shifted southward.
    (7) The 4th and 5th terraces are the river terraces formed by the rivers which possibly had steeper gradient than those which contributed to the formation of the 3rd terrace.
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  • A CRITICISM TO “AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY”
    Kiyoji MURATA
    1958Volume 31Issue 4 Pages 219-230
    Published: April 01, 1958
    Released on J-STAGE: December 24, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    1. It follows from the very nature of a science that until it has reached a certain stage of development, definition of its character is necessarily impossible. But once this stage of development has been reached not only is it not waste of time to investigate precise chracter; it is waste of time not to do so. (L. Robbins) By the way Prof. E. G. R. Taylor stated once “What have they dooe ? This was the question derisively asked by the educated public about the Fellow of Royal Society in the early years of their incorporation. It is asked today, and in the same mocking spirit, about geographers”. To answer the above question it will be usefull to show the actual works done by many geographers. At the same time, however, geographers also must attempt methodological examination. Because as mentioned above, in case a science has reached a certain stage of development, its further development and repletion of its contents are to be accomplished by methodological examination but not only by trial and error.
    2. The writer's methodological examination is first directed to views stated in “American Geography”. In this book Prof. P. E. James shows three contributions of geography. (cf. p. 6) The writer has some questions of the foundation of his views. His first and second items assert to apply practically the concepts and principles provided by other systematic sciences, therefore the writer understands that he characterizes geography as the applied branch of other sciences with theory like the applied chemistry as against the theoretical chemistry. Such understanding leads me to the conclusion that the third asserrtion has no substantial meaning because it remains simply as an applied perspective. Then what is the reason why Prof. James venture to express his views without considering the theoretical basis underlying them? To me such a logical confusion seems to arise from some sort of belief that “area” is a peculiar objective accepted only in the field of geography. To the geographers who have such a belief, so far as their study is concerned with area, it is geography science even if it gets some benefit by the result of other sciences. But there are some questions on area. They are; (1) the concept and treatment of area is not exclusive possession of geography (e. g. as indicated by Prof. R. B. Hall), (2) it is a created intellectual concept (e. g. Prof. D. Whittlesey), (3) it is genetically a product which was brought as the result to avoid inpetous conclusion by environmentalism. So far as these views are admitted, the writer can say on each of them as following; (1) It seems to me that the view intending to characterize the geography only by connection with area has no scientific foundation. So far as the surface of the earth is the stage of human activities, it will be a common field of many sciences, and it is natural that many other sciences have some interest on the approach. Thus it is clear that area is not monopoly of geography.
    (2) If area is a created intellectual concept then what is its substantial content? As Prof. H. H. McCarty stated economic geography “derives its concepts largely from the field of economics, ” economic geographers, almost always treat economical phenomena by using concepts of economics. Therefore the writer can say that concrete contents of economic area are agglomeration of economic phenomena studied in economics. The fact that systematic and topical approaches are used in economic geography as well as regional approach, means that the contents of area substantially make those approaches indispensable. The systematic approach means, for instance, that economic geography must depend on the economics, consequently it must have stand-point of economics to areal study.
    (3) So far as the area is a product to avoid the defect of environmentalism, it is not an objective but genetically a means of environmentalistic approach.
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  • Keihachiro SHIMIZU
    1958Volume 31Issue 4 Pages 231-235
    Published: April 01, 1958
    Released on J-STAGE: December 24, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The features in population of a great city involve two phases, i. e., daytime population and nighttime population. Consequently, two kinds of centers or balanced points of population in space must be recognized corresponding to each of them. Up to this time, the center of population used to be signified as that of night-time population without any doubt, and the center of daytime population had long been put aside. However, the latter stands for the center of actual status of population in daytime, which accordingly might be called a center of citizens' activities. When they should not be coinciding at the same site in a metropolis, variuos questions must inevitably happen not only in traffic problems but also in every phase of urban adminstration.
    It is not always easy, however, to find out the balanced point of daytime population in space. From the view-point taking the daytime population as a moving population, the writer believes that one can point out the balanced point in connection with the locational arrangement of terminal traffic volumes of suburbanrailways in the central area of metropolis.
    Applying the theory of center of night-time population, we draw X- axis and Y- axis of our (own) accord at first. In this case, the balanced point is given with the following formula, letting Pi (Xi, Yi) stand as traffic volume at the i-th terminal station and N as the numbers of termini.
    _??_
    Fig. 1 shows the centers of daytime population in Osaka both pre- and postwar, applying abovementioned method, while Fig. 3 that of night-time population and its shifting. Therefore, the distance between them is 1.5km in 1955. In comparison with this, the center of daytime population in Tokyo Central Station and that of night-time population with Shinjuku Station (Fig. 2). The distance between them is 6 KM. or about 4 times as long as the case in Osaka. Such a separation gives an additional burden on every citizen's trip on everyday life.
    Through this fact we can recognize that the traffic difficulties with which Tokyo has been confronted are much severer than those of Osaka. Consequently, it would be more desirable than anything else in the city planning to give better administration on the metropolis so as to make those two kinds of centers of population as close as possible.
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  • 1958Volume 31Issue 4 Pages 236-276_1
    Published: April 01, 1958
    Released on J-STAGE: December 24, 2008
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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