A modern castletown was a typical town characterized by different social rankings of its inhabitants, and at the same time it was a town under the privileged few. From this fact there arose the system of segregation in quarters resided by retainers and merchants and the emergence of a specially privileged town-section, which present us with a subject for study. “Samurai-machi” and “chonin-machi” confronted each other in social rankings, but economically they were united, and from this confrontation and unity a type of castle-town came to exist, However, Street-village-shaped “machi, ” and mass-shaped “machi” formed the core and to this were added “samurai-machi” and “tera-machi”; thus forming four stages and eight types in its development. Attention must be called to the fact that what is mentioned above shows various stages of development of the castle-town.
In the castle-town which was under the privileged few, the system of regional trade monopolization and the establishment of “dogyo-machi” (inhabited by traders of one kind) become a subject for study. Especially in “machiza” and “kabunakama” which were connected with merchants who had special rights the center of the castle-town was formed. Thus the function of the center of the castle-town was specialized and diversified. While in a small castle-town, the above mentioned development was not observed.

View full abstract

The projects of readjustment of arable land have been carried out since 1900 in Japan. They have played an important role especially in these days for the modernization of Japanese agriculture. But the actual plan and the performance of the projects have differed according to age and region. The writer made researches on the present problems in the case of Hiroshima Prefecture, Western Japan, to find out the following facts.
In Hiroshima Prefecture the readjustment on the area of 6, 203 ha, 9.2% of the total rice-field area, had been completed by 1960. The projects was promoted especially in 1909-1916 and in the irrigationpond area in the eastern part of this prefecture, in connection with of the problems of rice-field agriculture, land-owner system and land-conditions at that time. Many lands readjusted were small in area, less than 50ha, with their water sources in the ponds and streams in the valleys. It was remarkable that those lands were swampy and under bad cultivational conditions.
Those lands had the common condition that water control was not well done. But the readjustment projects were not the same in quality before and after the land reform. The projects under the land-owner system (as in Shobara Basin) were aimed to raise the land rent by the change of upland fields to paddy fields as well as by the readjustment of rice-fields. And the technical points, such as farm roads and land consolidation, showed the characteristic features of land-owner system. Meanwhile, after the land reform, it was noticed that a new change for the rationalization of farm management went on, in due consideration of land and labor productivity, by the cultivators own investment with the aid of the government.
On the other hand, in the regions where people rejected readjustments, we recognize that the conditions of topography and land-utilization (fields and orchards), the customs of water use (as in the case of Kozan Basin) and the absence of the common will for readjustment (as in the suburbs under intensive land-use) have made readjustment difficult. The writer will make researches on the situation of land use in the area where readjustment has not been performed, to suggest the positive ways of improvement and to grasp the problem of the readjustment of arable lands in the field of applied geography.

View full abstract

One of the purposes of this survey, investigated from March to December in 1960, is to make clear the structure and changing patterns of the central quarters within the cities of Matsue, Miyazaki, Takamatsu, Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Hirosima and Fukuoka in Western Japan.
In the structure of the central quarters within these cities are recognized six grades which are shown in the following table.
Then the entral quarters within the cities of Hiroshima and Fukuoka were studied. In 1930 they had the patterns of the medium-sized city. The inner structures of these cities were destoryed by World War II. After the War, these cities were reconstructed and grew larger; especially the growth of Fukuoka City has been very rapid. Consequently, the patterns of the central quarters of these have changed from those of the medium-sized city to those of the largeone.
Explanation of the figures
Fig. 1, The index map of the cities investigated
Fig. 2, Land value distribution of those cities
Fig. 3, An example of the delimiting of the central quarter within Hiroshima city
Fig. 4, The central quarters of those cities
Fig, 5, Relations between the land value and the size of the central quarters
Fig. 6, Rank size arrangement of the land value and the size of the central quarters
Fig, 7, Pedestrian traffie [Fukuoka City]
Fig, 8, The land value distribution of Fukuoka City in 1937
Fig. 9, The central quarters of Hiroshima and Fukuoka

View full abstract