In striking contrast to the long history of general maps, it was not until the latter half of the seventeenth century that thematic maps appeared. A. Hettner, (1927), who fully discussed the unique properties and importance of maps in geography, did not yet use the term “thematic maps, ” but stated instead that new types of maps had been introduced in the nineteenth century. A. Kircher (1665) and E. W. Happel (1685) were among the first thematic map makers. The contribution of E. Halley deserves special mention. His world map of trade winds and monsoons (1686) was the first map which used iconic symbols to depict wind directions, and even the seasonal reversal of the Indian monsoon was well demonstrated. Very few had ever used isolines before Halley, who made a chart of compass variations in 1701.
Thematic maps made rapid progress in the eighteenth century, when maps of geology, biology, linguistics, population density, economics, administrative divisions, etc. were made.
In the author's opinion, Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Ritter made full use of thematic maps to establish the firm foundation of modern geography. “Sechs Karten von Europa” by Ritter, attached to his book “Regional Geography of Europe, ” was the first printed atlas of thematic maps. An incredible amount of information concerning individual locations on the earth's surface was put into an orderly system of knowledge in the form of thematic maps. By making distribution maps of trees and shrubs and of cultivated plants, he delineated several natural regions which were almost parallel to the latitudinal zones. His famous definition of geography, that is, geography deals with the earth's surface as long as it is earthly filled (irdisch erfüllt), can be well understood through his intention to make various thematic maps, because comparable information must be collected for the whole region to complete a map.
Halley's isoline map was followed only by those of Ph. Buache (1752) and J. I. Dupain-Triell (1791) until Humboldt made an isothermal chart in 1817. The isoline map is unique in that it can be made with a limited number of data. Humboldt used only 58 cities to produce his chart of a wide area in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition, isoline maps are also unique in that, once made, interpolation and extrapolation allow determination of the figure for every arbitrary point. With the aid of Humboldt, H. Berghaus, the eminent cartographer, published the “Physische Atlas” which included many thematic maps. It cannot be denied that Humboldt was also very keen to illustrate the regularities of physical phenomena and the interrelationships between them using thematic maps.
Scrutiny of the history of modern geography from the viewpoint of thematic maps, discovering what type of map was developed for what purpose, etc., is a promising research area.
For example, C. Darwin made a distribution map of coral reefs to test his subsidence theory explaining the formation of three types of coral reef. Emphasizing the shapes that maps can describe better than language, O. Peschel believed that a precisely prepared map could illustrate the hidden factors explaining the formation of fjords and other phenomena. F. Ratzel also recognized the importance of map representation in the science of “Anthropogeographie.” His movement theory was highly appreciated by the Kulturkreis school in cultural anthropology. L. Frobenius developed the culture-complex diffusion theory with the help of a number of thematic maps.
K. Yanagita (1930), a Japanese folklorist, assembled more than three hundred parochial expressions for the word “snail” into a map. Identifying a concentric pattern with the center in Kyoto from a seemingly chaotic map, he concluded that the distribution pattern of some Japanese dialects resulted from a slow diffusion from the ancient cultural core.

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阿武隈山地を対象としてデジタル標高モデル(DEM)を用いて地形計測を行い,同じ地形的特徴を持つ山地流域を分類した.まずDEMから54個の流域を抽出し,11個の地形特徴量を計測した.計測した地形特徴量を直接用いて流域を分類する手法と,地形特徴量を変量とした主成分分析の結果得られる主成分を用いて流域を分類する手法とを比較した結果,後者の手法が的確に流域を分類できることが分かった.この結果,本研究で対象にしたすべての流域は4個のクラスターに分類された.このとき流域の地形は,地形の険しさ,流域の形状,流路の発達状況の3個の主成分で説明できる.各クラスターの特徴は以下の通りである.クラスター1は山地中央部の孤立峰を流域内に含み,地形が険しく流路が発達している.クラスター2は断層破砕帯などに沿った谷を流域内に含み,細長い平面形態である.クラスター3は上位の侵食平坦面を流域内に含み,やや深い谷と浅い谷に開析されており,比較的険しい.クラスター4は上位面から砂礫が供給される低位の侵食平坦面を流域内に含み,クラスター3よりもなだらかである.クラスター3・4の流路はクラスター1よりも発達していない.このように,DEMを用いた地形計測をもとにして,同じ地形的特徴を持つ流域を同-クラスターに客観的に分類することができた.

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1970年代の漬物加工技術の革新は,漬物の低塩化を促進すると同時に南九州に新興加工産地を形成させる要因となった.本研究では,この過程で急成長した宮崎県の産地形成過程と,原料供給システムや業者間の加工工程分業化に関する生産構造とを明らかにした.1960年代～1970年代にかけて地元資本業者が増加し, 1970年代以降は県外資本業者の進出が加わって業者数が増加していった.この展開の中で田野農協の漬物製造工場設立(1973年)は,契約栽培の定着,原料価格の安定化を促進させる契機となった.各業者は漬物用大根を地元の農家との契約栽培などにより入手している.宮崎県では1980年代の初期から地元小規模資本業者が1次加工を担当し,地元および県外の中・大規模資本業者と県内外の資本による共同資本業者とが2次加工を行うようになり,産地内の業者間で加工工程に基づく分業化が始まった.1次加工は低塩製品製造のため冷蔵庫保管・熟成が主流となり,2次加工機能の近接性が求められた結果,2次加工機能も産地内に定着し,産地形成が促進された.この方法により製造された製品は,保存・輸送方法の技術革新によって遠隔性を克服することができたため,宮崎県は全国規模の加工産地へ発展したのである.

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