Owing to the request of the Royal Estate Administration of Iran to the Japanese Ambassador in Teheran to establish the Japanese model farm on the coast of Caspian Sea, I have had an opportunity to investigate the said area and write a report, which was published recently by the Bureau of Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here I would like to point out the characteristics of the natural, socio-economic environments and the land use and farm managements of this region.
The natural environments of this region are quite different from that of the rest of Iran called the Arid Iran. Topographically, this region is consisted largely of fans which were shaped by rivers from the Elburz Mountains and the bulk of it is not only comparatively flat but also very low so that it lies below the surface of the Black Sea. Climatically this region belongs to the Mediterranean climatical type, although the amount of rainfall amounts from 1000 to 1500mm, which is far less than that of the general. Mediterranean type. This region represents a special Mediterranian type and is called the Moist Iran. Consequently the vegitation is particular, that is the Hyrcanian type.
The socio-economic environments have been changing remarkably. The market within the region is very important, because the population of this limited area occupies nearly one fifth of the total population of Iran and the density of population is about eight times bigger than that of the whole Iran. The outside market also has a considerable influence. From the viewpoint of trade this region had close relation with Russia, but after the Second War the main market has been switched off to the part of Iran on the south of the Elburz Mountains owing to the opening of motor-roads as well as a railway across the Mountains and to the substantial change in international relations.
Mainly due to the differences of natural environments, the land use of this region is quite different from that of the rest of Iran. Its characteristics are first the predominance of paddy field, and, secondly, the complexity of crops, that is rice as maincrop and wheat, barley, cotton, oranges, mulberry, tea, tobacco, jute, etc. The land use within the region is made different according to the climatical conditions.
The peculiarities of the farming of this region are: (1) sharecropping system, (2) small scale farming, (3) full-time farming, (4) predominance of crop production and lack of animal husbandry on farm management, (5) specialization of farming, (6) production for marketing, (7) intensive farming, (8) higher productivity as compared to the average Iranian standard, (9) stationariness of productivity.
Consequently, it is at present a serious problem to the development of the Iranian economy how to overcome the stationariness of productivity. Means to attain this objective will be, I think, mainly the reform of land system, the improvement and extention of agricultural technology and the development of rural community projects.

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The ‘yamato-mune’, or ‘takahei’, is a type of roofing popular among private houses. What characterizes it is the way that the thatched gable roof has its gable-walls plastered with wall mud and then covered with tiles. The aim of this thesis is to classify its varied forms and examine the distribution as well as the route of distribution of those various forms in order to throw light on the process of development of the ‘yamato-mune’.
Several varieties are found in the ‘yamato-mune’ roofing:
I. the fundamental type; ‘takahei’, ‘naka-takahei’, ‘hizumi-takahei’;
II. the tiled-roof type; ‘hakomune’, ‘daimune’, ‘okimune’;
III. the intermediate type; ‘ryogawa-danchigai’, ‘kata-takahei’;
IV. the ‘Koshiore’ type;
V. the Kawachi type;
VI. the cryptmeria bark- or board-roof type;
VII. the zinc-roof type;
IIX. other varieties.
The ‘yamato-mune’ is mainly used in the Yamato Basin, but the range of its distribution extends west to Kawachi, Settsu, and Izumi, east to the Iga Basin, south to the basin of the River Yoshino (or Kinokawa), and north as far as that part of southern, Yamashiro along the River Kizu. It is also found at a few specific places outside this general range. Distrtbution of several of its varieties is as follows:
the fundamental type: to be found in the Yamato Basin;
the Kawachi type: Kawachi, Settsu, and Izumi;
the ‘hizumi-takahei’ Kawachi: southern and middle Kawachi, Kii;
the ‘daimune’ tiled-roof type: north Kawachi;
the ‘higashi-sanchu’ tiled-roof type: the Yamato Plateau;
the ‘uda-sanchu’ cryptmeria bark-or board-roof type: Oku-uda districts.
The ‘yamato-mune’ roofs seem to be distributed along routes of traffic or along rounts of migration of the carpenters. As we move along the principal rountes of traffic from the Yamato Basin to the surrounding districts, we find the fundamental type gradually changed to or replaced by other types. For instance:
the fundamental type—the intermediate type—another type of roofing, principally the ‘irimoya’ roofing, which originally belonged to those districts surrounding the Yamato Basin;
the fundamental type—the ‘hakomune’—the ‘daimune’;
—the Kawachi type;
—the ‘daimune’ or the ‘koshiore’;
—the ‘higashi—sanchu’—the Iga type (the tiled-roof ‘yosemune’); etc.
The fundamental type found in the Yamato Basin is obviously the original ‘yamato-mune’, and the genealogy of the fundamental type is to be further questioned. At present the writer of this thesis tends to think that its prototype would be either the ‘takahei’ roof or the ‘naka-takahei’ roof. This, however, will have to be treated in another thesis.

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The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the location of dispersed settlenents and the regional peculiarities of the residential system by analysing the function of the settements in the Hikawa Plain.
1. The most important function of the dispersed settlements is to situate the cottage at the centre of the cultivated land where the agricultural management is easily done.
2. What promoted establishment of a ‘settlement’ is largely due to the factors related to the natural environment. It is necessary to live as near as possible to the cultivated land for the conveniences of the agricultural labor. For example the threshing in the field is imposible due to the moisture of the land and the drain of rice has to be done around the cottage on account of rain, because in this district they have a rainy season at the time of harvest. Besides, the flooding of the Hii River and the danger of the fire to be spread around by seasonal wind certainly did stimulate the dispersion of residence.
3. What gave conveniences to the dispersed settlements can be traced to the island-like highland slightly risen from the paddy-field quite favorable for the manor land. Another powerful factor is that communities are so loosely knitted since they came to be settled there not in groups but in individuals.
4. In the early days when the land was newly cultivated, the settlements had been formed in aggromations here and there on the natural levee and along the highland, but the residential system came to show a different type of new adaptation in accordance with the enormous increase of the production and the population. It is on the back-marsh and edge of the delta (newly cultivated land) that the dispersed settlements were first established. The role which the geographic envionment played in the growth of the residential system vary according to place and time.
The people of the rural communities, in general, have made great efforts to adapt themselves to the geographic environment and made best use of the geographic environment within their ower. The residential system is being carried on because they think that it is the most convenient system to carry on their productive activities. This is reflected in the whole peculiarities on the area even in terms of landscape.

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