The present study is mainly concerned with the changing structure of the upland field villages which had no paddy fields.
In the previous paper (1976), the author investigated the peddling activities by farmers and their agrarian bases in the upland field villages on the Midaigawa alluvial fan in Yamanashi Prefecture. It was clarified that a large number of farmers, especially of the low class, were depending on the peddling activities to cover up their money shortage problem. In that paper, however, the scope of study was mainly limited to the lower class farmers, so the whole social and economic structures of the villages were not necessarily explained.
Therefore, in this paper, the author intends to clarify the problem by analyzing the agricultural management and commercial activities by the landowner, the Sajibei family, in the Nishino village on the Midaigawa alluvial fan.
The main results are summarized as follows:
The early Edo period (the 17th century): The Nishino village consisted of about 30 Honbyakusho (independent farmers) and many subordinate farmers called Kakaeya (kinship with Honbyakusho), Kadoya (non-kinship), Fudaigenin (non-kinship, most intensely subordinate) and Genin (apprentice). The high class Honbyakusho, like the Sajibei family, who owned comparatively large lands, had control over these four types of subordinate farmers. On the other hand middle or low class Honbyakusho had control over Kakaeya. But it is worthy to note that every Honbyakusho had subordinate farmers.
The mid Edo period (from the beginning of the 18th century to the first decade of the 19th century): During the second half of the 17th century, Kakaeya had positively reclaimed waste lands and increased their lands more than ever. In 1709, they could become independent of Honbyakusho not only for their economic base but also for their social position. As a result, the number of Honbyakusho increased greatly, while the number of Kakaeya decreased sharply (Fig. 6). The pattern of family composition had also changed. Only the high class Honbyakusho had apprentices, while the others lost subordinate farmers.
For the new Honbyakusho it was not easy to depend on agriculture, because its productivity was very low in those days. Therefore, necessarily, they had to supplement their income with non-agricultural economic activities. Hence, they began to peddle agricultural products, but they could not sufficiently earn at that time. After all, they had to pawn their lands to high class farmers in order to pay the tax.
The Sajibei family had been engaging in the wholesale business of tobacco from the beginning of the 18th century. It gathered tobacco from producers, brokers and wholesale merchants, and sold them to peddlers and wholesale merchants both in Kai (Yamanashi Prefecture) and other districts, especially in Edo (Tokyo). It could earn much money and afford to lend money to low class farmers. It had gained plenty of lands during the latter half of the 18th century. Many new Honbyakushos lost their lands and became Kosaku farmers (tenants).
The late Edo period (from the second decade of the 19th century): The Sajibei family began to do the agricultural management as a landowner of rental farms in the latter half of the 18th century. But it could not earn much money by this management work because the income was only slightly more than the expenses. Therefore, it did not expand its management. Its Kokudaka holding decreased to 21 Koku (1 Koku=180 liters) in 1851 as compared to 128 Koku in the first decade of the 19th century, mainly due to the division of property by inheritance.

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Studies of regional structure of industry in Japan have been focussed on combination and correlation between industrial factors only. In this paper, the present writer intends to study the regional structure of the Nishijin small-scale weaving industry not only from the viewpoint of industrial factors but also of other regional factors.
Nishijin weaving industry is located in the northwest part of Kyoto city, and famous for its long history which originated from the classical court industry in the Heian era (the 9th to 12th centuries). This industry is unique in that it produces silk of very high quality, and consists of minutely divided processes.
Nishijin has not been the name of an administrative division, so its definite area is uncertain. Therefore the present writer compiled distributional maps of factories for the years of 1895, 1909, and 1922, and examination of those and other maps made available in published materials for 1940, 1955, and 1975, led to areal definition of the region.
In this study, flve areas were selected to represent the different dates of formation. A study of a questionnaire method was done in 1977 for each area.
As a result, two functional regions are classified as follows.
(1) The nuclear function region - not only weavers but also wholesalers and other men of related undertakings concentrate, and functions of planning, arrangement and shipment are mainly performed in this region.
It economically connects Nishijin with other areas, and forms the single nodal region of the industry.
(2) Producing region - this surrounds the nuclear function region above, and producing function is specially accumulated.
In the nuclear function region, producing function is remarkably dropping down as various economic interactions with other regions increase recently. The traditional high reputation of this region, whcih had been held for long and valued until the World War II, has faded away, and this also accounts for a trend of depressing production.
The producing region is characterized by its small and petty scale in undertaking, but constant shift and supplement of new functional factors afford certain productivity to the region. As for the labours, incoming people from outlying tracts of Nishijin or Kyoto city, for example from Tango and Hokuriku areas, play a role of labour supplement.

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