As a result of the rapid expansion of the cotton textile production in the Izumi Region, the production in Osaka Prefecture grew and led the national textile production from the 1900's to the 1920's. At that time a lot of medium and small textile factories were established and the cotton textile industry was formed in the Izumi Region. In this paper, the author investigates what kind of farmers became textile factory owners, the driving force for the industrialization of the rural area in Senboku-gun during the Meiji-Taisho Eras, and also explains the factors which contributed to the differences between the distribution pattern of the “Shiro-Momen” (non-dyed cotton cloth) factories and that of the cotton blanket factories in the same area. The results are as follows:
From an analysis of the imposition lists on the household tax (a kind of local tax at that time) at 4 villages, It can be seen that the main class of the textile factory owners were small landlords or landed farmers who owned 5-20 tan (1 tan is about a fourth acre). And as one approaches the inland villages of Hakata-son, Sinoda-son and Gosho-son away from the coastal village Kamijo-son, it can be seen that the main axis of the class rises from 5 tan to 5-10 tan or 10-20 tan. It seems that the economic structure of those villages is certainly reflected in the appearance of many textile factories.
The textile factories were not distributed uniformly in the rural area. The number of factories varied greatly from settlement to settlement in the same village. It seems that the response to the textile industry was influenced not only by the economic situation at each settlement, but also by the villager's sense or the presence of a pioneer at each settlement. Also it shows a tendency for the factories to specialize in one product at each settlement, and the cotton blanket factories increased more and more at settlements nearer to Otsu-son.
The “Shiro-Momen” factories which spread out widely to the south of Senboku-gun, rapidly increased after the late 1900's. The geographical location was a main reason for the increase in this area, and, consequently the conditions for establishing textile factories were fostered at that time. There were two main conditions in this area: The first was that the small landlords or landed farmers who were short of funds were helped to establish factories by developing or diffusing the cheap power looms and motors in this region. The other was that a lot of the small landlords or landed farmers who would become textile factory owners lived in this area.
It seems that the distribution of the cotton blanket factories were restricted within the surrounding area of Otsu-son because of production techniques and their functional relation to the cotton blankets. Exactly speaking, production system of the blankets had a more complicated division of labor than the“Shiro-Momen”production. Also, Otsu-son was the birthplace and the center of blanket production. Therefore, we may presume that the conditions of transportation and communication prevented the distribution of those factories from expanding far from Otsu-son at that time. Also, another factor is that the smaller farmers in this area could enter into the business, because even small scale weaving of the cotton blankets certainly made profits.

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The author points out that, concerning the analysis of settlement societies where konjuka is under way, there has been a tendency to look at only one side of the model of that urban impacts changing ‘rural communities’. Konjuka is a social process where new residents from the city who came accompanying the expansion of the city as a result of the marketing of farm lands, and the indigenous people who are previous residents, mix and reside within the settlement and live together holding some kind of social relationship.
As a result, many times there is a tendency to limit and to formalize the problem as a ‘rural community’ adapting to konjuka, and towards an argument weighing heavily on analysis of the state of the indigenous people. Moreover, these arguments were often based on the assumption that“konjuka”is a drastic force in bringing about social disorganization. Attendant on this problem, there is a strong tendency, concerning the conceptualization of settlements where konjuka is under way, to depend on the previous concept of ‘rural community’. In this article, the author attempts to understand the social process of konjuka and the local community by which it is formed, from the viewpoint of ‘the new formation of the local community’.
It is clear that after the war there has been considerable change in occupational and economical structure of the study settlement and that today farming is only marginally an economic base for the farm households; that the settlement does not fit the previous definition of ‘rural community’ which emphasized these factors. Yet, because it is seen as a non-urban area, there is a problem including it in the city concept. Concerning the state of the social organizations within the settlement, one sees its characteristics in the fact that newcomers were not separated into a social category different from the former ones, but rather tend to be included in the existing organizations.
Furthermore as a result of inspecting the social formations within the settlement, it has been pointed out that is not merely a dichotomy between the newcomers and the indigenous people, but also, if apartment tenants are to be included as residents of the settlement, there are 5 main divisions within the social structure where each one recognizes and evaluates others and changes the way of holding his relationship with a different social category. It has become clear that there exists a delicate social relationship between the city-originating newcomers and the indigenous elderly people; but there also exisit mediators, the younger generations within the indigenous people and the newcomers originating from rural communities, who mediate the two. In spite of this, because of the existence of apartment residents who do not accomplish the social tasks demanded by the others, the previous definition of a rural community which regards it a priori as a social group or as a social unit is incompatible with the actual situation. In other words, it seems that a settlement where konjuka is under way cannot be conceptualized as a rural community.
It has been seen that, as the characteristic of social consciousness newly brought about by konjuka, there exists in the indigenous people consciousness attempting to preserve stability of the settlement society; and, that there exists a fear of being separated socially within the settlement among the newcomers. The reason why this kind of social consciousness is born comes from the fact that in the social life the new and old residents are mutually dependent. In the sample settlement the new and old residents hold a mutually dependent relationship regarding funerals, and during the process of konjuka the social function of the han (inner areal unit of the settlement) is strengthened.

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Recently there have been many studies about the structural change of the metropolitan area. The first approach to the theme was that from the view of counterurbanization in the United States. But in this study the districts which showed the highest rate of population growth were not remote rural areas but the nonmetropolitan areas adjacent to SMSAs. Then P. Gorden (1979) or P. Hall & D. Hay (1980) disputed that the counterurbanization could be explained in terms of the suburbanization. They found a problem with the structure of metropolitan areas in the study of national scale migration named ‘counterurbanization’.
In the four stages of urban development, which Klaassen et al. (1979, 1980) showed, the critical point between the second stage, suburbanization, and the third new stage, desurbanization, was whether the population of the whole metropolitan area increases or decreases. It was the same condition as counterurbanization. When the most rapidly growing district of population then is an adjacent district to the metropolitan area, we can no longer grasp the urban growth within the framework of the metropolitan area. This population decreasing process of the whole metropolitan area is first explained by K. O'Conner (1980) and Y. Taguti (1981) as follows: The new urbanizing zone adjacent to the metropolitan area, exurb, in which more commuters work in the suburbs, does not belong to the metropolitan area defined as a commuting area to the central city. Then, if the population of the adjacent districts increases, the metropolitan area does not expand there as before.
The structural change of the metropolitan area has also been analyzed in terms of the suburbanization of economic activities of the central city as by Muller, et al. In this point of view the population suburbanizes first, then manufacturing and retail activities of daily food necessities. In the third stage, large shopping centers are constructed in the suburbs and offices gravitate to them. However the question is the suburbanization of the decision making sector in offices. If that sector remains in the CBD as P. W. Daniels (1974) shows, the regional structure of economic activities in the metropolitan area never change. Economically it is the nodal region which has an apparent node CBD. But in terms of daily behavior of the people, not many people need to go to the CBD or central city frequently. It is an other region than an economic nodal region. Strictly speaking the metropolitan area now is the daily behavior area defined by commuting or shopping to the central city. It is the daily behavior in the area of the central city and around it that is changing now not only in the U. S., but in Japan and European countries.
In Japan we don't yet find a decrease of metropolitan area population. However the suburbanization of the central city activities are of course under way just as R. A. Erickson (1983) and A. Kellerman (1985) have shown for the metropolitan areas in the United States of the 1950's. In the 1960's city centers rapidly declined in America though we can't conclude whether they are in an advanced stage of urban development or in circumstances peculiar to the metropolitan areas of the United Sates. But the suburbanization of employment now in Japan makes the commuting rate to the central city decrease and it means that factors are increasing which cannot be explained within the framework of the metropolitan area. We need a new framework which can explain those factors.
We can cite two types given by E.J. Taaffe (1963) about the new structure of the region in order to understand the metropolitan area hitherto. One type is the ‘concentration of the peripheral laborsheds’ and the other is the ‘dispersion’ of these.

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Researchers of traditional nursery areas in the suburbs of metropolitan areas have reported that these areas are changing because of recent urbanization. In particular, the number of the nurseryman who pursues gardening as a side business increased in order to obtain more income. Although a few researchers have reported gardeners who pursues nurserywork as a side business, no one has get reported specialist gardeners.
But, there are many gardeners who are not experienced in growing garden plants. Essentially, the gardener exists in the boundary territory between agricurture and the service industry, while the work of the nurseryman is agricultural. And, in the distribution system, the gardener takes a middle position between the nurseryman and consumers. So, we can't investigate gardeners as a subset of the tree-planting indusury using only the approach of the traditional nursery area.
In this report we take up the gardening industry within the tree-planting industry, and investigate three problems in the Takayasu District and Ukyo-ku: 1) the formation process of gardening industry in both areas, 2) the change in distribution of gardener's offices and nurseries, 3) the production structure of the gardening industry.
We have got the following results: 1) In Takayasu, some farmers started gardening as a side job in the Meiji Era, and the gardening industry has grown ever since owing to housing booms. In Ukyo-ku, gardeners appeared in the Heian Period, and the gardening industry has grown ever since because of temples and shrines. 2) The scale of agricultural land per gardener is small, and gardeners depend on distributors and agricultural lands that have gone out of use, because of recent urbanization. 3) The Earnings rate of the gardening industry is high, and many gardeners are engaged in not only landscape gardening but planning and maintaining of gardens. One of the reasons that the gardening industry exists in the suburbs of the metropolis is the high earnings rate.

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