Isawa Plain is a fan having a 20km radius which was formed in the Diluvial Epoch, and its surface is mainly composed of fluvial terraces formed in theree different levels, namely high, intermediate and low. The density of scattered farmsteads spreading on the whole area of the fan at present is high at the low level and relatively low at the intermediate and high levels.
The development of arable land began in ancient times in the lower part of the level area, but that in the intermediate and high level areas belongs to later days, and in a part of the high level area, there are some places which were developed after the Second World War.
Also the irrigation channels for paddy fields were mostly for those in the low level terrace area. Therefore, in the intermediate and high level areas and the upper part of the low level area, the proportion of paddy fields was low, and many fallow areas existed. At the end of the medieval period, the pattern of land utilization was still like this, and it hardly changed till the beginning of Meiji Era.
Concerning Wakayanagi Village, which is located in the uppermost part of the low level area, the origin of the dispersed settlements and the structure of the settlements were elucidated. In Wakayanagi Village, the location of the settlements varies, such as the small village at the foot of a mountain and the isolated farmsteads spreading over the plain. By the analysis of the cadastres at the beginning of Edo Period and other materials, the individual family lines were investigated. The results are as follows:
i) In Wakayanagi Village, there was no large increase in the number of houses throughout the Edo Period.
ii) In the small village at the foot of a mountain, among the peasants registered in the cadastres, some relations of the same family existed already at that time.
iii) However, among the scattered farmsteads in the plain, no such related families existed. Afterward, by the creation of branch families, the relation of same family was born.
iv) Among the isolated farmsteads in the intermediate and high level areas, which were newly reclaimed in the middle Edo Period, the mutual relation to the same family has not existed.
As mentioned above, it is considered that the existence or not of the relation to the same family is related to the realization of the two forms, collective settlement and dispersed settlement.

View full abstract

A public utility is a useful service for the public, such as electricity, gas, water and sewage and transportation. Generally speaking, in the Meiji Era., most of the smaller utilities were unprofitable. Nevertheless, there were some entrepreneurs who willingly invested their money in the smaller utilities. For example, they are Keijiro Amemiya who established Dainihon Light Railway Company, Tokichi Saiga who established Saiga Electric Machinery and Appliance Company, and so forth.
Saiga & Co. (Saiga Electric Machinery and Appliance Company) which was established by Tokichi Saiga had approximately 80 subsidiary companies including electricity, electrical equipment and various railways such as tramway and railway. The covered most parts of Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa. However, their business collapsed to the point where they dishonored a bill in 1912 and went bankrupt soon after that.
Saiga & Co. ran electricity businesses and railway businesses at the same time in the same area depending on the situation. Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture and Iinan in Mie Prefecture are the cases. These areas are regarded as one of the most important areas for their business. Therefore, I discussed the Matsusaka Railway Company and Matsusaka Water Electric Company in my essay, which are subsidiary companies of Saiga & Co. in the Iinan District.
Consequently, I could come to three points as follows:
1. Matsusaka Railwey Company and Matsusaka Water Power Electric Company were two major companies in the Iinan District at that time, Local capital intersts had planned to establish them in their original plans. But, they failed to raise funds and asked Saiga & Co. for financial aid. Doth enterprises were established in this way.
2. Matsusaka Railway Company and Matsusaka Water Power Electric Company developed their businesses rapidly after Tokichi Saiga participated in their management. This means that his contribution to the businesses was indispensable for their success in administrative and technical aspects.
3. In 1910, Saiga and the manager of Matsusaka Water Power Electric Company participated in a project to build Matsusaka Light Railway. Matsusaka Water Power Electric Company built a dam across the Kushida River to generate electricity in 1905. However, it interrupted the transportation of the timber on floats, which was the customary way to transport timber in those days. Therefore, Matsusaka Water Power Electric Company participated in the project and contributed to build Matsusaka Light Railway between Matsusaka and Oishi.

View full abstract

Traditional urban geography tends to place its research focus on the spatial differentiation of the functions and facilities in the metropolitan region. Little attention, however, has been paid to the drastic changes in everyday life of the urban residents. This review essay tries to overview the recent research trends in various academic fields which have a strong concern with human activities in an urban environment. In this way, some perspectives are suggested for human activity studies in urban geography.
Human activities are allocated within both limited time resources and a constrained human activity space, and form the so-called‘human activity pattern’. Here we tentatively subdivided the researches on human activity into three categories: i. e.‘time budget and allocation study’which highlights the time dimension of human activity; ‘spatial behavior study’Which emphasizes the spatial choice; and‘transportation study’ which pays special attention to the human travel pattern. But these three types of studies are intricately entangled with each other and should be treated as a whole. Therefore, in this review essay, we try to understand each of these studies in its own research context and examine how other two types of studies could be evaluated in that context.
Our viewpoint is briefly explained in Chapter One, and in the following chapter, we review the time budget and allocation studies in sociology, home economics and microeconomics which treat the time dimension of human activity. Basically, these studies treat the time allocation simply between production and consumption within 24 hours, and tend to be static analyses.
In Chapter Three, we trace human activity pattern study in urban planning, human geography and transportation studies. These studies try to answer the question, ‘what activities do people engage in, and why?’The recent. frontier of this research interest is modelling of people's choice of activities within the constrained choice settings. Currently, research foci are on the dynamics of activity pattern change in the long-term and on repetitive patterns in the short-term.
Chapter Four takes up time-geographic research in human geography for its tremendous influence on time-related studies. One of the most pronounced characteristics in time-geographic research is its endeavor to incorporate both time and space dimensions as indivisible entities in our understanding of the society. Introduction of an incorporated time-space entity is useful for representation of human activities. More importantly, however, it opens the way to mediation between individual behavior and social structure.
Finally in Chapter Five, we discuss new perspectives for understanding of contemporary society. They would emerge from the time-geographical application of human activity studies. Three of them seem especially important. The first perspective is on the value of the identification procedure for ideal types of human activities. The second is on the use of examining human activities from the point of constraints. The third is on the need for a dynamic understanding of the interaction between individuals and society.
However affluent it may seem, life in contemporary society is quite deprived when we see it from the point of everday time use. Economists can give support to the fact that economic growth makes time resources more scarce and our everyday life shifts from a time-intensive to a goods-intensive life-style. But we are not satisfied with this trend. We are still looking for clues to escape from the traps of economic growth. We hope this tiny study may help to research this horizon.

View full abstract

The supplementary work for the fishing is generally practiced in and around the fishing houses. In addition to the residential usage, the fishing houses have many kinds of functions such as places for storing fishing tools and repairing nets. In this paper the author studied the house plans and their functions in the fishing village of Hiruga, Eastern Wakasa Bay.
The following results were obtained:
1. It is clear that the private fishing houses have a greater storage capacity for fishing in comparison with the other types.
2. Hiruga is divided into four fishing villages, Higashi, Nishi, Hama and Onokuchi. The settlement began in Nishi village of Hiruga, because it is easy to avoid the severe northwest wind in winter. The weather conditions influence the formation of land division.
3. In both Higashi and Nishi fishing villages, families dealing with gill nets need the storage space on the first floor of a house. On the other hand non-fishing families use the same space for living.
4. The fishing village of Hama was developed after the Meiji Era. Originally the main agricultural land around Hama was used for paddy and upland fields. The diving fishery does not need much space for keeping tools, so space was allrcated in the main house.
In the villages where the rate of private fishing is very high, the space for keeping tools is located beside the sea or the lake. However in the case of villages carrying on large-scale pound net fishing, the storage space is not only separate beside the sea (or lake) but is also separate from the living area.

View full abstract