Various aspects and problems of Shinden(reclaimed rice-field) on delta have been so far investigated, but materials which refer to its geographical distribution are hardly to be found. Here in this report, I am to make a comparative study on the distribution of the settlemets of Shinden on the delta of the Fuji river and that of the Oi river (both in Shizuoka Pref.).
(1) There are two ways in which Shinden is formed and developed on the delta, namely, the intussusception growth and the apposition growth. The one means that Shinden is formed and covers the delta by way of thrusting itself in already established villages, and by the other is meant that Shinden is added at the circumference of old settlement. In other words, the former can be called the area-expanding growth which makes Shinden spread over the delta, and the latter the thickening growth which makes the settlement on delta thicker. As the typical examples of these two ways of development of Shinden on delta, are taken the reclaimed rice-fields on the delta of the Fuji river (the apposition growth) and that of the Oi river (the intussusception growth).
(2) Irrespective of the above-mentioned area-expanding growth or the thickening growth, Shinden is divided into another two kinds, the centrifugal growth and the centripetal growth, according to the direction of its development. Shinden on the delta of the Fuji river belongs to the former. There, the original rice-field being in the center of delta, the new rice-field developed thence toward the outer side-namely, the centrifugal growth. On the contrary, the one on the delta of the Oi river was centripetally formed. developing, from the circumference toward the surface of delta.
(3) If developed by the intussusception growth, the reclimed rice-field is distributed all over the surface of delta. A good example is found in the one on the delta of the Oi river, which can be called an equifacial settlement. The equifacial settlement sometimes has a naturally formed nucleus, and there are two cases of forming the nucleus. In one case, the nucleus being vague, people can only surmise the nuclear part, and in the other case, the nucleus being distinct, the reclaimed rice-field is spreading around it. I call the nucleus of the latter a hilum of Shinden on delta. Such a hilum is found just in the center of delta of the Oi river, that is, Kamishinden in Aikawavillage. Besides the case the hilum coincides with the center of delta as afore-mentioned, there may be another case the hilum keeps at a distance from the center of delta.
(4) The delta is edged by the reclamed rice-field if the latter developed by the thickening growth; and the bordered distribution or ringed distribution of the reclaimed ricefield on delta comes to be observed. The one on the delta of the Fuji river is its good example, which shows distinctly the distribution of pericycle settlement. When the delta is not edged wholly, the half bordered distribution is observed as we see on the deltas of the Ota river (Hiroshima Pref.) and the Hii river (Shimane Pref.). If Shinden is scanty in the center of delta while it is distributed only around it, a central gap is made in the region of reclaimed rice-field, of which good example is given by the distribution of Shinden on the delta of the Fuji river.

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1) All of the ancient civilizations in the Old World were developed in the arid and temperate climates and their margins rather than the humid tropics. In as much as the establishment and maintenance of irrigation canals necessarily involve cooperation, and therefore a rather high degree of social organization, the conditions of the arid regions were exceptionally conducive to the establishment of the highly complex policies. While the ancient civilizations in the New World were developed under fairly similar arid condition. The “Hochebenentheori”, high plateau theory, that the ancient civilizations on the New World were originated from high plateaus of the tropics, has a strong resemblance to the origin theory of civilizations in the temperate climate of the Old World, as far as temperature is concerned. Thus the Hochebenentheorie should be recognized from the view of the milieu theory, as well as recognized through the organism of production developed on this environment. Then, how comes the fact that Mayan civilization was developed in the humid low land of the tropics?
2) When we examine the great achievements of Mayan civilization and natural environment in which they still remain, we can understand why some historian regards the causes of development of this civilization in this region as a mystery. It is doubtful that the ability of any race can establish it at present.
3) Therefore, if the physical conditions of Maya land were the same in the past as in the present, the ancient Mayas must have possessed a degree of energy and a power of resistance to the debilitating effects of a tropical climate far in excess of that of any other race now existing.
While Dr. Huntington's “Climatic Pulsation Theory”, which asserts the lessening of rainfall, means the diminishing of agricultural possibility that is contradictory to the possibility of support of great population in the Mayan Empire.
The “Extraordinary Capacity Theory” was only an unproved assumption, until, maintaining the “Hochebenentheorie”, Dr. Sapper explained by acclimatization the reason why extraordinary capacity of the ancient Mayas was constituted.
4) We would supplment Dr. Sapper's theory with the “Forced Labor Theory”. The Mayan community was under religious government. Religious forced labor promoted the aritificial selection of the ancient Mayas and provided them with the labor capacity in tropical low land. When the fall of the empire released the forced laborers, they could migrate to other places, seeking after the environments which they prefer and they lost their extraordinary capacity.

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The district which suffers from“ Hirodokaze” is the norhern part of Katsuda-gun in Okayama Prefecture. With Nagi fault scarp on the north, it has wavy geographical features. “Hirodokaze” frequently breaks out when a typhoon proceeds eastward off the coast of Shikoku, and sometimes the north wind blows at a velocity of even 50 metres a second. The season of this wind chiefly being August, September and October, it is likely that a great deal of damage is to be done to the rice-plants. As a matter of fact, according to the materials in recent times, there have been not a few villages where more than 30% of the rice-plants were suffered, and 79% if damage both from a drought and from a chill is taken into account. As the mediate cause of the revolt of peasants in Mimasaku (name of district in the east part of Okayama Prefecture), which has often occurred in Modern Age, it can not be ignored that the peasants burst out against the ruler the grim realities of their lives which damage from wind had brought about.
Then, how people today are taking measure to cope with such terrible damage from wind? They select and set out the seedlings of early growing such as “Takeda” and “Norin-22” so that they will have come into flower by the typhoon season. At the place especially windy, other kinds, of rice-plants than “Takeda” are used lest they should suffer much from falling of unhulled rice. It has a strict connection with the wind that besides rice-crop are raised in the district tea and apples which are expected to be forwarded early. In order to protect houses from the wind, they are surrounded by windbreaks made of camellia, pine-tree, bamboo, Japan cypress and others. We call these windbreaks “Kose”. There are also many houses enclosed with earthen ramparts instead of “Kose”. At the base of a mountain, people make use of natural thickets as “Kose”, and there are not a few cases that the word “Kose” has become the name of a place at the foot of a mountain.
Old settlements are mostly located at where a wind does not blow hard, namely at the base of a mountain or at the southern foot of a hill. It is a general tendency that they form agglomerated settlements, and houses stand abreast from east to west. The settlement newly born along the highway which extends east and west is a Strassendorf, and has a series of windbreaks and earthen ramparts on the northern side of street.

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The military class which had ranked a higher stratum of society during the feudal age of Japan, lost the foundation of living after the Meiji Restoration, and in the new social system it gradually declined in prosperity. In order to make a living in the post Restoration days, the warriors had to find out some means of living. A marked tendency of their turning from warriors into producers or trademen was a social phenonon widely seen throughout the country after the Restoration. As a practical example of this social phenomenon, I am to take the trade of medicine in Yamato-Takatori-cho, Nara Prefecture.
In the southern part of Yamato basin, there is a long, narrow valley formed by the Takatori river and the Kurumagi river which flow through the foot of Mt. Takatori of strategetic importance; and Takatori-cho is a typical Strassendorf situated in the bottom of this valley. Although it was once prosperous as a castle-town, it went downhill after the Meiji Restorarion. However, upon the warriors' settng about the trade of medicine, which was rising at that time, the consumptive town of Takatori-cho gradually became a productive one. At present, the number of trademen in this line here comes up to twenty-one, standing first in the Prefecture, and it accounts for 30% of the total in Takaichi-gun to which Takatori-cho belongs. Moreover, as to the income of Takatori-cho (Showa 26, 1951), 63.5% of it depends on medicine manufacture. This fully explains that it is medicine manufacture that is the life on Takatori-cho.
The following three are given as the reason why Takatori-cho thus developed into a town of medicine. Firstly, from the standpoints of both geographical position and social surroundings, trade of medicine was a most suitable calling for the wrecked military class. Secondly, many peddlers of Yamato Momen (cotton textile) turned to be drug-peddlers, and the market for medicine was enlarged. Lastly, there was in the vicinity a well-known herbal garden from the oldest times.
Takatori-cho, a historical provincial town, has managed to save its honour in this way, while many other similar towns. have already fallen into decay. This is attributable to the fact that the wrecked military class positively supported the trade of medicine, a peculiar industry suitable to the district.

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