The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of urban planning and expansion of the city area in Sendai, while focusing on the trends of surrounding towns and villages. The main purpose of urban planning in Sendai was urbanization and industrialization of surrounding areas, and the city area expanded in response to this development. The first expansion targeted the same area as the previously designated urban planning area, in order to capture the area required for the latest urban planning. On the other hand, the second and third expansions were performed in response to requests from neighboring villages. Underlying this difference, the development of urban planning made the surrounding areas aware of the benefits of urban planning and city expansion, fostering a sense of competition in these areas. In addition, urban planning provided a consistent basis for asserting the need for city expansion, and its role was emphasized in the second and third expansions, in which mergers were not imminently needed. Thus, expectations continued to grow for “Greater Sendai” through urban planning and city expansion; however, urban planning projects were frequently subject to delays. These observations show that modern urban planning in Sendai showcased the vision of construction of “Greater Sendai,” more than the role of the technology used to modify the actual urban space, and that city expansion complemented oft-delayed urban planning by establishing a concrete area for development of “Greater Sendai.”

In this paper, the Seto Inland Sea landscape is analyzed, based on the writings in a travel diary belonging to a landowner during the Meiji period. Tourist guidebooks of that period generally not only described famous scenic spots and historic sites but also human landscapes of the Seto Inland Sea. They also cited legends and waka poems in their descriptions of the landscape. However, intellectuals viewed the Seto Inland Sea as a landscape that would appeal to Westerners as a place of scenic beauty and historic sites. Nevertheless, they considered it more as an archipelago and a human landscape, with port facilities for ships to come and go, and from a natural science perspective they were interested in the components of the land and the living organisms that inhabited it. Although the literati viewed the Seto Inland Sea as an archipelago, the human landscape did not interest them much. Mr. A., the author of the travel diary, did not have a natural scientific perspective, but he did write about the Seto Inland Sea as an archipelago, without focusing much on its scenic spots and historic sites. Further, he also mentioned the human landscapes, such as cities and harbors, and land use in the coastal areas. Since tourist guides also focused on human landscapes, it may be inferred that Mr. A was influenced by the descriptions in the tourist guides of that time.