Torashiro Ozaki was born in Takada-shi in 1902 and graduated from Takada Normal School in 1921. After he taught elementary school for one year, he entered the history and geography division of the Daiichi Extra Teacher's School attached to the Higher Normal School of Tokyo. There he met and fascinated by his lifelong Professor to be Keiji Tanaka. Professor Tanaka promoted regional geography and essentially became the founder of human geography in Japan. Ozaki graduated from the school in 1924.
Ozaki taught eight years from 1926 to 1933 at the former Nagasa middle high school in Kamogawa in the southern part of the Boso Peninsula. He researched nearby rural areas and fishing villages in detail with his pupils during his stay and wrote a small book entitled “Regional geography on Boshu” and three papers on (1) the influence of railway on Kamogawa-machi; (2) geography of a locality in the Boso Peninsula; (3) drag-net fishing for young yellow tails at Hamanabuto, Boso Peninsula in the Geographical Review of Japan under the guidance of professor Tanaka. These three papers describe small areas in detail and can be classified under micro-regional geography (geography of a locality).
He was the first to use micro-regional geography in Japan, and later he was called a “micro-regional geographer”. His micro-regional geography of the southern Boso Peninsula included the following themes. He described the region as 1) a frost-free area with a warm climate, 2) being influenced by Tokyo, the largest market, and 3) a place where farmers and fishremen make well use of the micro-environments. His research methods were based on detailed field work and the use of aerial photograph. He was first person to use aerial photographs in an academic journal-new technology which was used to clarify the location of farms, arable land and fishing nets. These papers also included aspects of a geo-ecological study, a methodology promoted by C. Troll in the Andes mountains.
After eight years teaching, he was invited to Chiba Women's Normal School as a professor. He published two papers in the Geographical Review of Japan and one book which was his Ph. D. dissertation based on his research during his stay in Kamogawa. Moreover, he published three books on regional geography, which were all compiled papers resulting from his research in Kamogawa. In addition, many teachers of the old-style middle high schools also conduced geographical research and contributed papers to academic journals. Ozaki was an example of a highly trained teacher similar to Katsue Misawa.

抄録全体を表示