At the beginning years of Meiji era the Takamatsu Clan carried out a series of educational innovations. Among them were the establishment of the Institute of Western Studies and sending three students to England. The students were Junkichi Yamada, Shuji Matsuda, and Kozo Takahara. They had been studying English in Osaka when they were selected as the students to be sent to England on scholarships from the clan. They left Yokohama on March 3, 1871. While they were studying engineering in England, the Japanese Government replaced the clan in 1872 to provide them with new scholarships. Thus they worked for Koubu-sho (Ministry of Engineering) after they returned to Japan and made a large contribution to the development of modern Japan.

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Cette étude a pour objet d'analyser la distribution régionale des grandeurs communales au Japon et de constater son arrière-plan historique. Du point de vue génétique, c'est le groupement politique des hommes qui forme le territoire administratif par le fait de la possession exclusive d'une partie de la terre. Une fois que le territoire administratif est conscrit, le terrain devient l'héritage historique et les homes qui y vivent, se joignent à l'organisation administrative. La grandeur communale serait donc mesurée par le nombre des habitants et l'étendue de la terre, c'est-à-dire, la population et la superficie.
En 1884, les communes ont, en moyenne, 300-500 d'habitants et 1-2km² de superficie (Fig. 1). La population en est grande sur le côte du Pacifique du Nord-est (Tohoku), dans la région montagneuse centrale, l'ouest de la région de Chugoku et les îles de Shikoku et de Kyushu. Elle est petite dans les plaines du Kanto et du Kansai, dans la région de Chugoku de l'est et sur le côte de la Mer du Japon, de Tsugaru à Shimane (Fig. 2). La distribution de la grandeur superficielle va en paralléle (Fig. 3). Les Figure 2 et 3 montrent les grandeurs des communes dans les hans (fiefs du régime féodal).
Par exemple, les communes dans le territoire du Hirosaki-han (partie ouest de la préfecture d'Aomori) sont plus petites que dans le territoire du Nambu-han (le reste d'Aomori), mais celles du Nobeoka-han (partie nord de Miyazaki) sont larges. Et les grandes communes ne sont pas. toujours de gros villages, elles ne sont souvent que des groupements de hameaux, comme celles du Hagi-han (préfecture de Yamaguchi), par exemple.
Quand le système moderne de l'administration communale (shi-cho-son) a été mis en vigueur en 1889, la plupart des communes précédentes ont été réunies sous une autre forme. Elles ont été relativement agrandies dans le Tohoku et le Kyushu méridional, et rétrécies dans la région de montagnes centrales, la préfecture du Hiroshima, la partie ouest de Shimane, le Shikoku septentrional et le Nagasaki (Fig. 10). Par conséquent, elles sont devenues égales pour la plupart au point de vue de la population, à peu près 2000 d'habitants, à l'exception des grandes communes dans le Yamaguchi-ken, le Tokushima-ken et le Kyushu méridional, et des petites dans le Gifu-ken (Fig. 9). Mais quant à la superficie, il y en a de larges dans les régions montagneuses, ou sous-dévéloppées, de population peu dense et il y en a d'étroites dans les plaines peuplées comme celles du Kanto, de Niigata, de Noobi (Gifu et Aichi) et d'Osaka (Fig. 8). La Figure 7 montre en gros les types de la grandeur communale en population et en superficie, classés selon les préfectures (ken). L'île de Hokkaïdo se distingue des autres parce que, restée en dehors de l'administration féodale, elle n'a pas subi l'application du systéme moderne communal de 1889. Et, dans la distribution régionale des grandeurs communales après 1889, on peut remarquer le vestige de la division territoriale féodale, assez vivant dans les régions comme celles de Hagi, de Kagoshima, de Nobeoka et du Nord-est.

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Although bakuryo (estates directly controlled by Bakufu) lay scattered in many parts of the country and offered footholds on which Edo-bakufu founded its economical and military base, the study of bakuryo are far behind that of hanryo. Especially, positive studies on the structure of machinery in specific bakuryo except Shinshu and Koshu have rarely been attempted. The primary function of daikansho (the only government office set up in bakuryo) was to collect tax and it could not govern for itself, nor possess sufficient military power, not even police force. It can be said that daikansho had great limitation in its administrative power. However, until the fall of Edo-bakufu, the control of daikansho was very successful in almost all bakuryo except for Hita and Iwami which were occupied by other han as a result of the Choshu War. How was it made possible? Does it suggest that there existed some form of an intermediary administrative agency between daikansho and each village? These are the questions that the author has tried to answer by examining the role played by gunchusodai. The aim of the present article is to discuss the function and character of gunchusodai of Bittchu, who represented kumiaimura and acted for daikansho as an intermediary government machinery to facilitate its control. The period dealt with in this article is limited to the Choshu War (1864-67) and the author intends to illuminate the function of gunchusodai by putting an emphasis on how they recruited labor and supplied provisions during the war. At that period, in Bittchu bakuryo, there were gunchusodai in every kumiaimura which consisted of some ten villages within the same district. The office of gunchusodai was held and was alternated yearly by two or three shoya whose main duties were 1)to supervise collection of gunchuiriyo (expenditure for the district administration) such as overhead expenses for the maintenance of daikansho, the cost of shipping of rice paid as land tax and so on : and 2)to mediate communication between daikansho and villages by transmitting the order from daikansho or speaking for the village people. Its 'self-governing' character largely enabled gunchusodai to keep smooth administrative functions as a substitute machinery. The duties imposed on Bittchu bakuryo in the war was to supply the needs of the officers who, like ikusametsuke, were dispatched by Bakufu to a battle front and had to be fed, fuelled and have their horses refreshed. Labor force was raised from Bittchu bakuryo to feed them and to transport their equipment. It should be noted that, in spite of the crushing defeat of the Bakufu army, gunchu-sodai was very active to meet the expectations of Bakufu and discharged its duty to the last. This fact might testify that gun-chusodai, even at the closing stage of Edo-bakufu, was functioning very efficiently as intermediary administrative instrument.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the local policy adopted by the Ishin Government and the process of its implementation. We shall approach this subject by studying the dispute between the Okuma and Okubo factions in the early Meiji Over the financial aspects of the local policy. Bad harvests brought financial difficulties to the government and destitution to the farmers in the early Meiji. The government was thereby coofronted with problems in executing its local policy. Okuma's local policy emphasized tax collection and the concentration of taxes in the national treasury, while Okubo's local policy stressed "benevolent government" (jin-sei), the reduction of and exemption from taxes, and the cutting of government expenses. The Okubo clique appointed most of the local governors and important local officials and established local government institutions according to the design of Hirosawa. But, Okuma's party established a base for the execution of its policy by combining the Home Ministry with the Finance Ministry. Naturally, it then attempted to collect and concentrate taxes, as set by its program. But, such a program faced serious obstacles. The local administration organization by designed Hirosawa had not yet won popular acceptance, though it had already the germ of a new method to rule the people. So Okuma's tax policy continued with the result that farmers riots occurred frequently. Consequently, Okubo severely lambasted Okuma for not breaking up the Home Ministry from the Finance Ministry. After his tax policy had been frustrated, Okuma compromised by separating the two ministries. But, he still imposed his tax policy and also created the Ministry of Industry (Kobu-sho). Thus, the dispute between Okuma and Okubo was due tb the former's stress on the formation of capital because of the western impact and the latters stress on the formation of a political base. Okuma implemented his policy to overcome the government's financial difficulties and form a secure financial basis to let the country handle the western impact through such policies as the encouragement of industry. After the arrival of the West Japan was obliged to have a policy to handle the western impact. This policy demanded a financial base that led to a resolute policy of tax collection by the local governments for the central government. This approach, however, brought about riots by the farmers and further financial difficulties for the government. That, in short, is the conclusion found and proved in this paper.

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