“Waju” is a peculiar form of human occupation prevailing in the marshy lowlands in the Nobi plain. Being entirely enclosed by a set of artificial embankments which were constructed in reinforcing or extending the natural levees of three main rivers Kiso, Nagara and Ibi, a Waju originally comes into being in form of settlement as residential space and of arable lands as productive space. In other words, the combination of settlement with block of arable lands is the fundamental unit of Waju. Its core is the settlement. However, some Wajus have no core village; others have a lot.
Examing its combination in each unit, the author tries to classify Wajus in this district into three types:
(1) “Waju without core”. Only paddy fields are embanked. They are on the westside of the Ibi; few in number.
(2) “Waju with mono-core” has only one village in it. There are more Wajus of this type than those which belong to the former.
(3) “Waju with poly-core” has several cores in one Waju.
This type makes majority of Wajus in the Nobi plain. The distribution of Waju in the Nobi plain: few are found on the east side of the Kiso, many are along the Nagara and the Ibi as well as on the west side of the Kiso. In calculating, it amounted to the maximum of figure just before the 20th year of Meiji (1887), when the repairment of the three rivers were thoroughly performed and their river courses were definitively put into order. Since then, the number of Waju was declining from 133 in that year to 42 at the present time. This shift is brought about from the evacuation of disused banks and combination of several Wajus with each other, in keeping pace with the reinforcement advance of the embankments during these periods. Nevertheless the total area in which Wajus distribute has scarcely fluctuated from early year of the Meiji (1868) to Showa 43 (1968).
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