Today, there are many Gobakas (_??__??_)-- burial ground built up by some villages --in the middle of the Kinki district. Some of them are chiefly seen in the Nara basin. I call the territorial circles of the Gobakas the Hakogogroups. I'm going to make clear their historical foundation and meaning.
In the Nara basin, the Gobakas are distributed from the western side of the Yamato plateau to the northern side of the Ryumon mountains, and the eastern side of the Kongo mountains. And some of them are occasionally distributed in the center of the basin in addition to these territories.
The territories where the Gobaka distributes happens to be accord with the territories of the Jodo sect, and that is distributed in the territory of the Yuzunenbutsu sect, too. The Gobaka is hardly distributed in the teritory of the Jodoshinshu sect. There are burial ground at every village in this territory. The distribution of the Gobaka is closely related to the Buddism sects. The Buddism sects of the Hakadera itself--the temple managing the graveyard--is mostly the Jodo sect. But there are many opinions about the relation of the Hakadera and the Jodo sect.
The Gobakas mostly stand on the foot of the mountains and the hills. In the center of the basin, the old mounds are often made use as the Gobaka. I suppose that the place of the Gobaka is the graveyard where many people had buried before the circles of the Hakago-groups were formed.
Most of the Hakago-groups can not be identified with the Suigo-groups (villages combined by irrigating water), the Sango-groups (villages combined by wood), and the Miyago-groups (villages combined by a shrine). I thought that the territorial circles of the Hakago-groups were the traces of baron's sphere of influence which held their respectve stronghold in the latter half of the Middle Ages in the Nara basin. These barons were called Shuto (_??__??_) and Kokumin (_??__??_) in manors of Kofukuji.
Since the Edo Era, the territorial circles of the Hakago-groups have not been changed. Therefore, it is certain that they were formed from the 15th century to the 16th century, at least to Bunroku (_??__??_).

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