It is said that in the village communities of the Shima Peninsula, though they have similarity in natural conditions and historical background, their traditional folk-customs are varied in all aspects. I also had my own experience when I was a member of the research committee for folk-customs in the district. For instance, the customary abdication system of the headship of a family, found at Kou Village, in the eastern end of the Peninsula and famous in its separate type of each household, has not found its resemblance in any other place in the vicinity.
I have been interested in this problem from the geographical standpoint, and here present a preliminary essay which will explain some of it. I think that the regional differences in various phases of these customs have been made in comparatively recent times, and that before that they had been alike in any village of this Peninsula, because the fragments of the ancient customs in some villages have the common features with the other Japanese folk-customs. One of the causations would be the destructions of frequent typhoons and tsunamis. The detailed explanation will be given in my future report when I get more certain data. In this introductory report, accordingly, I have explained those which have been regarded as the instances of the compultion of the community are, in fact, those of the transformation of the age class system which was characteristic of the ancient community, by seeing the following examples: the abdication system in Kou Village, the ceremonies of the contracts between formal fathers and formal sons in Matsuo Community and the system of theocratic self-government in Tategami Village Block Association.
The origin of the age class system in this Peninsula is a historical problem still to be elucidated. But it may be an important geographical factor that these folk-customs passed through the Meiji Era, an age of great reforms, and was affected by the governing classes of the villages because of their remote locations.

抄録全体を表示