The conventional research on the large / small administrative districting system of the Meiji period known as the daiku-shoku-sei 大区小区制 explains that the passage of the "Three New Acts" (sanshimpo 三新法 ; a new four-district system, rule for prefectural assemblies, and taxation guidelines) in 1878 was in direct response to various forms of nationwide resistance to the system's "bizarre" character. On the other hand, in the midst of increasing administrative problems after the abolition of the Tokugawa era fiefs and the establishment of prefectures, in addition to expanding administrative districts in the hope of governmental rationalization, a method allowing either "consolidation" or "alliance" of local villages and towns was being sought. While consolidation was being aggressively pursued in some prefectures, almost nothing was being done in others, thus causing much regional diversity. Therefore, the early Meiji era's local administration system has been characterized as "different depending on both time and place," resulting in an institutional history portrayed within both temporal and spatial discontinuity. In recent years, scholars have focused on villages and towns under this large / small districting system in terms of its continuity with the "Three New Acts" of 1878 ; however, the conventional methodology is incapable of explaining changes implemented in the Three New Acts regime after 1878. In the present article, the author searches for away of understanding the large / small districting system by building a systematic structure of its temporal and spatial differences, a methodology to examine the continuity of the two systems in question by focusing particularly on the administrative districts headed by kocho 戸長 under the large / small districting system and their counterparts under the Three New Acts regime. The main findings are as follows ; 1) the large / small districting system involved the "alliance" of towns and villages ; 2) "alliance" was convenient for implementing the new land tax system ; 3) however, under the system, " consolidation" was pursued to expand administrative jurisdiction ; 4) regional discrepancies in consolidation efforts led to regional diversity in terms of both scale and character ; 5) in order to eliminate such discrepancies, the Three New Acts established an administrative district headed by kocho to continue the "alliance" process ; 6) here lies the continuity before and after 1878 ; and 7) all of these events amounted to preparation for the establishment of "Allied Kocho Administered Districts" in 1884 and the large scale consolidation of towns and villages after the establishment of City, Town and Village Districts Law (shisei-chosonsei 市制町村制) in 1888.

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本稿は、字と大字の歴史的関係、明治期の行政村とくに市制町村制下で大字として把握された「江戸時代の村」の有り様、および大字と入会権との関係を、段階的に整理し、小考したものである。江戸時代以前には、大字は存在せず、字のみが存在し、それは村内の小区画を意味する公簿上の用語であった。明治になると、地租改正作業・土地測量を通じて字や村の境界が確定され、一部には字や村などの分割・合併・新名称の付与なども行われた。新たに広域の行政区画が生まれると、その内部に旧来の村が存続し、入会集団としても継続していたといえる。明治21年市制町村制が成立する。その際旧来の村々の大規模合併が行われ、新たな市町村が生まれたが、そうした市町村内部に存在したそれ以前の村々は、「大字」と呼ばれるようになった。大字は、江戸時代の村がそのまま大字となったところや、明治初期の合併によって江戸時代の数か村のまとまりが大字となっているところもあり、地域によって様々である。ただし、近世の村が大字となったとしても、大字それ自体が入会集団であったとは言えない。このことを三重県鳥羽市菅島の事例によって説明した。

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This paper looks at the process of establishing the historic administrative district areas and county areas as Japan established itself as a single nation and the transitional changes that led to today's prefectures, and the perspective for future wide-area administrative districts in Japan.

Japan's historic administrative district areas and county areas comprised a regional administration system, established by the ancient Japanese state under the Ritsuryo legal code, based on the regional systems of China and Korea.

The old maps from these times show the process of change from administrative districts to territorial divisions that identify regions, that occurred in the early modern period of feudal society, after the historic administrative district areas and county areas that formed the administrative districts of ancient Japan became superficial in medieval times.

These maps also show that, with the further progression into the Meiji Restoration period, prefectures were established in the place of feudal domains, although these prefectural districts were established in line with the historic administrative district areas and county areas that formed the regions of early modern feudal society. The process through which counties became regional administrative districts possessing juridical personality, and then subsequently returned to geographical naming that identified regions after acquiring the role of administrative regions is also shown.

In addition, these maps show the meandering process through which the prefectural districts, in other words the wide-area administrative districts that followed the establishment of prefectures in the place of feudal domains, were established, and they can also be applied to the analyses of proposals for the far-sighted yet un-realized further merging of prefectural districts.

The ancient Japanese administrative district areas and county areas that underwent these transitional changes maintained regions that were coherent in terms of geography and climate and still exist today as cultural and historical regions.

Meanwhile, the municipalities that comprise the basic local authorities that are closest to today's residents were expanded during the mergers of municipalities from the Meiji to the Showa period and subsequent mergers in the Heisei period, and inverse phenomena, namely the creation of cities with wider areas than prefectures, also occurred. However, many instances where the old county districts have literally become cities in their own right give testimony to the geographical coherence of the old county districts.

In view of these prefectures, which comprise the new wide-area administrative districts, and the current status of the expanded municipalities, the objective of this study is to introduce proposals for wide-area provinces that will form the next new wide-area administrative districts, and to form a perspective for future wide-area administrative districts in Japan.

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In 1878, "San-shinpou" (Three new law of local administration) came into force. "San-shinpou" is known as the first systematic law of local administration. One is "Gunnkuchoson-henseihou" that is the regulation of prefecture's authority, and one is "Fukenkai-kisoku" that is the regulation of prefecture's council, and the other is "Chihouzei-kisoku" that is the regulation of prefecture's tax system. By common arguement of Japanese "Intergovernmental Relations", especially before the World War II, has been recognised as not equalized but centralized. But surveying discussins of "San-sinpou", many historian has said "San-sinpou" is comparatively self-governmental system. How "San-sinpou" were made? So far, "San-shinpou" was made by Matsuda Michiyuki who was a bureaucrat of Ministry of Home affairs. However Chihouzei-kisoku is regulation of tax system, it's quite obvious that Ministry of Finance took the initiative in making this rule. This paper examines reform of local taxation system in what is called "Meiji 0's" (1868-1876), in particular reform process in MOF.

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　1878（明治11）年の三新法制定により実現した地方自治制度は、日本において、国と地方を通じて最初に具体化された民主主義的制度であった。住民代表で構成された地方議会が制度化されて予算と賦課に関する審議を行うことになり、政府任命の地方官は、府県会での審議を通じて、府県管下人民一般の「あるべき府県庁」について説明責任を果たさなくてはならなくなった。このような負担を伴う制度の導入が、いかにして政府において決定されたのかを解明することが、本研究の目的である。本研究では、Hall 2010の整理に基づき歴史的制度論を統合した理論的枠組みを使った制定過程の分析により、① 従来の通説が想定していたような政権担当者の一体性は認められず、藩経営の経験に基づき道具的確信を持って地方自治制度の創設を推進する推進派と、そのような確信がない消極派の対立があったこと、② 伊勢暴動と西南戦争を通じて、推進派が理解者を拡大しつつ制度創設の方向を確定させ、譲歩してもなお反対する消極派を最終的に押し切る形で対立が解消された結果、制度化が実現したことを明らかにした。

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The Hyogo prefectural assembly was held on the fifteenth of May in the twelfth year of Meiji (1879). As far as the author knows, it has never been studied in detail how the assemblymen were elected. Besides, it has never been made known how the budget was discussed by the assembly. This article treats two points. First, the legal grounds of the election of the assemblymen will be dealt with in terms of the assembly rules. The number of the assemblymen and the actual state of vote in the first Hyogo prefectural assembly will also be discussed demonstratively, and the true state of the election will be made clear. Secondly, the author will analyze from the data the state of the first prefectural assembly and argue on the salary of guncho (the head of a county). All this will throw light on the nature of the early prefectural assembly.

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