A Few Comments on Deformation of Jori (Rural Boundary) in Japan

Abstract

Rural boundaries are the traces of the ancient adjustment of ricefields and are shown by narrow water channels and ridges between them which run crosswise and divide them into square lots called “tsubo” (about 100m by 100m). They were built up between 7th and 8th centuries and still remain as they were. The writer has investigated them in Saitama Prefecture in Kanto District, and has found several cases of their deformation, as they have been left alone without any readjustment since their construction, the district have been a kind of frontier of Japan. The following are some of these cases.Some square lots are deformed into paralleograms because they have been fields flooded for the cultivation of rice in the fans and waters of springs and streamlet have washed their edges, extending squares little by little down the slope in a very long period of time. (fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6)Some are changed into fields unfit for the cultivation of rice, as the river that flows near them has often overflowed and piled up much earth and sand on its banks and this has deprived the fields of irrigation facilities. (fig. 3, fig. 10.) In some places this is done on a much larger scale owing to the change of the course of rivers and some of these fields are subdivided into many smaller and irregular plots, while others show no trace of rural boundaries as is the case with those fields that are originally unsuitable for the cultivation of rice.The deformation of Jori must, therefore, be considered in relation to the passage of time. And this research throws light not only on the perpetuity of rural boundaries but on their changeableness as well.