Changes of the Land Use Pattern of Hachinohe before Its Industrialization

Abstract

As a result of the growth of modern industries since 1937, Hachinohe developed rapidly and became one of the industrial cities in Tohoku. The 1990 census recorded about 241, 000 inhabitants. Until the advent of industrialization, however, Hachinohe city mainly consisted of five historic cores: Hachinohe, which originated from a small castle town during the Edo period, Konakano, Minato, Shirogane and Same, which were the fishing and trade ports at distances of one to five kilometers east of Hachinohe. Its total population together with the port towns in 1935 was about 62, 000.The purpose of this paper is to explain the changes of urban land use pattern of Hachinohe during the pre-industrial stage, between the Edo period and 1936, and the economic forces which operated in shaping the land use pattern.By the mid-1930s, shopping streets, mixed commercial and workshop areas and residential areas were formed in and around each historic core and the zones of dispersion tended ultimately to coalesce into a single urban complex. These changes were due to the economic advances during the period since 1920. Hachinohe had good fortune not only as a fishing port but as a shipping port for ores carried from its hinterlands, and increased the industrial outputs of marine-products and cement. Among these activities fishery has exerted the most important influence on the emergent land use pattern, because Hachinohe has not replaced a mercantile city by an industrial one.