Abstract
The study of the structure of central places may be approached from these viewpoints: (1) the hierarchy of central places, (2) the relation between the function of central places and their tributary areas, and (3) the distribution pattern of central places. The writer lately clarified the hierarchy of the central places within the Metropolis of Tokyo primarily by investigating the Inner City. This time, however, the writer has observed the central places and their tributary areas, and the distribution pattern of central places by distributing questionaires. The questionaires were analyzed according to the following points: types of inhabitants utilizing central places, the formation of tributary areas, the function of central places and their tributary areas, the structure of tributary areas, and pattern of central places and their unified structure. The above-mentioned analysis made clear the following points: (1) In the Inner City of the Metropolis, several central places whose hierarchy and types are different from one another are hierarchically arranged. The amount and quality of the function of each central place is regulated according to what the citizens are utilizing. (2) Each central place is rendering service activity in some form or other to the inhabitants of its neighboring areas. The writer calls the area which is favored with such service activities a tributary area. Whether or not the dimension of one tributary area is wider than another is decided by comparing the total amount of the functions of central places, the distance from central places, and neighboring tributary areas. (3) Among tributary areas there can be found three kinds of areas. One is an ‘active’ area which is inhabited by people who are daily utilizing their central place for every purpose of their own. (This area can be divided into two sub-areas, ‘Inner Area’ and ‘Outer Area’.) The second is a ‘half-active’ area where people living there sometimes visit their central place for some purpose or other. The third is a ‘calm’ area where residing people take, at least to some extent, an interest in their central palce but seldom go out to that place. (4) The characteristics of tributary areas can be seen by means of examining the structure of the ‘active’ area, the ‘half-active’ area, and the ‘calm’ area: the total amount of functions of central places: hierarchy and their types. (5) Large and small unclei of the Metropolis can be classified into three kinds of central places and their tributary areas, according to the total amount of functions, the extent of tributary areas, and the inhabitants' purposes for utilization. (1) The tributary area of the Civic Center: This region has swelled out so widely that it now covers almost the whole metropolitan area. The functions of the Civic Center are utilized for higher-grade purpose, as exemplified by workplaces, amusent and recreation centers, and high-class society circles. But now Civic Center is no longer the place occupied only by metropolitans, because in the Civic Center the amount of utilization in consumers' daily life has decreased and, instead, such characteristics as the functional nucleus of the whoel Japan are being strengthened at present. (2) The tributary areas of the Sub-ceters: With a Sub-center at its vertex, each fan-shaped tributary area extends toward suburban areas. In the Metropolis, the Civic Center is surrounded by the four Sub-centers, that is, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, and Ueno, which are located nearly at the same distance from one another. These Sub-centers are competent enough to substitute for the Civic Center as the functional nuclei of shopping, amusement, and social life. (3) The tributary areas of regional centers:
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