Historical Development of the Urban Structure in Cities of Tohoku District

Abstract

It is proposed, in this paper, to examine the changes of urban areas of eleven cities founded as castle town of feudal lords in Tohoku District after the Second World War and indicate the extent to which the present urban structure has been influenced by its origin. The following cities, which are put in order according to their population size in 1995 (in parentheses), have been selected; Sendai (971, 000), Akita (312, 000), Morioka (286, 000), Fukushima (286, 000), Yamagata (254, 000), Hachinohe (243, 000), Hirosaki (178, 000), Aizu-Wakamatsu (120, 000), Tsuruoka (101, 000), Yonezawa (96, 000), and Yokote (41, 000). The changes of land use pattern of each city are reconstructed based on various maps and writings.A general trend of the present urban structure coupled with the initial castle town can be exemplified through a comparative study of the eleven cities. The cities show three distinct rings of development: the central core, the intermediate zone and the outer zone.1. The central core. It is located in some parts of the castle town. Chief government offices usually stand on the former high-class samurai's residence close to the castle. The commercial center is localized in the former privileged and wealthy merchants quarter and expands beyond it.2. The intermediate zone. This is the densely built-up zone surrounding the central core and divided into two principal areas based upon their function. One is the area characterized by mixture of different uses: houses, shops, workshops and the like. It dose not bear clear traces of initial land use pattern of the castle town. The other is the area predominantly devoted to a residential use. It follows former residential quarters of the middle and low-class samurai. This residential area gradually diminishes its size by encroachment of different business uses.3. The outer zone. It is a new zone extended beyond the castle town and mainly consisted of residential areas with a relatively low density of houses. In most cities it began to expand from as recently as 1960, about a century behind the experience in Western cities. This is due to the fact that the old samurai housing areas put together with commodious premises have been transformed into residence, schools and other public facilities which have gradually increased since the end of the nineteenth century, to play a major role in restricting urban expansion.During the Edo period the castle towns reported here were constructed and maintained under a planning for the display of feudal power and spatial relation among residents were arranged to maintain an appropriate hierarchical social structure. The castle acted as the nucleus for urban development, and high-class samurai, middle-class samurai, lower-class samurai areas and temple zones were arranged around the castle. Usually deep moats protected both the castle and high-class samurai area from encroachment of enemies. Merchants and craftsmen areas were allocated along main roads outside a fortified place.Accompanied with the collapse of the feudal system in 1868, the castles lost their significance without exception and the commercial districts inhabited by privileged and wealthy merchants turned into the nuclei of new urban development. Other different parts of the original castle towns, that is, samurai areas, unprivileged merchants and craftsmen areas, and temple zones still retain the limited sections, but they no longer form an essential element in the structure of present cities.According to the generalized models relevant to Western cities presented by E. W. Burgess and R. E. Dickinson, the central core of the present city lies on the site of its original nucleus, and the city tends to expand radially from it so as to form a series of concentric zones.