Abstract
1. About 600 years ago, because of a defeat in battle, General eki, his family and principal retainers escaped to the Irishiken Basin in the Satogawa Valley, a branch of the Kuji River in Ibaragi Prefecture. They settled there and lived mostly by means of farming and woodcutting. In the early settlement period, the relation between General Seki and his retainers was stirl that of master and servant. As time passed on, the relation of the descendants of the early settlers changed to that of village headman and villager or land-owner and tenant. 2. In 1630, Yorifusa Tokugaw a, the head of the Mito Clan re-established the Oiwa Shrine at Irishiken. As a result, pilgrims increased annually, so that the villagers turned from farming to managing inns or tea-houses to cater to the dilgrians. 3. As the pilgrims suddenly decreased at the begining of Meiji period (circa 1868) because of the lack of patronage of the Mito Clan and because the people's religions faith in the shrine decreased. Irishiken reverted to its former rural community status. In spite of this last change in the commu-nity's function, the Settlement landscape has remained the same.
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