THE MECHANISM OF VILLAGE DESERTION PROCESS —A CASE STUDY OF DEPOPULATION AND FARMLAND DEVASTATION OF THREE DESERTED VILLAGES IN WACHI, KYOTO PREFECTURE—

Abstract

We are here to attempt an approach towards the mechanism of village desertion at work through a comparative study of the process of depopulation and farmland dev-astation of three small villages. The present town of Wachi, located half way up the Yura River in the eastern part of the Tamba mountains, involves therein part of extinct three villages: Shioze, Ohnaru, and K.usao. Those then-thriving small hamlets, each situated at the valley heads of three branch streams flowing into the Yura River running through its river terrace, underwent a continual process since the early years of Meiji period (1868-1912) of gradual depopulation and land devastation until finally they were left deserted com-pletely; first Shioze in 1961, and then Ohnaru and Kusao in 1966. The topographical conditions are as follows e Shioze is located on the slope near the bottom of the valley; Ohnaru half-way up the mountainside ; and Kusao in the bottom of the valley. Records show that the sizes of the villages in the early years of the Meiji period were: 13 houses in Shioze, 19 in Ohnaru, and 8 in Kusao. It was also found out that the ratio of rice fields to their cultivated lands were respectively as shown below: 50.5% in Shioze, 21.4% in Ohnaru, and 52.2% in Kusao. These tiny villages had as their home communes larger rural settlements up on the surface of the river terrace (Ohnaru and Kusao had their home commune in common, Hirono, whereas Shioze its own, Inatsugu). Their respective walking distances to them were R 60 minutes from Ohnaru, 30 minutes from Shioze, and 15 minutes from Kusao. The chronical depopulation and land devastation of the three hamlets had been in progress since the early years of ythe Meiji period e in the case of Shioze six houses were extinct by 1887 (details unknown), two were non-existent and another two moved to the larger municipal communities of Kyoto and Maizuru by 1933 through the impact of the influenza in 1920 taking a considerable number of death casualities, and one in 1961 moved out into a rural settlement within Wachi, and the last two in 1961 trans-migrated into its home commune bringing to the completion of thorough desertion. In the case of Ohnaru two houses suffered extinction early in the Meiji period, six between 1920 and 1937, one in 1943, another in 1946, one in 1956, again another in 1963, and the last group of seven moved away all together into its home commune, with the result that the village was completely in the state of desertion ; and in the case of Kusao one was extinct by 1889, one in 1921, four between 1943 and 1951, and the last two together with the seven from Ohnaru moved out into the home commune in 1966.An indubitable fact is that the depopulation and farmland devastation thus occurr-ing in those hamlets are influenced to a greater degree by the conditions of location in which they found themselves, especially by such as communicabilities, topographical conditions, and the characteristics of the home communes. Ohnaru can be character-ized by what might be termed as an upper-class-oriented type of desertion and short distance transmigration for the sake of life convenience, which means “commutable” to their farms in their place of birth, whereas Kusao's exodus signifies a lower-class-oriented type of desertion and middle and long distance transmigration for the sake of livelihood, taking on a character. of employment seeking.