TYPES AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE CITY IN KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE

Abstract

The solution of the city problems in Japan is one of the most important things in land planning. The chief object of this paper is to deal with cities in Kagoshima Prefecture, a so-called “backward Prefec-ture, ” which have suffered vicissitudes over two different periods, one being (A) the “Fumoto” period (times of the castle town, 1602-1869) and the other (B) the contemporary times (1869-), and to analyze and classify them to understand the characteristics of both types, and the distribution of the cities, and thus to contribute some materials for the impending problem of the cities which are to be solved in the coming years.The elements analyzed of a city in the case of (A), are (1) the amount of Koku of rice produced in a Go (village), (2) the population of Shizoku (samurai) and Sotu (the footman soldier or servant to samurai) in a Go, (3) the standing army in the year 1870 when the militery government was established, (4) Kakushiki (the situation) and the power of defence of Fumoto (the little castle town) and (5) the facilities of the commercial transportation (e.g. stage, fair, harbour). Then, we define that each of these items gets a full mark, (100 maximum) and we can get valuations by percentage.In the case of (B) the five items ((1) the population (2) the industry (3) the commerce (4) the communication (5) the culture and the sightseeing) and the thirty subitems are given. we also define that each of these items gets full malk, (100 maximum) and we arrive at the valuations by percentage. The figures are totalized and divided by thirty to get the average. The materials used in this paper are from the national and the prefectural statistical books and from some opinionaires.The results of this research tell us that, in Kagoshima Prefecture which had been reformed from a han (a feudal domain) “Kagoshima han”, Kagoshima City where its prefectural office is so remarkably large as to be ranked in the top class of minor cities in all Japan, but other cities are small ones with no particular attraction of urban life. From the point of their distribution, in the “Fumoto” period the defencetowns on the prefectural border were large next to the castle towns, and after them came the defence-towns around Kagoshima City; nowadays they are annexed to that main city or have developed into little satellite towns.In the middle region about 50km away from Kagoshima City, whence it is unusual that people come on shopping trips or commute to the central city, there are a few larger cities belonging to the A class of little cityies in our division, such as Sendai, Kanoya, which show some alterations from years to years. Generally speaking, in this prefecture, there are no tourist towns nor newly-developed industrial ones, so the distribution of the cities has scarcely changed, but remains almost as it had been in the “Fumoto” period. And so, the less-changing of the distributon of the cities is characteristic of Kagoshima Prefecture.