Villages in Yokote Basin

Abstract

In the southern half of the Yokote Basin, several masses of villages are distributed on the low land. In the northern half some castle-towns and villages are scattered with a fountain as its centre in the alluvial fan, while dotted villages and hamlets are a general feature. Among them are Rokugo and Yokobori, checkered castle-towns developed around the fountains and Hataya and Hondo-shiromawari, both a string of a village, grown across the contour line. They grew up along the water-route from the fountain and their ancient castle sites are traced now: their old origin can be proved by the monumental inscriptions of some hundred years ago. In some villages, which were usually supplied with drinking water at the lower land of the water-route, they used to build their dwellings at the head of a fan-shaped farm-land and let the used water flow into their own fields for fertilization. This economization in fertilizer makes it possible to retain the scattered aggregation of houses for divided farming. Scattered habitation can be seen yet in Mayama, which was cultivated so long ago that wooden halings were constructed for the conquest of Ezo. This shows that scattered habitation is not limited to a newly cultivated area.