Published papers

This paper investigates the local community as a unit in which people form cooperative relationships in their daily lives. In this case study, five isekohs located in Megawa, Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, are investigated. The paper uses 122 years of account books for these isekohs, from 1893 to 2015 as data. Generally, isekohs are groups of people of faith who self-organize on a voluntary basis. In the subject area, the isekohs were integrated with the community, managing property held in common and organizing other functional groups. Over time, its community character gradually shifted to that of a neighborhood organization. The three-tier structure of an isekoh, characterizing it as a community, a fundamental association, and a specific-purpose association in the case of this report is seen to have shifted from the subregional level within the village to the village level. However, in some areas, the three-tier structure itself is overlaid with multiple layers, and such differences in structure represent regional characteristics. To identify these differences, a comparative study of materials from continuously adjacent micro community units that incorporates them in a mutually complementary manner, which is adopted in this study, is useful.

This paper examines whether small place names can be the subject of “political” analyses. For this purpose, a small land title database and geographic information system data were created and analyzed using the results of official surveys and cadastral maps from the Meiji era. Consequently, regional characteristics related to naming were clarified through a comparison with preceding studies. In addition, the principle of “one hamlet per village” and the differences between hamlet and non-hamlet areas in the naming conventions were clarified. The findings of this paper suggest that small place names can also be the subject of “political” analyses if appropriate data are prepared.