On the Relation of Cities and Villages in Hokkaido

The relation of mutual dependence of a city and its hinterland ( a farm village, a mountain village, or a fishing village ) has been recently a main subject for study of geography and sociology in Japan, and actual circumstances of each district in our country have been gradually elucidated, but in Hokkaido which forms a northern boundary in Japanese Frontier, no start has yet made with the study. The present note investigates what relation exists between cities ( especially center citier of cultivated land ) and their surrounding villages in Hokkaido, and explains what part these cities are playing about the development of the Frontier region. In any part of our country, a newly cultivated land needs a center city which serves as a market and supplies materials for cultivation and necessites of life. So, in a new land like Hokkaido, a center city mentioned above was demanded from the beginning and established without fail in some convenient place soon after the cultivation. In the 23rd year of Meiji (1890), the Hokkaido Government Office enforced Farmland Division System in th whole part of Hokkaido. This system prescribes that each Frontier region should have one city where merchants are settled, and offices, schools, hospitals, shrines and temples, graveyards are arranged in the environs. In the same year, about 600 families (2,700 persons) who were divided from Totsugawa-mura in Nara prefecture owing to the heavy flood damage, removed to the middle basin of the River Ishikari, and there was constructed Shin-Totsugawamura by this system. As this new village has vast extent of 128 square Kilometers, five center cities were established at first, but later, four more ones were added as the result of the progress of traffic-such as the construction of Ishikari Iron Bridge and the opening of Sapporo-Numada Line-and the establishment of Bridge Towns and Railway Stations. At present, nine center cities are each filling their functions of administration, education, religious service, relay town, shopping districts, etc. Such a relation of a city and a village can be observed in the case of Tonden-Heison, or officially planned Colony, where Ton-ichi arises among Dispersed Villages and played the part of a market at the start, but afterward, developed into a normal city, helping the expansion of a cultivated farm village. In Hokkaido, Asahigawa, Obihiro and Kitami are typical center cities of medium size. In order to examine the relation of these cties and their surrounding villages, the present writer made an investigation into commerce, finance, industry, medical treatment, religion, entertainment, etc. by means of inquiry. It shoes that all the villages within the 30 Kilometer radius of Asahigawa, the 20 Kilometer radius of Obihiro and the 15 Kilometer radius of Kitami, share in the benefit of their own center city, while tha ratio of the service which these cities make for the citizens and the villagers is 40 to 60. Consequently Rural-Urban Community proved to be constituted strongly between the Frontier region and its center city. In conclusion, the character of this Rural-Urban Community can be summed up in six items. (1) Soon after the beginning of cultivation, a center city arises and promotes the Cultivation. (2) A center city expands with the growth of a farm village. (3) With the porogress of traffic in the Frontier region, a Center city moves or a new one is established. (4) The existence of a Center town or City is regulated by the surrounding farm villages. (5) When a center town or City reaches a certain stage of development, it regulates the surrounding farm villages on the contrary. (6) A city and a farm village in the Frontier region constitute strongly interdependent Rural-Urban (Rurban) Community and contribute to the development of cultivation