Rural - Noson

Japanese: 農村 - のうそん

This refers to a village where farmers live. Currently, there are few purely rural areas inhabited only by farmers, and it is not rare for farmers to also engage in sericulture, livestock farming, forestry, or fishing (half-farming, half-mountain villages, half-farming, half-fishing villages, etc.). In Japan, the 1953 (Showa 28) Law for Promoting the Merger of Towns and Villages promoted the merger of towns and villages nationwide, expanding the jurisdiction of local governments, and many rural settlements are now included within the administrative districts of cities and towns.

[Yukio Asaka]

Location and type

In prehistoric and ancient times, areas such as springs and rivers where drinking water and arable land were easily available, slight elevations without the risk of flooding, and land with plenty of sunlight were selected as locations for settlements. As the population increased through the Middle Ages and early modern times, and technologies for obtaining drinking water and irrigation and drainage were developed, and as these organizations were strengthened, settlement areas expanded to alluvial fans, plateaus, lowlands, hills, and mountains. In tropical plateaus, desert oases, sand dunes with strong seasonal winds, and typhoon-prone areas, leeward slopes are selected as areas with favorable conditions for settlement locations. The form of rural settlements is determined by a combination of land divisions (land divisions), road networks, the shape and distribution of cultivated land, and other factors, and is deeply related to the lives, productive activities, and functions of those settlements, so the study of settlement form has long been a major research topic in geography. The planar form of settlements can be broadly divided into clustered villages, where houses are closely packed together, and scattered villages, where houses are scattered. There are many clustered villages in Asian and European farming villages. In Asia, they are convenient for lending and borrowing agricultural tools used in rice cultivation and exchanging labor, and in European three-field agricultural regions, they are also convenient for cooperative work. Spontaneous clustered villages tend to be block villages, where houses are closely packed together, while planned clustered villages tend to be row villages, where houses are lined up in long, narrow rows, or of a regular shape (e.g., new rice field settlements in Musashino and other areas in Japan). Scattered villages are found in the Tonami Plain (western Toyama Prefecture), Izumo Plain, and other areas in Japan, and in the northwestern (Scandinavia, Baltic Sea coastal countries), central (Rhine Valley, Tyrol in Austria), and southern (northwestern Spain, Lombardy Plain in Italy), as well as on the plains of North America (United States, Canada), and South America. Its distribution is mostly irregular in Japan, but it is characterized by regularity in the Tondenhei villages of Hokkaido and in Europe and the United States.

[Yukio Asaka]

Rural Society

Originally, rural areas were strongly tied to the land and mainly lived a self-sufficient economic life, with small settlements and low population density. Villagers lived in ancestral houses and knew each other well. The custom of working together in rice planting had been continued for a long time, and villagers learned farm work and agricultural techniques from each other. In addition to helping out with ceremonial occasions, the custom of eating and drinking together within the group or village continues to this day on occasions such as the New Year, spring and autumn festivals, and farm holidays. It is said that rural people have a tendency to refrain from speaking freely and to conform to the majority, which has been cultivated in this production and lifestyle. Furthermore, class differences have arisen among villagers due to factors such as main and branch families, income disparities, and differences in education and social activities.

[Yukio Asaka]

The transformation of rural Japan

Before the Second World War, there were still traces of communal order and feudal character in Japanese rural areas, but after the war these were wiped out and the villagers' character changed dramatically. The landlord system was abolished by the reform of farmland, tenant farmers were freed from their subordinate relationship with the landlords, and the class differences among villagers were significantly reduced and on the path to equalization. Then, with the rapid growth of the Japanese economy, industry flourished in urban areas, and many rural people became industrial workers, commuting or moving to the cities. As a result, the number of full-time farmers in rural areas decreased and the number of part-time farmers and non-farmers increased, and the rural population is decreasing. However, the nature of agriculture itself was improved, and vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, livestock, etc. were introduced, and many areas have become specialty production areas, showing a diverse appearance. Furthermore, even among part-time farmers, depending on the type of work they do, it cannot be said that all of them have a stable income, and seasonal turnover is not uncommon, leading to calls for stable part-time work.

[Yukio Asaka]

[Reference] | Rural issues

Scattered villages in the Tonami Plain
Scattered villages can be found in the Tonami Plain in western Toyama Prefecture. Each house is surrounded by a forest called a kai-nyu (fenced area), and has cultivated land around it. There are various theories about the formation of scattered villages in this region, including that they were formed to avoid fires caused by föhn winds spreading to the countryside, and to facilitate restoration work on fields after flooding. Tonami City, Toyama Prefecture © Toyama Tourism Federation ">

Scattered villages in the Tonami Plain

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

農業者が居住する村落をいう。現在は農業者のみが居住する純農村は少なく、農業者が養蚕、畜産、山林などを兼営したり、漁業を兼ねる場合が少なくない（半農半山村、半農半漁村など）。日本では1953年（昭和28）の町村合併促進法によって全国的に町村合併が進められて地方自治体の管内が広域化し、市、町という行政区域内にも農村集落が多く含められている。

［浅香幸雄］

立地・形態

先史・古代には、飲料水や耕地の得やすい湧泉(ゆうせん)や川のほとり、水害のおそれのない微高地、日照に恵まれた土地などが集落の立地地区として選ばれ、中世・近世と時代を経るにしたがって人口が増加し、飲料水の取得や灌漑(かんがい)・排水の技術が発達し、それらの組織が強化されるに伴って扇状地、台地、低湿地、丘陵、山地へも集落地域が拡張されるようになっていった。また熱帯地域の高原地帯や砂漠のオアシス、季節風の激しい砂丘や台風地域では風下斜面が集落立地の好条件地域として選ばれている。農村集落の形態は、土地区画（土地割）、道路網、耕地の形とその分散状況などと結合して決定され、そこでの生活や生産活動・機能にも深くかかわっていて、集落形態の研究は早くから地理学の主要研究課題とされてきた。集落の平面形態は、家屋が密集した集村と、各家屋が分散した散村（散居村）に大別される。アジアやヨーロッパの農村には集村が多く、アジアでは水稲耕作に使う農具の貸借や労力の交換に好都合で、ヨーロッパの三圃(さんぽ)式農業地域でも共同作業に便している。自然発生的な集村には家屋が不規則に密集した塊村が多いが、計画的に開拓された集村では家屋が細長く並んだ列状村や規則正しい形態のものが多い（例、日本の武蔵野(むさしの)その他の新田集落）。散村は、日本では礪波(となみ)平野（富山県西部）、出雲(いずも)平野その他にみられ、外国では、ヨーロッパの北西部（スカンジナビア、バルト海沿岸諸国）、中部（ライン河谷、オーストリアのチロル）、南部（スペイン北西部、イタリアのロンバルディア平原）、北アメリカ（アメリカ合衆国、カナダ）、南アメリカの平原にみられる。その分布は日本では大部分が不規則であるが、北海道の屯田兵(とんでんへい)村や欧米のものは規則正しいのが特色である。

［浅香幸雄］

農村社会

農村はもともと土地に強く結び付いて自給的な経済生活を主とし、集落も小さく人口密度も低かった。村民は祖先伝来の家に住み、村民相互はよく知り合っている。田植の共同作業の慣習が長く続けられ、互いに農作業や農業技術を学び合ってきた。また冠婚葬祭の手助けはもとより、講や村内での共同飲食の習慣は、新年をはじめ春秋の祭礼・農休などのおりにはいまも続けられている。農村人が自由な発言を差し控え、大勢に順応する気風が目だつとされるのは、こうした生産と生活のなかに醸成されてきたのであった。さらに村民間には、本家・分家、所得格差、教養や社会的活動の差などが加わって、村民間に階層差ができている。

［浅香幸雄］

日本農村の変貌

第二次世界大戦前には、日本の農村には共同体秩序と封建的性格の残存がみられたが、戦後はそれらは一掃され、村民気風は著しく変貌(へんぼう)している。農地解放によって地主制は解体され、小作農は地主との従属関係から解放され、村民間の階層差は著しく縮小して平均化の途をたどった。続いて日本経済の高度成長に伴って都市地域に大いに工業がおこって、多くの農村民は工業労働力となって都市へ通勤し、あるいは移動した。このため農村では専業農家が減少して兼業農家と非農家が増加し、農村人口は減少しつつある。しかし農業そのものの体質改善が行われ、蔬菜(そさい)、花卉(かき)（草花）、果樹、家畜などが導入され、特産地化しているものが少なくなく、多彩な様相を呈している。また兼業農家でも、就業先の業態によっては、すべてが所得の安定が図られているとはいいがたく、季節的離職がみられる場合も少なくなく、安定した兼業を求める声も聞かれる。

［浅香幸雄］

[参照項目] | 農村問題

礪波平野の散村
富山県西部、礪波平野にみられる散村。各家はカイニュ（垣入）という屋敷森に囲まれ、そのまわりに耕地を有する。この地域の散村の形成については、フェーンによる火災の類焼を避けるため、洪水による田地の復旧工事の便のためなど、諸説がある。富山県砺波市©公益社団法人富山県観光連盟">

礪波平野の散村

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