Geography in history and history in geographymap, aligns with the locations of present- day roads, rivers, and other borders to within roughly
five millimeters. In addition, although the place names indicated on current topographical maps
do not generally reflect it, the boundaries of past lots mostly correspond to the divisions for open
fields (koaza).^14 Meiji- period cadastral maps are also highly valuable for identifying the scope of
these open fields.
In the villages and farmlands that spread out beyond the exterior of grid- patterned capital cities,
the ritsuryō structure implemented a second grid- patterned land division known as the jōri system.
This schema utilized the same nomenclature (jō) for rows that ran east–west as the grid pattern for
cities, although the breadth of the zones differed. The jō of the rural system each spanned six chō
(equivalent to roughly 654 meters) and were somewhat longer than those used in city grids. Sim-
ilarly, the urban and rural systems also shared another feature, a separate parcel of land labeled as a
lot (tsubo), but neither the total area nor the overall number of these parcels were the same. Each chō
was 109 square meters and, divided into a six- by-six grouping, each collection of thirty- six lots
together formed a single ri. These ri seem to have been originally organic units, but with the passing
of time they came to be assigned numbers. Accordingly, this meant that locations were specified in
units of 109 square meters and labeled in the form “ jō, ri, _ tsubo.” The grid- patterned jōri system
thus shares characteristics in common with the modern GIS system discussed above.^15
A unified system of rural land division was instituted throughout the Nara Basin, especially
across the region to the south of Nara. Proceeding from a point closest to the imperial palace and
employing the chidori process for assigning numbers, the system of rural land division came to be
grounded in exactly the same principles as those found in the grid plan for capital cities.^16
The system of rural land division remained in place through the medieval period, to which we
now turn. Although a portion of the landscapes that developed up to and during the classical
period show degrees of inconsistency, the core mission of historical geography lies in utilizing
those features that still survive today for reconstructing the landscape of ages past. History and
archaeology proceed from differing modes of thought with regard to this effort.
The medieval age: research into cities, villages, and estate maps
Japan’s medieval age is generally regarded as the epoch from the end of the twelfth through the
sixteenth centuries although there remain differences of opinion on both the beginning and end-
points of the period. Both boundaries are significant to the field of historical geography, as is the
entire intervening span of time. In this section, I will discuss the major topics on which scholars
have focused their studies of this period, which can be broadly divided into those concerning
villages and of cities.
Scholarship on the historical geography of medieval villages has inspired considerable debate
over the distinctive properties of the medieval village, particularly with regard to Chinese influ-
ences during the classical era and continuities from that epoch into the medieval period.^17 One
school of thought identifies the grid- patterned land divisions (producing a regulated landscape of
square chō bounded by a network of roads and irrigation canals) and the nomenclature applied to
them (each chō divided into six- by-six blocks designated as ri, subdivided into individual plots
counted in units of tsubo) as the two essential elements of the jōri system, and emphasizes the
Chinese origins of the system. Another, however, notes that Chinese influence on the rural land-
scape was scant in comparison with its effect on the layout of capital cities, and calls attention
instead to the uniquely Japanese characteristics of the jōri system. Kinda Akihiro’s work on Nara-
and Heian- period village structure, moreover, considers the patterns of land divisions indicated
on cadastral maps in light of micro- topographical conditions, and precisely identifies the present-
day locations of residential lands that appear in historical sources.^18