ABSTRACT
The unit chosen for a focus during research was a community which, like many others in rural Japan, has remained relatively self-contained for as long as there are records. After the household, it is without doubt the primary and most important social unit of its inhabitants. Many of the households are related to one another and two surnames aecount for nearly 80 per cent of them. The reasons for this phenomenon will emerge in subsequent chapters, but the continuity of relationships possible in such a community probably helps to account for the high degree of cooperation which will be the concem of this chapter. Residence in such a community involves a number of obligations, and a person marrying in must participate as a representative of a household, if not necessarily as an individual. For many village purposes, the household is the more important unit and an inquiry about the population of a village is frequently given as a number of households.1 Groups of households are assigned certain responsibilities for certain periods and these will be discussed in this chapter. They have been classified as administrative and religious, but there is considerable overlap in these functions.2 Groups joined on an individual basis are generally based on age and these form a separate section. The geographical, socio-economic and historical setting is described first to provide a framework for the detail of community activity which follows. It is not intended to include a comprehensive account of each topic mentioned, but to build a foundation for the theme to be developed in subsequent chapters, and to present a picture of the people with whom we are concerned.
