Cho: A persistent neighborhood unity maintaining microculture in Japanese cities. Analyzing the relationship between social structure and urban form

This dissertation is a study of the persistent meaning of the cho, a unit of neighborhood organization in Japanese cities that has influenced everyday life of inhabitants in urban history. The study analyzes the mechanism of the cho organization in the relationship between social structure and the urban form.; This study is composed of three parts: first, an investigation of the social meaning of the cho organization in the history of urban culture, politics, governance, and economy; second, analyses of spatial configuration and perception of the cho organization in four different neighborhood contexts in Tokyo; and third, a cross analysis of the social and spatial aspects to understand the regional characters of local organization and to suggest its future possibilities.; Four different regions are found in Tokyo based on the criteria of land use history and natural topographical condition: central low land, peripheral low land, central high land, and peripheral high land.; This study points to significant findings for urban theory. The cho organization is discovered to have consistently preserved two basic roles: to appeal to and support the local government for the neighborhood and its culture as a collective force, and to serve individuals in providing for their safety and amenity as a group.; The territory of the cho organization is defined by several spatial factors variously tied to the land, religion, local history, professional networks, local administration, and more recent urban development. A different balance of these factors distinguishes one cho from others. In cases where spatial definition of a cho is too heavily determined by outside forces, such as the arbitrary administrative restructuring of an existing cho or a major new urban development planned by a central government authority, the social and physical form of the neighborhood will be negatively affected. The way of application has to be reconsidered in future urban planning and local governing systems to maintain and create a better local society and its microculture.; In the diversified and individualistic city of the future, local organizations such as cho must be flexible in adjusting to the needs of the next generation.