PAPERS OF THE RESEARCH MEETING ON THE CIVIL ENGINEERING HISTORY IN JAPAN

About the Middle of the Meiji era in Kobe and Nagasaki, where urban improvementand development in modern Western way were introduced into the settlements and thier environs under the renovation for open ports facing abroad, modern waterworks were planned and constructed to cope with the increasing water demand. Among the structures elabolated at the time, Nunobiki-Gohonmatsu Dam in Kobe is famous as the first concrete gravity dam in Japan, and its solemn design could be regarded as the origin of those dams constructed thenceforth. Moreover, the buildings and structures of water supply stationshave features of stylistical design consisting mainly of classicism. The design features of each structures were identified and the principles in the background were conjectured. Prospect of the design paradigm of waterworks in the trend of civic design in Meiji era was outlined in this paper.

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A historical sketch of railway truss girders constructed in Meiji era (1858-1912) is described. This is the first part dealing with the 200ft double Warren truss girders which is believed to be a representative of the British school of design. A total of 112 girders were imported from England and erected in 1886-1898, 22 of which were made of wrought iron and remainings were wrought iron and steel combined girders. In April 1985, 18 girders are still stand, most of them are in use, though 9 of them are shortened.

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In Japan today regional development plans and projects are to be promoted by the planning philosophy of so-called “Stable Inhabitation” that emphasizes a regionoriented planning on the basis of the conditions -cultural as well as natural and socio-economic-of the region in question.
This requirement sometimes urges regional planners to shift the way of planning from so far familialized “catch up-to-the national standards” method to that enhancing regional qualities.
To meet this in making physical environment it is essential to review the assessment of historical structures of local interests in which lies the possibility of finding the criterion leading to the design of regional interests.
In this paper the author reviews the case of the assessment in Okinawa island along with the evaluations by prominent personages related.

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In the paper, the difference and sameness of the road images between Japanese and French, German, English are investigated. Many sorts of words of road were picked up from these four languages first, and then the original meaning of the words were inquired from the etimological viewpoint. The road images were discussed and compared by means of these original meanings finally. As a result, the basic road images of Japanese were classified into following six categories. (1) as a orientation indicator (2) as a space for passing (3) as a element to divide and enclose houses (4) as a element of connecting (5) as a thing having long streching form (6) as a way of go and back, former two are pure Japanese images and the latter four are Chinese-Japanese ones. On the other hand, the basic images of French, German and English were classified into nine categories. (1) as a breaked way (2) as a way to reach (3) as a way of paved or unpaved (4) as a space for rambling (5) as a trodden way (6) as a way on wall (7) as a way beside water (8) as a horse riding way (9) as a city boundary element.

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