In Nogata Settlements, residences were built on the margin of uplands. Plowed fields are on the interior of uplands. Rice paddy fields lie on the valley between terraces and alluvial flat. Those on the valleys have low but stable harvest even in the drought year.
The Musashino Upland spreads far and wide to the west. It was difficult to develop due to an insufficient water supply. Instead, villagers gathered grasses from there as a common land. They gradually developed new settlements there in the Edo period. This caused the divisive issue among villages. Those areas were developed into residential area in the 1960s.
Topographic Model of Tsuruma Village (based on the “Picture Map of Tsuruma Village” in the late Edo period)
Nanbatajō Museum, Fujimi City Municipal Museum of History and Folklore