This dissertation explores the northern frontier of the Japanese state in the preMeiji periods in terms of both territory and frontier peoples The thesis shows theprocess how the China centered worldview was replaced by the modern notion ofboundaries in late Tokugawa Japan In other words this study examines the processin which Ezochi present day Hokkaido became a part of Japan It was later published as a book titled From Ainu World to Inner Japan Changing Notions of Northern Boundaries in Tokugawa Japan by Fumiko Horimoto