This study investigated the development and modernization of Nahari, a country town rich in historical townscape in Kochi prefecture. From around the latter part of the 16th century, people began to settle around Nahari Castle, and the early part of the modern age was the formative period of this country town. Still later, the town became a sort of small city in an agricultural area as merchants built their homes-cum-stores along the main street, forming a commercial center. In the late 19th century when the Meiji era started, Nahari was still basically a country town. Later, as public and educational facilities were constructed one after another, Nahari became the seat of the municipal government. The start of Nahari as a modern town. In 1916 when Nahari was officially upgraded to a town from a villages, it was one of the most economically developed towns and villages in the eastern region of Kochi prefecture. Most of Nahari's contemporary structures date from that period to 1940s.