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Hard Times in the Kantō: Economic Change and Village Life in Late Tokugawa Japan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Extract
Things were not right in the Kantō region during the early nineteenth century. In his memoirs, Mastsudaira Sadanobu, architect of the Kansei Reforms, lamented the sorry state of the villages in Edo's hinterland:
Much land throughout the Kantō is going to waste for want of cultivators. All the people of some villages have left for Edo, leaving only the headman behind. … Many Kantō villagers are suffering great hardship. Babies are killed, the population has declined, and land has gone to waste.
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References
I would like to thank Marius B. Jansen, Sheldon M. Garon, Helen Hardacre, and Michael Tsin, all of Princeton University, for their advice and comments on this paper.
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9 ‘Takagami mura kyūki’, ibid., p. 508. The breakdown of outside laborers is as follows: 134 men and sixty-four women worked for landed peasants (hyakushō); 1,545 men worked as sardine fishermen; and 536 men worked for dried-sardine merchants. For the migration of Kii fishermento Takagami, see ‘Takagami’, Kadokawa Nihon chimeidaijiten (Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1984), vol. 12 (Chiba ken), p. 513.Google Scholar
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13 ‘Nojiri mura sashidashichō [1717], ibid., pp. 338–44.
14 ‘Nojiri mura kakiagechō’ [1733], ibid., pp. 344–50.
15 Kanetarō, Nomura, Mura meisaichō no kenkyū (Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 1949), contains an extensive collection of village surveys (mura meisaichō) and reports on nonagricultural by-employments (nōkan yogyō or nōkan akinai), taken mostly from the Kantō region. As Nomura stressed repeatedly (see pp. 35–6), the documents must be used with caution because they were compiled only in response to specific inquiries from higher authorities, usually on the occasion of a fief transferal or a tour of inspection by bakufu officials. The best surveys are intricate accounts of the characteristics of the villages. The worst are verbatim repetitions of older surveys.Google Scholar
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17 See Hanley, B. Susan, ‘The Material Culture: Stability in Transition’, in Jansen and Rozman, Japan in Transition, pp. 447–70.Google Scholar
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19 See Tanaka, Michiko, ‘Village Youth Organizations (Wakamono Nakama) in Late Tokugawa Politics and Society’ (Unpublished PhD. dissertation, Princeton University, 1982), esp. pp. 202–37;Google Scholar also Susumu, Kitahara, ‘Minshū no seikatsu to shakai’, Rekishi kōron I: I (12 1975), pp. 46–58.Google Scholar
20 Compare a typical Bunsei injunction, (‘Nōkan shōnin shichitori toseimono kakiage ikken shorui’ [1828]) and one from the Tenpō period (‘Naraihara mura nōkan akinai tosei torishirabe ikken shorui’ [1843]) in Chiba ken shiryō: kinsei hen Awa no kuni, vol. 2, pp. 225–6 and 40–2.
21 Nomura, , Mura meisaichō no kenkyū, pp. 113–16, based on analysis of forty-three villages.Google Scholar
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23 ‘Nōkan akinai tosei torishirabe no gi ni tsuki Hachiman mura hoka jūyonkason kumiai kakiagechō’, Chiba ken shiryō: kinsei hen kazusa no kuni, vol. 2, pp. 10–31.
24 ‘Sashiagemōsu issatsu no koto’ [1827], Chiba ken shiryō: kinsei hen Awa no kuni, vol. 2, p. 228.
25 Tanaka, , ‘Village Youth Organizations’, pp. 272–309, contains a partial translation of the injunctions. Tanaka stated (p. 273) that the injunctions with commentary had not yet been published in Japanese;Google Scholar actually, a copy can be found in Tōgane shi shi: shiryōhen, ed. Tōgane, shi (China: Tōgane shi, 1976), vol. I, pp. 583–624.Google Scholar
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27 Suda, ibid., erroneously placed the interest at 7.75 percent. Compare the original document, ‘Murakata sōzoku no gi ni tsuki Minami Oyumi mura sōbyakushō torikiwamegaki’, Chiba ken shiryō: kinsei hen Shimōsa no kuni, vol. 2, pp. 9–13, especially p. 10. Moreover, Suda (p. 14) implied that the interest was charged against the entire 300 ryō, but the original document (pp. 9–10) distinctly states that interest would be charged against only 100 ryō.
28 Naomi, Hoya, ‘Minami Oyumi mura: haishakukin to nanushi tsuikyū ikken nitsuite’ and id., ‘Minami Oyumi mura Tenpō 6-nen haishakukin o meguru deiri nitsuite’, unpub. mss. (n.p.[Tokyo], 1985). I wish to thank Luke Roberts of Princeton University for bringing Hoya's work to my attention.Google Scholar
29 See Bellah, N. Robert, Tokugawa Religion (New York: The Free Press, 1957), for a detailed discussion of Shingaku and its founder, Ishida Baigan.Google Scholar
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33 ‘Kazusa no kuni Musha gun Tomida mura, taka, iekazu, ninbetsu, shōni umaredaka torishirabechō’, Kinsei jinkō mondai shiryō, pp. 5–6.
34 Ibid., p. 11. The figures themselves are not accurate, since, as Zenbei explains (p. 11), he merely extrapolated the statistics for his home village (p. 4), where thirteen of twenty-six children died, five unavoidably, eight by suspected infanticide.
35 See Hardacre, , ‘Creating State Shintō’, p. 40.Google Scholar
36 Tomohiko, Shinomaru, ‘Shimōsa no zaigō shōnin—kinsei kōki Kujukurihama no hoshika o torihiki shite daitō shita’, Bōsō chihōshi, ed. Chihōshi, kenkyū kyōgikai (Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1973), pp. 187–208, esp. pp. 187–95.Google Scholar
37 ‘Hyakushōdomo konkyū ni satoshisōrō shimatsusho’, Kinsei jinkō mondai shiryō, pp. 51–78.
38 Ibid., pp. 51–2.
39 Ibid., p. 52.
40 As part of the Tenpō Reforms, the peasants of Naraihara village, Shimōsa, were ordered to lower wages and prices by 10 to 15 percent. Artisans were to get I bu (one-fourth ryō) for nine days' work, which translates to 252 days' work for 7 ryō. (‘Naraihara mura nōkan akinai tosei torishirabe ikken shorui' [1843], Chiba ken shiryō: kinsei hen Awa no kuni, vol. 2, pp. 40–2). Even allowing for the artifically low level of the officially mandated wages and inflation between 1842 and 1860, 7 ryō was a considerable sum.
41 ‘Kazusa no kuni, Musha gun, Tomida mura, taka, iekazu, ninbetsu shōni umaredaka torishirabegaki’, Kinsei jinkō mondai shiryō, pp. 13–17.
42 Sontoku's collected works, Ninomiya Sontoku zenshū, 36 vols, ed. Ninomiya, Sontokuigyō sen'yōkai (repr. ed. Tokyo: Ryūkei shosha, 1977 [1927–1931]), is, of course, the most complete account of his life and philosophy.Google Scholar See also the biography by Shintarō, Sasai, Ninomiya Sontoku den, 8th ed. (Tokyo: Nihon hyōronsha, 1940),Google Scholar and Toshio', Iwasaki study of Sontoku's work in the Sōma domain in the Tōhoku region, Ninomiya Sontoku shihō no kenkyū: Sōma han o chūshin to shite, Kokugaku kenkyū sōsho 2 (Tokyo: Kinseisha, 1970).Google Scholar
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44 See the series of documents in ibid., pp. 281–304.
45 Ibid., pp. 270–80.
46 ‘Murakata torishimari ni tsuki Todoroku mura sōbyakushō ukegaki’ [1782], ibid., pp. 401–2.
47 ‘Todoroku mura tsuburekoku kakiagechō’ [1814], ibid., pp. 368–70.
49 ‘Tsubure hyakushō toritate nin tsuki Todoroku mura murayakunin negaigaki’ [1817], ibid., pp. 398–9.
50 ‘Todoroku mura tahata meisaichō’ [1822], ibid., pp. 391–5.
51 See Sasai, , Ninomiya Sontoku den, pp. 433–65.Google Scholar
52 ‘Nikkō goshinryō Todoroku mura tsubureshiki toritate negaigaki narabi ni mōshiwatashi ukegaki torishirabechō’ [1857], Ninomiya Sontoku zenshū, vol. 28, pp. 922–4.
54 Nobuhiko, Nakai, ‘Kinsei toshi no hatten’, Iwanami kōza Nihon rekishi (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1963), vol. II (kinsei 3), pp. 36–100.Google Scholar
55 As summarized by Saitō, , ‘The Rural Economy’, pp. 400–1, who critiques this view for his own reasons.Google Scholar
56 For example, a 1790 document from Shimōsa complains of generally high prices, ‘particularly wages for seasonal male and female servants, day laborers, and artisans’, at a time when artisans were paid I bu for twelve or thirteen days’ work and male agricultural day laborers 100 mon per day(about I bu for sixteen days’ work). (‘Shoshiki nedan no gi ni tsuki Gogōnai mura hoka muramura ren'inchoō’ [1790], Chiba ken shiryō kinsei hen Shimōsa no kuni, vol. I, pp. 189–90.) By the Tenpō Reforms, artisans were ordered to lower wages to I bu for six or seven days’ work. (‘Shoakinaimono narabi ni shoshokunin temachin nesage kakiagechō’ [1840], ibid., vol. 2, pp. 326–8.) Laborers hired by Ninomiya Sontoku were paid 200 mon plus 1.25 shō (2.41 liters) of rice per day. (‘Horibushin ninsoku chingin fuchimai torishirabe kakiagechō’ [1856], Ninomiya Sontoku zenshū, vol. 28, pp. 730–1.)
57 This is, of course, the major premise of the substantivist school (to use Philip C. C. Huang's term), represented by Scott, C. James, The Moral Economy of the Peasant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976).Google Scholar
58 Saitō, , ‘The Rural Economy’, p. 416.Google Scholar
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