A street in Sendai shortly after the Meiji Restoration. (By Konen Kumagai) MATERIALS ON JAPANESE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY: TOKUGAWA JAPAN (1) Edited By NEIL SKENE SMITH, B. Com. (London) Professor of Economics, University of Commerce, Tokyo Lecturer, Dept. of Economics, Tokyo Imperial University Introduction Resources and Population Communications and Trade With 64 illustrations by artists of the period London P. S. King & Sons Ltd. Orchard House, Westminster 1937 A Sueet in Sendai shortly after the Meiji Restoration. Shops and People. Name on Shops. From left to right. curtain Manufacturer and retailer of children's hoods. Oaawaya Tobacco shop. Miyariya Writing-brush shop with sign-board. Seller of purses, tobacco pouches and other dress seeessoriea. Omiy. Textile store. Moroya Sugar shop. Wakamatluya Tbe large sign-board in the foreground belongs to a drug store selling ginseng and other medicines. People. Charcoal seller (with horse). Fish dealer (with pole and baskets); Merchant and apprentice (with bundle). Tbree peasants on holiday (wearing blankets and Itraw hats). Red-pepper seller with flag (across road). Sweet sellers (with trays on head). Tbe ricksbaw, postman and policeman are produet. of the Meijiera. Street entertainers, pilgrims. Shops. From centre to right. ~. Seller of rouge and face-powder (showing red flag and lantern) People. Priest and wandering musician (with basket on head). Iseya Old sweet seller (with stall). Tbe pillar-box belongs to the Meiji era. Tbe garden in the foreground is attached to a hotel. In the background is a clothes-drying platform and in the garden below, a well PREFACE This work is an experiment to discover somethinLof Jhe basis of mods:rn Japan. For a number of reasons the time available for its completion has been strictly limited, but owing to the extreme ignorance on the subject prevailing almost every­ where, it has been considered justifiable to publish a first collec­ tion of materials, before the whole field of choice has been sur­ veyed. The alternative would have meant many years of work and great expense. These must one day be faced, but until suffi­ cient workers and funds become available, such an undertaking is out of the question. Even the fruits of the present rapid reconnaissance have raised considerable problems of publication, and it has been decided to produce the material in small volumes, each deaUng with an allied group of topics. The order in which these will appear will not be the same as that adopted in the Introduction, for we must adapt ourselves to the velocity of circulation of the books and the receipts from them, as well as to the possibilities of adding any suitable material which may become available. The volumes are very largely the result of a generous offer of the Society for International Cultural Relations, Tokyo, to pro­ vide Dr. Kurt Singer (formerly Professor at Hamburg and Tokyo Imperial Universities) and the Editor of this volume with the means of employing two translators for a year, and to help in obtaining the co-operation of Japanese scholars. In addition, the Society has provided abundant clerical and technical assistance and finally, has made the illustrations possible by financing the block-making. The Editor is greatly indebted to the Society and its Officers; particularly to Mr. Setsuichi Aoki, the General Secretary and Mr. Mikinosuke Ishida, the Librarian. Nearly all the materials used are Japanese, and are not based on the opinions of Western authors. Professor Wigmore is the only Western writer quoted at length, but his great contribution was, of set purpose, either a summary or a direct translation of ii PREFACE Japanese sources. The Editor wishes to express his thanks to all those scholars who have so readily allowed translations or extracts from their works to be included, and to Professors Honjo. Koda and Wigmore. who have taken such a personal interest in the results of this nrst volume. Professor Eijiro Honjo with his colleague Professor Iwao Kokusho, has foundc;d recently an Institute of Economic History, which has as the basis of its library the Tokugawa collection of the late Professor Sei-ichi Takimoto. Professor Shigetomo Koda is the author of a detailed history of Osaka, but at this stage of OUI; inquiries we have only been able to produce sections from his much smaller work II Edo and Osaka." The Editor also had the good fortune to meet Professor Wigmore, who recently returned for a short while to Japan, after an absence of some forty years, to set in motion once more the translation of his materials on Tokugawa Private Law. His im­ portant work is of interest to all students of Japan. Thanks are also due to numerous colleagues at the Tokyo Imperial University and University of Commerce for their help in various directions. The number of translators may seem large for the task in hand. but most of them were only able to undertake work on a part­ time basis, or for a few weeks at a time. All deserve commenda­ tion and it would on the whole, be wrong to give anyone of them special mention. It should be pointed out, however, that Mr. Teikichi Nakamura, who has freely given large amounts of his spare time to translation since 1933, when he started on .. The Monetary Proposals of Arai Hakuseki," again came forward with excellent extracts from" Things of Dreams" (see Ch. ,) and with an outline history of rice prices, which must be reserved for a later volume. Such workers greatly lighten the task of those who are attempting to explain Japan to the West. Finally, I must thank.my colleagues on the Council of the Asiatic Society of Jaran who have been so helpful in arranging plans for publication, Sir George Sansom who read through the whole work and offered most valuable criticisms, Dr. Kurt Singer, my co-partner in this journey of exploration, Mr. C. P. Garman, the editor of the Asiatic Society'S Transactions, and PREFACE iii my wife, who has spent so many hours polishing up the manu­ scripts and adding suggestions. Yokohama, N. Skene Smith March 1937. CONTENTS Chapter Page PREFACE Authors from whose works extracts have been made......... viii Notes on Translation ................................................ ix Notes on the Illustrations .......................................... x List of Illustrations ................................................... xiii Japanese Weights and Measures .................................... xv I. INTRODUCTION .................................................. 2. RESOURCES, POPULATION AND METHODS OF LIVING ............................................................... 19-50 THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF JAPAN 19 a. E. Honjo. Nihon Keizai-shl Gaisetsu (An Out- line Economic History of Japan) 1933 .............. b. Yasusada Miyazaki. Introduction to the Nogyo Zensho (Essentials of Agriculture) 1697 .......... .. THE JAPANESE POPULATION IN TOKUGAWA TIMES 27 a. Population Figures, Birth Control and Infanticide. An editorial summary based on works of Profes- sors Honjo and Takigawa ............................ .. b. Population accordink to Social Classes. The figures of Mr. Kamei and others .................. c. Urban Population. Professor Koda's figures .... .. d. Japanese Methods of Living. The Editor ........ 3. COMMUNICATIONS ................................................ 51-77 a. Roads Edo to Osaka (Edo and Osaka) Professor S. Koda. 1934 ................................ b. Sea Transport ditto with notes from Professor Wigmore's Materials and Mr. S. Tanaka's History of Insurance 1932. 4. TRADE (I) .............. _ ............................................ 78-116 THE KABU-NAKAMA OR FEDERATIONS OF GUILDS S. KODA EDO AND OSAKA vi CONTENTS Chapter Page General 2. Trade between Osaka and Edo..................... ,8 b. The Indebtedness of Edo to Osaka............... 80 c. Methods of Organisation and Sale............... 8} d. Forestalling. re-grating. etc. ..........•............. 8, The Development of the Kabu-Nakama a. Reasons for their Establishment .................. 90 b. Demarcation Disputes ....................•......•..... 91 c. "Thank-Offerings" and other contributions to the Government ...... ......... .•....... ...... ...... 91 d. The Share System .................................... 9} e. The Earliest Kabu Nakama and their Growth... 9' The Abolition of the Kabu-Nakama and its Results a. The Abolition Decree .............•....••............. 96 b. The Effects of Compulsory Price Reductions •.. 99 c. The Results of the Reform ........................... 10} d. The Restoration of the Kabu-Nakama ...... :..... 10, A Brief History of the Shipping Federation a. The Edo and Osaka Federations .................. 107 b. The Secession of the Sake Shippers ............... 107 c. Methods of Handling Shipments . ................. 109 d. The Federation of Twenty-Four Associations in Osaka ............................................. 110 e. Competition between the Higaki and Taru Lines II} f. The Schemes of Mojuro Sugimoto .......•....•.• 114 g. The. Decline of the Shipping Lines (Editorial .' .summary of Prof. Koda's account) .•............. H, ,. TRADE~) ......................................................... 11,-1" THE RIcE TRADE 2. A 'General View. Editor's Summary based on 117 the works of Professors Honjo. Koda and Wigmore CONTENTS vii Chapter Page b. The Development of the Rice Exchanges S. Koda. Edo and Osaka ..................... 123 c. The Dojima Rice Market. Editor's Summary based on Tohaku's Guide. 1748 ............... 126 d. Editorial Note on an article on Commodity Ex­