Title MIGRATION and ECONOMIC CHANGE in OKAYAMA DURING the TOKUGAWA PERIOD Sub Title Author HANLEY, SUSAN B

Title MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA DURING THE TOKUGAWA PERIOD Sub Title Author HANLEY, SUSAN B. Publisher Keio Economic Society, Keio University Publication year 1973 Jtitle Keio economic studies Vol.10, No.2 (1973. ) ,p.19- 35 Abstract Notes Genre Journal Article URL http://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koara_id=AA00260492-19730002- 0019

SUSAN B. HANLEY

If an economy is to grow, as the Tokugawa economy undoubtedly did,' the use of its resources must be improved. An increase in the mobility of labor, an important factor of production, indicates that this resource is being real located in an effort to make more efficient use of it. Changes in the magnitude and patterns of mobility are also indicators of social change, and analyzed in conjunction with government efforts to control and regulate mobility can yield clues to the effective- ness of government. In this context, an analysis of mobility during the Tokugawa period, especially during the latter half, may provide valuable insight on changes in the Tokugawa economy and society, particularly as related to conditions which set the stage for the modern economic development following the Meiji Restoration. This paper then is an effort to examine and analyze mobility for employment and for marriage in the domain of Okayama, with emphasis on the southern half which ex- perienced considerable economic development during the second half of the period.2 In this study, I will evaluate the following hypotheses: 1) Both permanent and temporary migration, especially for employment, was common during the Tokugawa period, indicating that the village during this period was not a closed, self-sufficient society. 2) Economic development, particularly in one area of the domain, was quickly reflected in the dekasegi (t ) statistics.3 3) Political boundaries, at least in the Okayama area, did not constitute a real obstacle for persons who wished to migrate. Mobility was more closely connected to economic activity and geographical proximity than to political and administrative units. 4) Migration was common during the last two centuries of the Tokugawa

* The author is indebted to Professor Akira Hayami for guidance in the use of shumon-aratame- cho for demographic analysis, to Professor Jiro Naito for making available the shumon-aratame- cho for Numa, and to Miss Akiko Ikeda for the computer programming. She would also like to thank the Foreign Area Fellowship Program and the East-West Population Institute, Honolulu, for financial support in carrying out this study. 1 For evidence of Tokugawa economic growth , see the review article, S. HANLEY and K. YAMAMURA,"A Quiet Transformation in Tokugawa Economic History," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Feb. 1971), pp. 373-84, and Kozo YAMAMURA,"Toward a Reexamination of the Economic History of Tokugawa Japan, 1600-1867," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sept. 1973), pp. 509-46. 2 A discussion in English can be found in S. HANLEY, "Population Trends and Economic Development in Tokugawa Japan: The Case of Bizen Province in Okayama," Daedalus, Spring 1968, pp. 622-35. For studies in Japanese, see the source cited in footnotes following. 3 Dekasegi means leaving home to work elsewhere .

19 20 SUSAN B. HANLEY period in Okayama despite repeated efforts of the domain government to control migration, and even prohibit persons from moving from farm villages to towns and some kinds of dekasegi. 5) Some patterns of migration associated with the Meiji period , such as the practice of young adults working outside the village on contracts of a year or more, could be found in the Tokugawa period and were common by the nineteenth century. In short, it is hypothesized that in this region of Japan , the nature and patterns of mobility during the Tokugawa period were similar to those during the late nineteenth century following the Restoration , and that whatever the contrasts in government and its policies during these periods , Meiji mobility patterns can be traced to the Bakumatsu period and earlier .4 The primary sources for this study on Okayama are the shumon-aratame-cho (7; MMt m), or religious investigation registers, from two villages in the district of Kojima and one in Kamimichi (the present Jodo-gun) ." One of the uses of the shumon-aratame-cho was as a record of the permanent and usual domicile of residents of the domain. The extant copies , those left within the village, also contain notations of changes in the residence of an inhabitant and the arrival of new inhabitants, permanent or temporary . These records therefore contain information on the destination of any person leaving the village for any reason , on the former residence or the permanent residence of any person coming to the village, and the location of any permanent resident who was currently living or working outside the village.' Tables I through III contain a summary of information to be obtained from the registers of Fujito, Fukiage , and Numa.

THE VILLAGES OF FUJITO, FUKIAGE, AND NUMA Fujito was a farm village located in the northwest corner of Kojima on the

4 One of the best studiesof Meijiemployment patterns , includingmobility for employment, can be found in HAZAMAHiroshi, Ninon romu kanri-shi kenkyu (A studyof the historyof labor managementin Japan), (Tokyo:Daiyamond-sha, 1964), especially pp. 241-5. HAZAMAstates that it wascommon during the earlyMeiji period for youngmen and womento go out to work not far fromhome in the textileindustry, usually on two-yearcontracts. 6 For a descriptionand discussionof the shumon-aratame-choas sourcesfor demographic studies,see SEKIYAMA Naotaro, Kinsei Ninon no jinko kozo (The population sturcture of Tokugawa Japan), (Tokyo: YoshikawaKobunkan, 1958), Chapter 1: Akira HAYAMI,"The Demographic Analysisof a Villagein TokugawaJapan: Kando-shindenof Owari Province,1778-1871," KeioEconomic Studies, Vol. 5 (1968),pp. 50-88;and HAYAMI, Kinsei no sonno rekishijinkogakuteki kenkyu(An historicaldemographic analysis of Tokugawafarming villages), (Tokyo: Toy• Keizai Shimpo-sha,1973), especially pp. 6-9. Registersare extantfor 42 yearsbetween 1775 and 1863 for Fujito,for 31 yearsbetween 1683 and 1860for Fukiage,both of Kojima,and for 33 yearsbe- tween1780 and 1871for Numa of Kamimichi. Two of the registersfor Fujito are incomplete and oneeach for Fukiageand Numa. 6 Becausethe registersfor these three villagesdo not provideunbroken times series coverage , the mostdifficult type of migrationto assessis the movingof familiesinto and out of the villages overa span of time. For this reason,no attempt has been made here to quantitativelyassess this type of migration. MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 21 route leading from the castle town to the port of Shimotsui on the Inland Sea. Fujito's population numbered over 650 in both 1775 and 1794, but within the next decade fell by ten per cent. The last half century of the Tokugawa period was one of growth, however, with the population increasing from 586 in 1825 to over 700 by 1860. This increase paralleled the economic growth which resulted from land reclamation and increased opportunities for by-employments.7 With the exception of the years when its population decreased, Fujito was a labor short village with a positive net immigration for employment. (See Table I)

TABLE I. DATA ON EMPLOYMENT IN HOUSEHOLDS OTHER THAN OWN

1. Worked 2. Came into 3. Net immi- 4. Worked 5. Hired labor Year outside village gration for within village within village village to work employment in household other (2. minus 1.) than own (2. plus 4.) Fujito 1775 27 43 +16 7 50 1794 30 26 — 4 9 35 1797 23 30 + 7 7 37 1798 24 24 0 7 31 1799 28 22 — 6 11 33 1800 23 22 — 1 12 34 1801 24 17 — 7 12 29 1802 18 13 — 5 13 26 1803 13 14 + 1 14 28 1804 12 15 + 3 14 29 1805 14 16 + 2 12 28 1806 15 22 + 7 12 34 1808 14 12 — 2 10 22 1809 9 15 + 6 7 22 1810 8 16 + 8 9 25 1825 8 6 — 2 3 9 1826 4 5 + 1 3 8 1827 5 11 + 6 2 13 1828 8 15 + 7 1 16 1829 10 16 + 6 4 20 1830 10 17 + 7 3 20 1831 7 12 + 5 4 16 1832 5 8 + 3 1 9 1833 4 9 + 5 2 11 1834 6 5 — 1 2 7 1835 3 7 + 4 1 8 1837 2 3 + 1 2 5 1841 2 2 0 3 5 1844 4 5 + 1 4 9 1845 2 6 + 4 3 9 1846 3 7 •4 2 9

7 See S. HANLEY, "Toward an Analysis of Demographic and Economic Change in Tokugawa Japan: A Village Study," The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol . 31, No. 3 (May 1972), pp. 515-37 for a study of Fujito. 22 SUSAN B. HANLEY

TABLE I. (Continued `2)

1847 3 8 + 5 2 10 1848 4 9 + 5 2 11 1850 3 9 + 6 2 11 1852 4 7 + 3 4 11 1856 5 4 — 1 0 4 1857 6 12 + 6 1 13 1859 5 12 + 7 1 13 1861 5 13 + 8 2 15 1863 8 15 + 7 3 18 Fukiage 1685 8 4 — 4 0 4 1686 1 3 + 2 1 4 1687 2 5 + 3 0 5 1688 2 4 + 2 0 4 1693 11 5 — 6 1 6 1694 13 5 — 8 0 5 1697 18 11 — 7 0 11 1699 28 13 —15 0 13 1700 30 11 —19 0 11 1702 25 8 —17 0 8 1703 23 6 —17 0 6 1705 27 14 —13 0 14 1706 25 13 —12 0 13 1712 26 24 — 2 0 24 1727 23 26 + 3 0 26 1730 22 37 +15 0 37 1741 38 40 + 2 0 40 1773 15 47 +32 3 50 1780 17 30 +13 2 32 1781 21 31 +10 3 34 1787 15 32 +17 5 37 1797 30 40 +10 4 44 1801 25 41 +16 1 42 1821 26 21 — 5 2 23 1822 24 15 — 9 1 16 1826 17 22 + 5 2 24 1854 3 3 0 3 6 1855 1 3 + 2 0 3 1860 1 4 + 3 0 4 Numa 1780 18 35 +17 2 37 1785 23 31 + 8 5 36 1786 27 31 + 4 4 35 1796 24 22 — 2 10 32 1798 17 16 — 1 4 20 1799 15 22 + 7 3 25 23 MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA

TABLE I. (Continued 3)

1. Worked 2. Came into 3. Net immi- 4. Worked 5. Hired labor within village Year outside village gration for within village village to work employment in household other (2. minus 1.) than own (2. plus 4.) 1 27 1801 13 26 +13 — 1 19 18 5 23 1803 •20 1814 11 15 + 4 5 —14 5 18 1819 27 13 —23 1:5 1820 34 11 4 —21 19 1822 37 16 3 —16 19 1823 31 15 4 —17 1824 29 12 3 15 —19 13 1825 29 10 3 —23 13 1826 29 6 7 —21 1827 27 6 5 11 —22 1828 28 6 7 13 —15 6 11 1829 20 5 —17 13 1830 25 8 5 —16 1831 25 9 6 15 —16 3 12 1832 25 9 — 5 1860 11 6 1 7 — 2 1861 5 3 1 4 — 7 1863 9 2 2 4 —10 1864 12 2 1 3 —15 6 1865 17 2 4 —13 1866 15 2 3 5 —13 1867 14 1 1 2 —16 4 1868 19 3 1 —17 1869 17 0 0 0 — 9 1871 9 0 0 0

Fukiage was adjacent to Shimotsui, and with the growth of Shimotsui as a shipping entrepot, Fukiage prospered too. The village had a population of just over 350 in 1685, but within 15 years it had grown to over 450, and by 1730 the population was over 700. The number of new families listed in the registers around the turn of the eighteenth century indicates a considerable in-migration of families during this period. Fukiage's dekasegi figures showed, not surprisingly, no single trend, since data exist for this village for a span of nearly two centuries. The years of peak out-migration for employment appear to have been in the early eighteenth century, but from 1730 until the end of the century, in-migration exceeded out-migration. In contrast to Fujito and Fukiage, the population of Numa did not on the balance grow over the 90 years for which we have data. In 1780 the population stood at 337, and while it grew to 389 in the early l82o's, from that time it slowly and steadily decreased to 315 in 1871. Numa was a small farming village in Kamimichi, one 24 SUSAN B. HANLEY of the districts which grew in population, but the village was landlocked and no further reclamation was possible. Commercial agriculture developed in Numa during the eighteenth century, if not earlier, but no major economic development took place.' Numa appears to have had an excess demand for labor into the nineteenth century, but from 1819 it became a supplier of labor.

POPULATION GROWTH AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN SOUTHERN OKAYAMA

All three of the villages were located in the growth areas of the domain. Kojima, Kamimichi, and Mine, all in the south and facing Kojima Bay, were the three of the eight districts of Okayama to grow substantially in population during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The official domain statistics show Kojima's population to have increased by 75 % from 1689 to 1834 and Kamimichi's by 47 %. During the same period, the population of the domain is estimated to have grown from just under 280,000 to nearly 347,000, an increase of just under 24 %.9 Thus, during this century and a half, there occurred a gradual shift southward of the population of the domain. Much of the growth of the southern districts was due to an in-migration of people attracted to the growing industries, in the case of Kojima, to the salt-making and cotton textile industries in particular. These industries helped transform the economy of Kojima from a primarily agricultural economy to one depending in large part on trade, commercial agriculture, and various forms of premodern manufacture. The transformation of Kojima's economy can be traced through the change in the relative importance of various goods traded in Shimotsui and other parts of the district. In 1696, the largest commodity handled by Shimotsui merchants was rapeseed, followed by rice.10 By the late eighteenth century, tea, tobacco, and iron goods also had become important commodities in the Shimotsui trade," but by the Bakumatsu period, the most important industries in Kojima were the production of cotton cloth and salt, both of which were produced on a large scale.12 Even in the early Tokugawa period, Kojima did not rely solely on agriculture. Fishing was one of the earliest industries to develop, and in the villages along

8 NAITOJirO , Honbyakushotaisei no kenkyu (A study of the honbyakushosystem), (Tokyo: OchanomizuShobO, 1968), pp. 128ff. 9 TANIGUCHISumio , Okayamahansei-shi no kenkyu (A study of the history of the administration of Okayama domain), (Tokyo: Hanawa ShobO,1964), p. 458. 10 Okayama-ken, Okayama-kenno rekishi (A history of Okayama prefecture), (Okayama: Okayama-ken,1962), p. 371 it ANDOSeiichi , Kinseizaikata shogyono kenkyu(A study of rural commercein the Tokugawa period), (Tokyo: YoshikawaKObunkan, 1958), p. 335. 12TAWA Kazuhiko , Kojima sangyo-shino kenkyu (A study of the history of commercein Kojima), (Kyoto: Kojima no Rekishi Kank•-kai, 1959). This book is a study of these two industries. MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 25 the Inland Sea, owning a boat was considered the equivalent to owning paddy.13 Even in 1702, Kojima had a ratio of 15 persons per 10 koku of zandaka (N TA), the grain output figures upon which the domain based its taxes.14 Kamimichi, one of the richest agricultural districts, had a ratio of only six to ten. Kojima's ratio was higher than that of any of the northern districts, and by 1834 it had nearly a quarter of the population of the domain but approximately an eighth of the land." Cotton constituted an important industry in this district by the end of the seventeenth century. At first raw cotton was exported to other parts of Japan, but gradually Kojima entrepreneurs began processing the cotton for export, and the region became known for its finished cotton goods, particularly a weave known as Kokura-ori.'6 The weaving was so widely carried on as a by-employment in farm households that by 1823 a group of village headmen tried to have it banned on the grounds that weaving was keeping workers from the fields, meaning that it had become difficult to hire farm labor.17 Another industry which flourished during the nineteenth century was salt- making. Slat-making was carried on in this region for as long as there are records, but under the entrepreneurial talents of Nozaki Buzaemon, who adopted new technological advances which made use of Kojima's coal, salt-making became big business. By the late Tokugawa years, salt was second only to cotton as an export item.'8

DEKASEGI, OR MIGRATION FOR EMPLOYMENT

The growth of commercial agriculture, the manufacture of cotton cloth, and the production of salt all created a tremendous demand for labor in the Kojima area. As early as the seventeenth century, hokonin A), or persons who went out to work, were a common sight in Bizen.19 Contributing to this demand was the reclamation of fields, in itself labor intensive, which in turn created a demand for agricultural labor.20 Wage employment continued to increase during

13 Okayama Shiyakusho , Okayama shishi (A history of Okayama city), Sangyo keizai-hen (Volume on industry and the economy), (Okayama: Okayama Shiyakusho, 1966), p. 136. 14 TANIGUCHI , p. 463. 15 In 1702, Kojima had 2,393 cha of cultivated land. TANIGUCHI,p. 330. This was 11.1 of the total for Bizen. Since very little reclamation was undertaken during the eighteenth century, this percentage would still hold for the early nineteenth century . See the map between pp. 176-7 in TANIGUCHI. is See ONO Masao , "Okayama-han hi okeru orimono no ryutsu keitai—Kaei-Ansei-ki o chushin to shite" (The form of the trade in Kokura-ori in the domain of Okayama with a focus on the years 1848-60), in HOgetsu Keigo Sensei Kanreki Kinenkai, ed., Ninon shakai keizaishi kenkyu (A study of the social and economic history of Japan), Kinsei-hen (Volume on the Tokugawa period), (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1967), pp. 440-65. 17 ONO, p. 442. 18 TAWA , p. 162. 19 Okayama-ken no rekishi , p. 373. 20 It is well known that by the Bakumatsu period f arm labor had to be brought in from outside to work in the shinden (A newly reclaimed fields) . Many came from Shikoku. 26 SUSAN B. HANLEY

TABLE II. LOCATION OF EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONS WORKING OUTSIDE OWN HOUSEHOLD AND ORIGIN OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN VILLAGE Fujito Location of Employment 1775 1794 1801 1810 1825 1835 1845 1856 1863

Fujito 7 9 12 9 3 1 3 3 NW Kojima 8 4 4 3 SW Kojima 1 3 1 Mid-Kojima 1 NE Kojima 1 Shinden 1 2 Castle town 8 9 13 3 Samurai 4 6 1 3 2 1 4 7 Other districts 2 1 5 3 1 1 1 1 Bitchu 3 Osaka 4 1 Other Unknown 1 1

Total 34 39 36 17 11 4 5 5 11 Origin of Persons Employed in Village Fujito 7 9 12 9 31 3 3 NW Kojima 33 18 15 6 26 3 6 SW Kojima 2 4 1 9 11 Mid-Kojima 4 32 NE Kojima Shinden 3 3 Castle town 4 Samurai Other districts Bitchu 1 1 4 Osaka Other 1 4 Unknown 1 1 1

Total 50 35 29 25 9 8 9 4 18 Fukiage Location of Employment 1693 1712 1741 1781 1801 8121 1854

Fukiage 1 3 1 2 3 NW Kojima 1 1 1 SW Kojima 9 3 2 2 Mid-Kojima 1 4 NW Kojima 1 Shinden Castle town 3 5 8 4 7 7 Samurai 4 10 21 3 , 7 14 1 Other districts 1 Bitchu 2 1 Osaka 7 5 Other Unkown 1 6 2 2 4 Total 12 26 38 24 26 28 6 MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 27

TABLE II. (Continued 2) Fukiage Origin of Persons Employed in Village Fukiage 1 3 1 2 3 NW Kojima 3 3 2 SW Kojima 3 15 3327 31 18 2 Mid-Kojima 2 3 31 Shinden Castle town 1 Samurai Other districts 1 Bitchu 1 2 Osaka Other 2 1 Unknown 1 2 6 1 1 Total 6 24 40 34 42 23 6 Numa Location of Employment 1780 1796 1801 1814 1825 1831 1863 1871 Numa 2 10 1 5 3 6 2 Kamimichi 7 9 4 5 10 4 3 6 Shinden 3 2 1 Castle town 2 1 Samurai 1 1 2 Akasaka 2 Iwanashi 1 Oku, Kojima 1 1 1 Mine Unknown 9 12 5 4 16 17 5 3

Total 20 34 14 16 32 31 11 9 Origin of Persons Employed in Village Numa 2 10 1 5 3 6 2 Kamimichi 16 17 15 9 8 3 2 Shinden 1 6 3 3 Castle town Samurai Akasaka 13 2 4 3 Iwanashi 5 2 2 3 Oku, Kojima 1 Mine Unknown 1 Total 37 32 27 20 13 15 4 0 the Tokugawa period, with wages in the cotton industry reputed to be especially good.21 Often a family could earn more outside agriculture, especially since the taxes on rice were high. People found little incentive to farm marginal land or

21 TANIGUCHI , p. 632. 28 SUSAN B. HANLEY very small holdings, and by the l84o's, marginal farmers had abandoned rice cultivation to go into weaving full time.22 While most of the hired-out labor in the seventeenth century were employed in farm households, by the Bakumatsu period many hokonin were in fact factory workers employed in large-scale industries." Shifts in the areas of economic development are apparent when we examine the patterns of where hokonin from our three villages went to work. (See Table II) All three villages sent persons to work in the castle town through the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries, but by the mid-nineteenth century, not a person is recorded as working in the castle town in any of these villages. Fujito residents ceased to go work in the castle town sometime between 1810 and 1825, Fukiage residents sometime between 1826 and 1854, and Numa's, sometime between 1832 and 1860.24 These figures bear witness to the decline in the economic function of the castle town with the growth of commerce and industry in nodes in the countryside throughout the domain. Originally the castle town had functioned as the market of the domain and merchants from the castle town had controlled trade in the outlying regions. Gradually, however, the center of trade began to shift to outlying towns due to the growth of commercial agriculture and industries in the countryside, to the growth of the port towns along the Inland Sea, and to the guilds whose policies made entry into business in the castle town difficult. By the l8so's, merchants from the castle town were going to the ports of Shimo- tsui and Saidaiji to buy goods, a clear reversal of the early Tokugawa trade.25 A second major location of hokonin from Fujito and Fukiage throughout the periods for which we have data was in the households of samurai. The notation in the registers usually stated only the name of the samurai, but it is likely that most were resident in the castle town. Amaki, situated next to Fujito, was the seat of one of the karo ( --- elders) of the domain, and it is possible that some of the persons listed as working for samurai were in fact located here. Migration between areas does not show one-way flows; nevertheless, certain patterns clearly emerged. Until well into the nineteenth century, both Fujito and Fukiage employed more persons from adjacent villages than they sent out to the same areas. By the mid-nineteenth century a few persons from Northwest Kojima were still coming to Fujito to work and from Southwest Kojima to Fukiage but virtually no one was going from these village to nearby areas. Migration for employment involving Numa was almost all within the district of Kamimichi. However, particularly in the early years when the net immigration figures were high, persons were coming from the inner districts of Akasaka and Iwanashi to work in Numa.26

22 ONo, p. 460. 23 TAWA, p. 169. 24 No data are avaliable between these dates . 25 ANDO , p. 334. 26 Akasaka and Iwanashi were located just to the north of Kamimichi in the hilly area of the province which was not well suited to agriculture. MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 29

One of the largest figures for all three villages is that for employment of villagers in other households within the same village. These figures are certainly even higher than indicated here as often a member of one household was listed as working in another household, but this was not noted in the household in which he was employed. The reverse case was equally common. Certainly hiring within the village on a short-term basis was not entered in the shumon-arateme-cho as it involved no change of address or movement requiring the permission or attention of the authorities. Employing villagers was the most common way of optimizing labor resources within the village. The most striking development involving migration for employment was the drop in the migration figures for all three villages in the mid-nineteenth century. The figure of persons in Fujito and Numa who went to work in other households in the same village dropped almost to zero. Though net immigration for employment in Fujito, for example, remained almost constant in the l84o's and l8so's, it involved the movement of far fewer people than previously. This development was almost certainly due to the increase in by-employments within the domain and to the spread of commerce and industry throughout the rural areas. The increase of by-employments in Kojima was linked to the cotton textile industry. By the Tempo period, weaving had become so common as a by-employment that the domain began to try to regulate it to prevent farmers from engaging in this occupation at the expense of agriculture which would result in a decline in the tax base. The number of looms per household was limited usually to one— never more than two—and both the hiring of labor and the practice of going out to work in the textile industry were prohibited.27 These regulations seem to have had little effect, however. Records dating from 1842 reveal that in Fujito the number of looms averaged one per house, with some families owning as many as three.28 By the Bakumatsu period, the manufacture of cloth had overshadowed the cultivation of cotton, and raw cotton was imported into the domain to be woven and then reexported. As industry and commerce developed in Okayama, the methods of employment changed. In the seventeenth century, a category of people existed who were indentured, the fudai M. This group was gradually liberated by domain regulation. In 1682, the sale of persons was prohibited and the term of contract labor (nenki boko $~) was limited to ten years.29 According to the records of the Naito family from Numa, two kinds of labor developed : nenki yatoi (*), or labor contracted on a yearly basis, and hiyatoi( Qiffi), daily labor. The pay of persons on yearly contracts was written in terms of rice as was the pay of person hired on a daily basis, such as carpenters, coopers, and woodcutters. In actual practice, however, it was more common for them to be paid in the paper currency of the 27TAWA , p. 169. 28ONO , p. 460. 29TANIGUCHI Sumio , Okayama-han(The domainof Okayama),(Tokyo : YoshikawaKobun- kan, 1964),p. 88. 30 SUSAN B. HANLEY domain than in kind. Records showing this date from 1787.3° By the late Tokugawa period, several methods of employment had developed in the cotton industry. The subcontracting system was used whereby looms were lent to farm households whose members wove in their spare time. But people who had accumulated capital, usually landowners, set up a number of looms in a workshop and hired labor to come and weave for them. By the Bakumatsu period, there is evidence that some were employing so many persons that Tawa compares their operations to modern factories in terms of organization and scale.3' In any case, it is clear that from the seventeenth century on, employment on yearly contracts away from home was common in Okayama. Not only did persons go to other households in their own village and to neighboring villages, but to the castle town, distant districts, other provinces, and even as far as Osaka. By the eighteenth century, at least, wages were often if not always paid in cash. While the people who traveled to distant parts to work usually stayed a number of years, if not semi-permanently,32 most of the people who went to work in nearby areas were young men and women who had not yet married. The modal age groups of hokonin of both sexes for most year in all three villages lay in the 15-30 age groups.

EFFORTS BY THE DOMAIN TO CONTROL MIGRATION

The domain of Okayama tried throughout the Tokugawa period to control and inhibit the movement of its people. Its presistence in trying to limit migration was due to its efforts to maintain a farm population which would ensure rice production at a maximum level. However, wages were often higher outside agriculture, particularly in the cotton industry, and thus the domain's attempts were largely unsuccessful. By the mid-nineteenth century, the administration was concerned about the fall in the farm population and the consequent number of marginal fields left untilled.33 At this point it became ambivalent in its policy; it still wished to prevent further outflows from the farm population, but at the same time, inflicting harsh punishments on violators would prevent anyone from returning to his fields once he had left the village. This policy of controlling migration is one of the reasons we have so much information today on the whereabouts of the people of Okayama. If a farmer wanted to move from one village to another, he had to obtain identification papers signed by the headman of his village, get the permission of his former village, find a guarantor in the village to which he wished to move, and take with him a certificate of his religion signed by his priest.34 Regulations prohibited the

3° NAITO, p. 143. 31 TAWA, p. 169. 32 Persons listed as working outside the village who were most likely to drop out of the registers were those who were the farthest from home, often in the castle town or another domain. 33 TANIGUCHI, Okayama hansei-shi no kenkyu, p. 637. 34 Edwin L. NEVILLE, Jr., "The Development of Transportation in Japan: A Case Study of Okayama Hah, 1600-1868" (Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1959), pp. 94-102. MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 31 transfer of houses to anyone but a direct relative, which led to the subterfuge of using adoption to legalize the sale or transfer of property.35 For a village resident to move to the city, two requirements must be met : the person had to be poor and without land and he had to be unable to undertake hard farm labor. The domain laid out harsh punishments for anyone caught disobeying these injunction against migration. For this reason, notations were usually not made when a resident unlawfully left the village. Occasionally, and usually for the very young, a note was made stating that a certain person had "absconded" on a certain date and that his whereabouts was unknown. But more often than not, the individual just dropped out of the village records; he was on the registers one year but not the next.36 Thus when economic conditions were hard, as they seem to have been in Fujito during the years 1797 to 1806, we find large numbers of men just dropping out of the records. During this decade in Fujito, 47 persons or about 8 % of the population dropped out. A few of these may have been un- recorded deaths, but more than that is unlikely as 45 of the drop-outs were men, most of them in their 2o's and so's. Eighteen of these were working outside the village in the year they were last recorded, giving rise to the hypothesis that these disappearances were men who illegally left to work elsewhere.37

MIGRATION FOR MARRIAGE The pattern of marriages is another important indication of the interregional pattern of flows of persons. (See Table III) The largest percentage of marriages in the three villages took place within the village or with the spouse coming from a nearby village. In Fukiage, 80 % of the women who married into another family went to or came from another house in Fukiage or from a neighboring village. The village with the lowest percentage was Fujito with 50 %.38 Fully 30 % of the women who left home as brides from Fujito during the years for

35 Two cases of transfers of property through adoption can be traced in the Fujito shumon - aratame-cho. The method used was to adopt a family and list everyone in one household. Then a year later the first family left the village (in one case a single adult male) leaving the adopted son or brother as the new head of the household. 36 The Okayama records involving migration are more reliable than many in other parts of Japan for the reason that most persons seem to have been dropped from the records within a year or two after they had left the village permanently. This is in contrast to the village of Imai in Suwa, for example, where persons were kept in the registers indefinitely, resulting in the listing of numerous persons in their nineties with the note that they were working in some other place . 37 This hypothesis is supported by a low marriage rate , a low birth rate, and a low death rate. The demographic behavior of the villagers in this decade was consistent with poor economic conditions which restricted marrying, having children, or finding employment within the village. 38 The totals of the number of brides marrying into and out of Fujito cannot be added together because those who married into another household in the village would be double-counted . By definition, the number of brides who married into Fujito from Fujito itself is equal to the number of brides who went from one household in Fujito into another in the same village. This holds true for all villages. 32 , SUSAN B. HANLEY

TABLE III. ORIGIN OF BRIDES MARRYING IN DESTINATION OF BRIDES MARRYING OUT Fujito Origin of Brides Marrying In

1775-78 1794-1810 1825-35 1837-63 Total a Fujito 6 9 7 5 27 17.0 NW Kojima 2 22 12 18 54 34.0 SW Kojima 1 1 5 6 13 8.2 Mid-Kojima 1 3 3 2 9 5.7 NE Kojima 1 1 1 3 1.9 Shinden 1 2 3 1.9 Castle town Other districts 1 1 2 1.3 Bitchu 5 12 14 31 19.5 Other 1 1 2 1.3 Unknown 7 4 4 15 9.4 Total 11 49 46 53 159 100.2 Destination of Brides Marrying Out Fujito 6 9 75 27 17.8 NW Kojima 2 20724 53 34.9 SW Kojima 331 7 4.6 Mid-Kojima 112 4 2.6 NE Kojima 312 6 4.0 Shinden 12 3 2.0 Castle town 1 1 0.7 Other districts 1 1 0.7 Bitchu 4 1614 12 46 30.3 Other Unknown 121 4 2.6 Total 12 55 35 50 152 100.2 No. of Brides Who Stay Within Own Family 1 1 7 12 21 No. of Years of Data 2 14 11 14 41 Fukiage Origin of Brides Marrying In 1687-1712 1727-91 1797-1860 Total Fukiage 21 13 16 50 36.2 NW Kojima 1 4 1 6 4.4 SW Kojima 21 20 21 62 44.9 Mid-Kojima 1 1 0.7 NE Kojima 1 1 0.7 Shinden Castle town 1 1 2 1.5 Other districts 1 1 0.7 BitchU 4 1 1 6 4.4 Other 1 2 3 2.2 Unknown 3 2 1 6 4.4 Total 53 42 43 138 100.1 MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 33

TABLE III. (Continued 2) Destination of Brides Marrying Out Fukiage 21 1316 50 48.5 NW Kojima 12 3 2.9 SW Kojima 5 1410 29 28.2 Mid-Kojima 1 1 1.0 NE Kojima Shinden Castle town 3 4 7 6.8 Other districts Bitchu 4 1 1 6 5 .8 Other 2 2 1 .9 Unknown 1 3 1 5 4 .9 Total 36 33 34 103 100.0

No. of Brides Who Stay Within Own Family 4 15 6 25 No. of Years of Data 12 8 8 28 Numa Origin of Brides Marrying In 0/ 1780-1803 1814-1832 1860-1871 Total 0

Numa 9 6 6 21 21.6 Kamimichi 9 21 9 39 40.2 Shinden 1 1 2 2.1 Castle town Akasaka 2 5 4 11 11.3 Iwanashi 5 1 6 6.2 Mine 3 3 3.1 Other districts 4 6 10 10.3 Bitchu 1 1 1.0 Other Unknown 4 4 4.1 Total 21 50 26 97 99.9 Destination of Brides Marrying Out Numa 966 21 23 .6 Kamimichi 82113 42 47 .2 Shinden 1 1 1.1 Castle town Akasaka 3 4 2 9 10.1 Iwanashi 1 2 2 5 5.6 Mine 1 1 1.1 Other districts 1 2 4 7 7.9 Bitchu Other Unknown 1 2 3 3.4 Total 23 39 27 89 100.0 No. of Brides Who Stay Within Own Family 1 3 0 4 No. of Years of Data 8 15 10 33 34 SUSAN B. HANLEY which data exist went to Bitchu, and nearly 20% of Fujito brides came from Bitchu. Since Fujito was located in the corner of Kojima next to Bitchu and was closer to many Bitchu villages than to most of Kojima's, this was a perfectly natural occur- rence in terms of geographical location. What is significant is that in most cases the brides were moving from one domain or area of political control to another . This indicates that marriages took place without regard to political boundaries. It also signifies considerable social contact and movement over political boundaries despite the elaborate system of controls the domain set up as it was necessary for arrangements to be made and enough contact to exist for suitable parties to be brought together. Unlike dekasegi patterns, migration for marriage was determined by geographical proximity rather than by changing economic conditions and the patterns tended to remain in variant over time. If marriage is examined by village or even by household, noticeable patterns of reciprocity in marriage arrangements emerge. For example, in Fujito, the leading family, the Hikasa, had close ties with the district of Kuboya in Bitchu. Several brides who married Hikasa men came from Kuboya, and the daughter of Yutaro, the head of the village in the nineteenth century, went to this district as a bride. Other families had similar ties with other villages. Once such a tie was established between a family and another village, further marriages and often adoptions tended to take place between the same families or villages. Other information on migration or movement can be obtained from the shumon- aratame-cho, but the smallness of the sample size does not warrant tabulation here. Adoption was common during the Tokugawa period and usually the adopted son or daughter was brought in from another village rather than from another household in the same village. All of the brides who are listed as having stayed within their own family (on Table III) married yoshimuko ( 4, ), men who were adopted into the family either at the time they married into the family or earlier. There are also records of divorces, the establishment of branch families, changes in residence, and other events involving movement to or from another location. Here, as in dekasegi and marriage, neighboring villages figured most prominently, but more distant places were also frequently listed." One might also note that in addition to making permanent and temporary moves, people also traveled. Group trips, similar to those in modern Japan, seem to have taken place, with Shikoku the usual destination. In 1844, 12 persons from twelve different households in Fujito are recorded as having visited Shikoku. Anywhere from three to twelve people from Fukiage are recorded as having visited Shikoku or another place outside the domain in 1780, 1791, 1801, 1821, 1822, 1826, 1854, and 1855—in fact, in eight of the twelve years for which threr are data after 1780. Business also took people away from home. Men from the Fukiage area frequently worked on ships in the Inland Sea and a booming cotton export business in Amaki and Fujito in the late Tokugawa years involved dealings

39 Osaka is the most distant place on record . MIGRATION AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN OKAYAMA 35 with engoku (33 Q), distant places.40

CONCLUSION

Limited through this study has been, all of the evidence support the conclusion that there was considerable mobility in Tokugawa Japan. The majority of women lived in at least two villages during their lives. A large percentage of men and women had some experience working outside the village at some time in their lives. By the last century of the period, many people traveled either for business or pleasure, or lived in a household in which someone had traveled. Contacts were maintained not only with immediate neighbors, but with villages and towns some distance away and even across political boundaries. These experiences combined with frequent contact with travelers, peddlars, and businessmen, meant that villagers had direct contact with and knowledge of a much larger world than, for example, the villager of several centuries earlier who lived in a self-sufficient economic unit or a villager in a Southeast Asian country before World War II. The Tokugawa villager also took part in a larger economy, which is reflected in the dekasegi statistics and in the information on economic growth in Okayama. When economic opportunities increased in one part of the domain, people quickly responded. While it may have been difficult for entire families to move, individuals could and frequently did leave home to work. All of this mobility occurred despite domain regulations prohibiting and controlling movement. In a labor-short economy, which Okayama clearly was, such efforts were, in the long run, bound to be futile. By the mid-nineteenth century, patterns of short and long term movement in Okayama resembled those of Meiji Japan, in kind if not in quantity. Meiji employment patterns involving dekasegi can be seen in the cotton textile industry of Kojima. People were used to traveling and living in a larger world than that bound by the domain. The more efficient use of labor and the widening of the ordinary citizen's horizons during the Tokugawa period must certainly have helped set the stage for the rapid industrialization of the Meiji period. Mobility and what mobility connotes in economic and social terms are necessary factors for economic development. In this respect, the people of Okayama were certainly prepared for the changes which were to follow the Meiji Restoration. University of Washington

40 ONO , p. 454.