The agrarian origins of modern Japan

THE AGRARIAN ORIGINS OF MODERN JAPAN

STANFORD STUDIES IN THE CIVILIZATIONS OF EASTERN ASIA

Editors

Arthur F. Wright George Sansom John D. Goheen Robert H. Brower Mary Clabaugh W right

THE AGRARIAN ORIGINS OF MODERN JAPAN

Thomas C. Smith

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

1959

Stanford University Press Stanford, California

© I959

by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University A II rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catal?g Card Number: 59-7429

ToLMS

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

IX

Part I:' THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGE

1 THE LAND SYSTEM

I

2 AGRICULTURAL SERVANTS

12

3 LABOR SERVICES

24-

4

SMALL HOLDINGS

5 THE ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL POWER

36 50

Part 11: THE VILLAGE IN TRANSITION 6 THE GROWTH OF THE MARKET

67

7 AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

87

8 THE TRANSFORMATION OF LABOR

108

9 THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF NAGO

124

10 THE DECLINE OF THE COOPERATIVE GROUP

14-0

11

NEW CLASS RELATIONS

157

12

POLITICAL CONFLICT IN THE VILLAGE

180

13 AGRARIAN CHANGE AND MODERN JAPAN

201

NOTES

21 5

Abbreviations

21 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

229

INDEX

239

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INTRODUCTION

In the course of its long history, Japanese agriculture has in'some respects changed remarkably little. Farming is scarcely less a family enterprise now than it was a thousand years ago; holdings are still tiny 'and fragmented, tools simple, and rice the main crop. Although a Heian peasant ,would no doubt be perplexed by many things about contemporary farming-above ,all about its human relations-the main operations of planting, tilling, and harvesting he would understand. This is an impressive fact which has given rise to imposing theories of Japanese society and history. But the resistance of Japanese agriculture to change, though notable, is sometimes exaggerated. The impression is even given that nothing essential about it has changed. Although this view cannot be supported, it has many adherents and quietly presides over much earnest discussion of cultural issues seemingly remote from it. One rea~on for its currency is that in some countries of the West there have been dramatic changes in particular aspects of farming that in Japan have changed scarcely at all, so that it is tempting to dismiss as unimportant such changes as in fact have taken place. These changes, however, were of great importance for Japan~se history, perhaps justifying comparison with the agricultural revolution in Europe. As one might expect, they occurred at widely different times in different regions and were far too complex to capture in a word or phrase; but taking the country as a whole they fell mainly in the Tokugawa period, and their central feature was a shift from cooperative to individual farming. At the beginning of the period, farming was generally carried on through the cooperation of families organized into actual or putative kinship groups, who to some extent shared land, labor, animals, tools, and even food and housing. By the end of the period, however, such cooperation had largely disappeared. Although it lingered on for a generation or more in isolated places, in the end the individual family nearly everywhere clearly emerged as the center of production organization and economic interest.

x

Introduction

This mighty change is easier to describe than explain but if one of its causes may be singled out as especially important, it must be the growth of the market, with all that implies about changes in men's ways and ideas. More than any other influence the market lifted economic life in the village out of the context of traditional social groupings. Economic exchange, which had been merely an aspect of social relations, a necessary concomitant of kinship, became increasingly independent of social organization and created values of its own. Thereafter what goods and services men gave and received, on what occasions and in what amounts, was less a matter of obligation than whether the price was right. This was a disruptive tendency in a society based even among the peasants on a hierarchy of birth. Economic life in the village had been organized around lineages, which provided a distributive as well as a productive system; now it ignored or worked against them. As family gain became the chief end of economic activity,new productive energies were released and income was more and more distributed without regard to status. Old wealthy families laden with prestige came on hard times; new cadet lines added field to field, moving into the landlord class. Thus the power of status, traditionally defined, was greatly reduced, and new routes were opened to social position and political power. The results were far-reaching. Peasant society took on an unprecedented mobility of which the effects were felt far beyond the boundaries of the peasant class; agriculture became competitive, productivity increased, commercial and industrial activity in the countryside flourished; there were even profound shifts of political power in many villages. This book attempts to sketch these changes in bare outline and to suggest their significance for modern Japan. But first I wish to make a disclaimer lest readers without a knowledge of Japanese be left with the false impression that this book is based mainly on original mateterials. Parts of it are (especially Chapter 12) and I have tried to check sources everywhere, but I have been unable to do this consistently since many of the most important materials are still unpublished. As a result, I have had to depend heavily on the researches of Japanese scholars, who since the war have devoted themselves with awesome energy to collecting and studying the Tokugawa manuscript materials that are scattered in profusion about the countryside. I hope my notes provide an adequate ac~nowledgment of indebtedness, but I wish to mention especially the work of Professors Ariga Kizaemon, Furushima

Introduction

.

Xl

Toshio, Miyagawa Mitsuru, and the late Toya Toshiyuki; I can hardly express the debt I owe to the researches of these four men.

I also wish to thank Professor And6 Seiichi and Mr. Kanai Madoka, both of whom helped me in more ways than I can ennumerate here; Mrs. Elizabeth Spurr for editing the manuscript; Professor Mary C. W right, Professor Bruce F. J ohnston, and Mrs. J eanne M. Smith for reading parts or all of the manuscript and making helpful criticisms. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the Social Science Research Council and to the Ford Foundation for financial aid, to Mr. John Rich of the National Broadcasting Company for sharing his house with me at a difficult time in Japan, and to the Stanford University Press for uncommon liberality and efficiency in the making of this book.

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Part I

THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGE

PROVINCES·.OF.JAPA.N IN 1868

Iyo 44 Shimosa 11 Aki 48 Shimotsuke 9 Izu 28 Awa 42 Shinano (Shinshii) Awa (B6shii). 13 !zumt 31 Izumo S9 Suruga 27 Awaji 41 Kaga 19 Suwo 46 Bingo 50 Kai 26 Tajima 55 Bitchii 49 Kawachi 38 Tamba 53 Bizen 51 K