Paper short abstract:

In the 1870s, the Meiji state initiated a nationwide land reform, which abolished the various forms of early modern land ownership and divided land into public and private property. This presentation examines its impact on Asakusa-Shinchō, a land grant controlled by outcaste chieftain Danzaemon.

Paper long abstract:

In the early 1870s, the Meiji state initiated a comprehensive, nationwide land reform commonly referred to as the Chiso kaisei (Meiji Land Tax Reform). It abolished the various forms of early modern land ownership, possession, and occupation, and divided the nation's land into two categories: public and private property. In the process, the state officially rejected the various modes of collective ownership and use that developed over the course of the early modern period, and seized control of all tax-exempt property, including urban land grants and untaxed commons. At the same time, it moved to confirm individual land ownership rights and issue official deeds of ownership to landholders. The process began in major urban centers, including Tokyo, where the first deeds were issued to local landholders in the twelfth month of Meiji 4 (1871). It advanced quickly in the city's commoner districts (machikata), where modes of formal possession closely resembling individual private ownership were deeply entrenched and individual land parcels had long been treated as commodities that could be appraised, exchanged, and accumulated.

The process proved more complex, however, in parts of the city traditionally classified as tax-exempt. Unlike residential lots in Tokyo's commoner neighborhoods, tax-exempt land parcels could not be formally exchanged. Commonly, the early modern authorities granted permanent use rights to a specific individual or organization that developed and administered the holding. Over time, many such holdings were partitioned and complex systems of informal ownership and tenancy developed among the occupants. Generally, however, the early modern authorities were aware only of the official grantee and had no knowledge of local ownership relations. When moving forward with the seizure and reallocation of previously tax-exempt land in the early 1870s, the Meiji authorities ultimately had to confront these informal systems of ownership and tenancy, and address the demands of traditional occupants. This presentation examines one such case: that of Asakusa-Shinchō, a tax-exempt land grant in northeastern Edo/Tokyo provided to outcaste chieftain Danzaemon.