- Convenor:
-
Julia Mariko Jacoby
(Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Thomas Donald Conlan
(Princeton University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Interdisciplinary Section: Environmental Humanities
Short Abstract
This panel examines how environment and economy combined to shape mountainous regions in Edo period Japan, as well as the interaction between mountain economies and wider Japanese society. The panel offers three case studies focusing, respectively, on mining, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Long Abstract
Economic histories of early modern Japan often focus either on the financial and commodity markets within an emerging urban economy or the wider rice economy essential to sustaining Tokugawa rule in the Edo period (1603-1868). Such work foregrounds economic activity taking place in the plains, neglecting the mountainous terrain comprising approximately seventy percent of the archipelago’s land area. Consequently, it is vital to bring more attention to the economies of the mountainous regions in Japan and their role in shaping Tokugawa society. This panel focuses on how environmental conditions specific to mountainous regions shaped their economies and how these mountain economies in turn interacted with broader Tokugawa society.
The Edo period, characterized by peace and the unification of hundreds of domains (han) under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, also saw unprecedented economic growth and market integration. Although the approximately 250 domain lords retained independent rule of their local economies, the shogunate’s taxation practices and the integration of the daimyo via the alternate attendance system and other means increasingly tied local economies to the urban markets of Edo and Osaka. Mountain economies were no exception, providing resources and products vital to the Tokugawa economy. The often harsh and difficult conditions for agriculture in the mountains made it difficult for local villages to only rely on subsistence economy, and pushed them to experiment and participate in the market economy.
The panel assembles three examples of mountain economies in the form of mining, agriculture, and manufacturing. Each case focuses on the material local conditions—such as resources, climate, and topography—imposed by mountainous areas, and on how these shaped economic dynamism, social interaction, and exercise of political power across the Japanese islands. Taken together, the case studies will offer considerations of Tokugawa society and economy across scales and investigate how local mountain economies connected with urban markets.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This paper explores how mountain resources and mineral extraction at Japanese mining sites such as Innai, Ikuno, and Iwami shaped the politics of movement and motion control central to the maintenance of Tokugawa authority.
Paper long abstract
The ability to control or make claims on movement was central to the exercise of authority in early modern Japan. Battles and alliances shifted territory, disappointment and betrayal displaced those who fell out of favor, and hostages served as guarantors of loyalty. Although many prominent daimyo are associated with particular places, Japan’s military elite in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries formed the most mobile generation of leadership in the archipelago’s history. In contrast, mines boomed or busted, sometimes repeatedly, but they remained immobile. This paper centers mines as sites around which political actors orbited, rather than assets moving metaphorically between daimyo coffers. I trace the political biographies of a few prominent mines to conceptualize the understudied relationship between mineral extraction and the exercise of political power in Japan. History surveys often state that the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) captured the country’s mines, but circumstances were more complicated in practice. This paper explores that nuance by analyzing the trajectories of 1) precious metals mines such as Iwami and Ikuno that drew the Tokugawa into their orbit; 2) a silver mine (Innai) discovered and maintained by a Tokugawa rival; and 3) a mine (Hosokura) that passed through multiple cycles of exploitation before stabilizing as a lead production site under a Tokugawa ally. I hypothesize that the movement—of actors, authority, and expertise— required to exploit immobile mines featured as another important arena of “motion control” central to political leadership in the decades before and after the establishment of Tokugawa hegemony.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the environmental and economic impact of the Little Ice Age in the mountainous Akiyama region between the Echigo and Shinano Provinces from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century.
Paper long abstract
During the Little Ice Age (1300–1850), when global cooling reshaped environments, economic changes followed suit. This paper examines the Little Ice Age’s impact on the Akiyama region from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. Akiyama, the mountain region between the Echigo and Shinano Provinces, became a landlocked island during winter, due to the particularly heavy snowfall in the northwestern areas of Japan. Combined with the long duration of the winter months, it provides a striking case study of the influence of climate fluctuations on the adaptation and survival strategies of mountain communities.
The long, snow-heavy winters influenced both the availability of crops for agricultural use and the naturally available resources. Accounts from the early nineteenth century describe how the Akiyama mountain communities collected horse chestnuts, grew millets, and struggled to cultivate rice and beans. These records allow us a glimpse into the influence of the Little Ice Age’s climate fluctuations on microclimate and the economic makeup of the region. Contemporary travel diaries, such as Suzuki Bokushi’s (1770–1842) account of his journey to Akiyama (Akiyama Kikō), mention the people of Akiyama as either unable or afraid to leave their settlements; shut in like snails in their shells, due to the looming threat of avalanches that could come down at any moment. These harsh conditions created a strong motivation to accumulate provisions throughout the year, resulting in a near self-sufficient circular economy (e.g. reliance on local ingredients, storage, and limited in- and outflow of goods) which struggled to adapt to changes in environmental conditions. As the fear of famine increased, this locally focused system became more permeable, relying increasingly on agriculture and even outside involvement such as hunters and merchants.
This paper argues that climatic fluctuations of the Little Ice Age did not only influence Akiyama’s internal, near-self-sufficient economy but also its connections to external actors and markets. Using pilgrimage records, local chronicles, and Bokushi’s detailed proto-ethnographic and environmental observations, this paper investigates how shifts in previously stable environmental conditions altered patterns of production, provisioning, and exchange in Akiyama.
Paper short abstract
Paper (washi) production, which supported the emerging Edo period paper culture, could be easily integrated into the agricultural production of mountain villages, making use of spare land and labor. This paper analyzes the entanglement between mountain ecology, village society, and the urban market.
Paper long abstract
Paper was one of the crucial commodities supporting Tokugawa society, which is known both for its rich printing and book culture and a bureaucracy based on record keeping that permeated all parts of society, down to the most remote villages. In addition, many products of daily life—such as shōji for sliding doors and windows—were made from paper. Edo period’s paper culture was sustained by the growing production of Japanese paper (washi), which could be easily integrated into the agricultural economies of mountain villages.
Washi could be produced making use of spare land and labor, without interfering with primary agricultural activities. It was manufactured from plant fibers of shrubs such as Japanese paper mulberry (kōzo), which could be easily cultivated in mountainous regions throughout Japan. Require little fertilization, kōzo could be planted along the edges of rice fields. Cultivation and harvesting took place in winter, as did much of the papermaking process itself, thus avoiding competition with rice production. While paper production had been restricted to a limited number of specialized valleys with ties to the government or Buddhist temples until the Middle Ages, the establishment of domain rule and the Tokugawa shogunate in the seventeenth century led to its spread across numerous mountain valleys that offered suitable growing conditions for paper plants and access to water. As paper production expanded and paper trade in commercial hubs developed, regional specialization emerged. Domain economies increasingly relied on their domestic productions, placing growing pressure on producing villages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This paper analyzes how paper production supported the Japanese “industrious revolution” in mountainous regions during the early modern period, as its resource base and manufacturing process were well suited to the effective use of spare land and labor in mountain villages. By highlighting the entanglements between mountain environments, village society, domain economy, urban paper markets, and paper products, the paper shows how mountain economies interacted with the emerging commodity market in Tokugawa Japan.