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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.