Akira Hayami

The myth of primogeniture and impartible inheritance in Tokugawa Japan.

The stereotype of the Japanese family system, centered on the ie, characterizes it as one in which succession follows a rule of primogeniture, and inheritance is impartible. But examination of population registers—the shumon aratame-cho ( SAC)—covering the village of Nishijo from 1773 to 1869 suggests that patterns of succession and inheritance were not fixed, butfluid. After addressing the question of defects in the SAC, the author discusses succession, the establishment of branch families, and household extinction. He shows that the successor was by no means alway the eldest son, and that women frequently headed households, especially when their husbands departed temporarily as migrants. Analysis of the division of landed property between households at the time of fission shows, first, that it was partible, and second, that the size of the portions was often nearly equal. The rate of household extinction differed by class, being greater in the lower ones, whose members favored maximizing a households income by sending members off for employment over maintaining its continuity over generations. The relationship between upper-class branching and lower-class migration established a structure of interclass mobility which may have reduced social tension. This paper suggests the diversity of social patterns in preindustrial Japan and challenges the argument that customs of impartible inheritance contributed to Japans industrialization by limiting population growth.

Another Fossa Magna: Proportion Marrying and Age At Marriage in Late Nineteenth-Century Japan

Using several heretofore neglected but very significant sources of demo graphic information for late nineteenth-century Japan, the study investigates the statis tics for proportions marrying and age at first marriage in all the Japanese prefectures. It establishes the existence of two patterns of marriage-one of early marriage in eastern Japan and one of late marriage in western Japan. Several explanations for this division are considered

Population and households dynamics: A mountainous district in northern Japan in the Shûmon Aratame Chô of Aizu, 1750–1850

The authors examine population trends, demographic characteristics, and the family reproduction system in a highland area of Japan. Aizu district is located in northeastern Japan and has both a mountainous area and a narrow plain. The study is based on Shûmon Aratame Chô (SAC), population registers of four villages between 1750 and 1850 and focuses on the mountainous sector. Demographically, this area stagnated because of its isolation and remoteness. There were few migrations in or out. The peasants married early but bore few children. The authors show how demographic patterns are interrelated with family and household patterns. The most frequent family type was the stem family household, traditionally considered as characteristic of Japan, where the ie (house) was usually transmitted to a single heir. Family transmissions of the rural estate are observed in detail. A household cycle took about 30–35 years to complete. Major differences were seen among social classes, but, overall, Aizu families possessed ideals of ie and were incorporated into ie systems, particularly in the upper classes.

The Rise of Industriousness in Early Modern Japan

The Japanese people are often said to be industrious (although this has recently become questionable). In particular, there are those who say this is due to the “national character” (kokuminsei) of the Japanese people. The author does not feel that the concept of “national character” is appropriate in all circumstances. The French term “mentalite” indicates the basic psychological condition of a social group that has endured for an extended period. This term is difficult to translate into Japanese since it differs from the English word “mentality,” but it does not mean “national character.”

Economic Development in Early Modern Japan

This chapter explores some of the author’s research findings and their related issues, with special emphasis on economic development, during the “early modern” period (covering the eras of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa Shogunate, according to the standard periodization in Japanese history). The historical category of “early modern” is primarily a political one, and although one may expect some kind of correspondence between political change and economic change (or economic development) in history, it cannot be a perfect one. Here, the term “early modern” is used to cover a period, and economic development that is believed to have taken place in that period, prior to the Meiji Restoration after which “modernization” became a government-set national goal; and by adopting this definition, it should be realized, we do not need to assume that there was a discontinuity in terms of economic development between the “early modern” and “modern” periods. Also, it should not be taken to imply that the term “economic development” is defined as one similar to the course of industrialization in Western Europe, nor does it mean the concept of economic growth or economic development that is used in theoretical economics. If the concept were to be narrowly construed, whether or not early modern Japan really experienced economic development would be highly debatable. Here, the term economic development is taken to mean just the quantitative expansion of economic activity, its intensification, and its permeation into all strata of society.

Before the Emergence of Economic Society

The process in which “decentralized society” formed was slow everywhere. In Western Europe, it appeared mostly in the eighth and ninth centuries. However, this required more than 400 years after the collapse of the Roman Empire and over the course of several historical events. Those included the large fluctuations that took place in Europe after the fourth century, the invasions of the Roman Empire by German tribes, the formation of German tribal states, and the Islamic takeover of the Mediterranean Sea and Southern Europe, and certainly this process did not take place all at once. Considering the era when the German tribes learned of state-formation systems and literacy through their contact with Rome and came into contact with a universal religion called Christianity, even in Western Europe the formation of decentralized society had 500-plus years of transition.

Conclusion: Historical Reflections on Japan’s Industrialization

The discussions in the previous chapters make it clear that during the Edo Period it is possible to find preparatory signs of modern society and hence a historical continuity. However, the Edo Period was not a modern society. What triggered the transformations was the collection by the samurai of nengu from the peasantry, and this was one type of revenue economy (Hicks 1969, pp. 22–24). In other words, it was an economy where the movement of goods and currency arose because of differences in status: people with political authority imposed nengu obligations on the ruled. As long as this existed, the Edo Period was not a modern society. Peasants’ nengu obligation was substantially different from our modern tax payment.

Introduction: Viewpoints and Methods in the Economic History of Japan

Taken literally, economic history is an academic discipline whose purpose is to seek out the developmental processes of economic phenomena occurring in everyday life within the bounds of history. Therefore, as a field, it can be said to reside in an intermediate area between economics and history. There is not much constructive meaning in stating which field a certain discipline belongs to, since fixating on such things leaves little prospect for disciplinary synthesis or new developments. However, in comparison to cases where its content is clearly based on expressions such as “theory” or “history” within economics, when it is evident that it is in an intermediate area from the onset, its character as a discipline is no longer simple. The methods of economic history clearly have economic and historical approaches; furthermore, these contain the differences in their worldview, historical view, and adopted methodology, and so on. Consequently, even works that equally claim to be “economic history” have an extremely broad range of methods and viewpoints. In the past as well, people who were called economic historians were in some cases economists and in some cases were scholars listed amongst the names of historians. In addition, it is by no means easy to distinguish “economy” from other social phenomena, as well as psychological factors, and in some cases, the very act of handling them separately is a mistake.

The Delayed Formation Process of Economic Society

Based on what we saw in the previous chapter, it is virtually impossible for social fluctuation to occur from within. In particular, it is only natural to question how it is possible for an economic society to form from such an unstable society. However, political instability had the opposite effect of subverting the union between robust political and economic control (the possession of wealth), and as a condition eased the formation of economic society. In fact, had Japan built up its organization as an ancient state with a higher degree of perfection and completed framework of stable control, there is no doubt that Japan’s later historical developments would have been somewhat different. Had there been the concentration of authority unique to the typical ancient state, namely a concentration of authority that extended to both the sacred and secular realms, or in both politics and economics, the social framework would have become extremely stable. Yet, although Japan incorporated the framework from ancient China, universal religion entered at the same time, and aided by topographical conditions where several regions formed by being geographically divided, that framework’s original compatibility with the ancient state did not become established as is. Nonetheless, as the only framework the Japanese knew, it lasted until the sixteenth century with all of its instabilities, and to the point that it is possible to view Japan as having experienced the ancient state. However, aside from the time when the ritsuryō system established itself, this type of ancient state framework was by no means a powerful presence, and it is also a fact that its fate was to eventually collapse internally. Rather, we should be amazed that this fragile framework managed to maintain itself for close to a thousand years.

The Establishment of Economic Society and the Edo Period

As stated in the previous chapter, the government established by quelling the anarchy of the sixteenth century had its foundations in regions where small-scale management in agriculture had already spread with the permeation of economic society and increases in production were becoming a reality; it was premised on the progression of the separation of warriors and farmers, as well as warriors, merchants, and artisans residing in urban areas. In the advanced regions in Kinai and its surrounding areas, the fact that the economic society that formed took precedence, and seizing control of such areas was by no means the same as seizing control of other areas which had not experienced the change toward economic society yet.