佐賀藩における明治初期藩政村合併

抄録

The local system of the Meiji government to unify the whole country started with the system of Ward-Section (daiku-shoku 大区小区) in 1872. But studies about the loacal system before 1872 were limited one about the erstwhile Tokugawa's territory. This paper deals with the local system of that time, particular with the trend to the village consolidation. More over, the author tried to make clear the connection among the consolidated village, oaza (大字) and hamlet through hierarchies of agricultural producers. This consolidation of village (administrative village in Edo period) in Saga daimiate was carried out for 1869-1872. The purpose of the consolidation of village was to construct village of more uniform size by dissolving a small village. The consolidation aimed at creating the absolute authority behind the policy with the slogan "wealth and military strength" (Fukoku-kyohei 富国強兵) and then accomplishing the concentralization of a bureaucratic authority by the appointment of man of talent in the public sellection of the village officer etc. These characters in the political reformation of Saga daimiate in 1869 had been inherited from the policy in the late Edo period. The consolidated village as its result became a terminal unit in section formation of Ward-Section in 1872, and then was given the character as a autonomous body by Formation Law of County, Section, Town and Village (gunkuchoson henseiho 郡区町村編成法) in 1872. And the consolidated village has survived as oaza since 1889. But oaza was neither a village community nor an actual administraive unit. The subject possessing a common land is mostly an erstwhile administrative village (an administrative village in Edo period) . Judging from the possessing condition of farm land by peasants, the territorial unit of their agricultural production was a hamlet or rarely a village (an administrative village in Edo period). At the result of the consolidation of village in the early period of Meiji era, the consolidated village performed a part of more administrative unit in the early period of Meiji era, but after 1889 it has not functioned as the actual administrative unit and the territorial unit of an agricultural product.