Abstract
The prosperity of charcoal-making in Japan has remarkably been waning recently and this faithfully reflects the peculiarities of Japan's being a mountainous country. It should be noted that the forms of charcoal-making are very closely related to the structures of village communities among mountains in Japan.
This is a study of the types of charcoal-making in Shikoku, the typical charcoal-making district in western Japan, in relation with the structure of the village communities and is primarily intended for throwing light on the regional differences of charcoal-making in this part of the country.
The forms of charcoal-making in these districts are divided into four classes on the basis of charcoal-maker's ways of raising money to buy material wood : I) independent charcoalmaking……charcoal-makers make their charcoal with their own funds and can send it to any destination they wish ; II) cooperative charcoal-making……they make charcoal by borrowing fund in advance from their agricultural association and forward it to the association ; III) charcoal-making by borrowing trader's money in advance : ……they make charcoal with the money they borrow from the traders and are compelled to forward the charcoal to the traders, and IV) charcoal-making by “Yakiko”……charcoal-makers who are called “Ya-kiko” financially governed by their traders named “Oyakata”, make charcoal and the profits are divided between them. Of these four forms, III) and IV) are markedly dependent upon other and can be said to be far from any form of charcoal-making.
This is also a study of the structures of village communities ; in this part of the country the ownership of forests and fields and their form and developments intimately in relation to the forms of charcoal making, together with the relation between the village structures and the social construction are dealt with. Not only the rearing and cultivating of forests for firewood and charcoal but also the techniques of charcoal-making are inquired to. Systematically intensive and rational forms of charcoal-making are in an advanced stage in technique. Some real examples of these forms of charcoal-making have minutely been locked into and the expansion of them has been confirmed through questionnaires. As a result, such charcoal-making districts as seen in the diagram No. 2 (G) can be found. In the southeastern part of Shikoku, there are a lot of charcoal-making forms of the above III type. This is mainly due to the fact that the village communities have a strong cooperative coloring. The technique of charcoal-making in this part of the country has fairly been improved under impetus from the advanced charcoal-making techniques in Wakayama Prefecture.
In the southwestern part of Shikoku, the types grouped in II and III are numerous and the type IV is sometimes found. The reason for this is that there are lots of large national or public forests as well as a small number of great farmers possessing large areas of forests. But there are a lot of poor charcoal-makers, who are still forced to be engaged in the oldfashioned charcoal-making. They are, therefore, very poor in technique.
In the Hizikawa valley, many of the forms of charcoal-making belong to the type I, because the farmers own almost equal areas of forests and fields and they are comparatively independent upon one another. They have acquired a developed technique of charcoal-making introduced from Ikeda and its neighborhood in Osaka.
In the mountainous districts around the cities, there are a lot of charcoal-making forms grouped in I and the technique are highly advanced. Fuel dealers have weak control and charcoal-makers maintain strong independence, as there are markets in the neighborhood.
