Abstract
Since the Meiji restoration, Japanese manufacturing has developed remarkably, not only in large cities but also in local towns and villages, and some of the manufacturing activities have been diffused from large cities into local towns and villages. This paper intends to clarify the relationships between the distribution pattern and the regional char-acters of these industries in reference to the case of spectacles frame industry.
The spectacles frame industry in Japan has been susceptible to popular fashion in large cities. Therefore, it always produces many kinds of spectacles frames overtasking for the creation of newer goods based on fashionable informations. Accordingly, the total amount of the production of each kind of spectacles frame are not large in number. This is the basic condition of agglomerating the spectacles frame industry in the two large cities of Tokyo and Osaka, at the early stage of its developments, where it could get a great steady demand. Put now, eighty percent of spectacles frames are produced in Sabae city, a local town of Pukui Prefecture along the coast of Japan Sea.
A small land owner, Masunaga, introduced this industry into a small moutainous vil-lage of Shono on the northeastern fringe of Sabae city in 1905, when spectacles frames were prevailing in local towns. The introduction of this industry was carried out through the new information brought by his brother who was working in Osaka, the central area pro-ducing cheaper spectacles frames. The village of Shono was seeking for a new local in-dustry at that time. Therefore, we could discern that it was the regional character that introduced this industry into this village on the first stage (Meiji Era). In Sabae, it was diffused first into the eastern villages, especially Shihodani near Shono and Kawada, the native place of his mother, where he could recruit his workers. These villages had very similar regional characters to those of Shono. This diffusion was spurred on by his mas-ter's independence and the business cycles in the 1910's as well as his own apprentice sys-tems. At the later part of this second stage, Taisho Era, the secondary diffusion of this industry was going on excluding an old Japanese lacquer industrial area of Kawada dis-tract.
This pattern of diffusion changed drastically on the third stage, Showa I (1926_??_1944), when machinery and electric power came to be in general use and celluloide glass frames became popular. Most of the new plants were opened in the new town and constructed after the establishment of the 36th regiment stationed between the prefectural capital of Fukui and the old castle town of Sabae. Such a change was caused by the following reasons. The first is that the world-wide depression diminished the productions in the two large cities and developed the local production in Sabae where the cheaper skilled labour supply was available. In this way the spectacles frame wholesalers opened their offices due to this development in the new town which had good accessibility to transport system and was located near the old producing area. The second is that the new machine system freed most of the industry from the fetters of the old system relied on the hadicraftsmen. Hence they could easily established their plants in the new town, where they could get daily working capitals smoothly. This explains that the character of the new town contributed to the agglomeration of this industry.
Since the end of world war II, the agglomeration of this industry has continued, but of course there have been some regional changes. On the fourth stage, Showa II (1945_??_1950), plants making spectacles frame were newly established in Ishida, an agricultural village near the new town and in the old castle town of Sabae. Such an expansion was realized, sharing with the old local industries and depending on the wholesalers and material sellers in these towns.
