2010 Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 154-171
Traditionally, periodic markets set their market days so they would not coincide with the market days in other nearby towns. As a result, visiting traders were able to sell their wares at multiple markets in the area, and consumers were able to buy goods in multiple markets. The market system that was formed by a network of such periodic markets has been a major topic among geographers. Previous works have offered a static analysis of the Edo period market system from the perspective of regional geography. However, the author contends that a new method is needed to understand the dynamism of this market system.
Mura-mesai-cho, which were the village reports that each village filed with the local government, provide valuable data we can use to analyze the market system during the Edo period. Each village had to file numerous reports during the Edo period, and some of them recorded information about periodic markets. These records fall into two categories: 1) the records about the periodic market held in the village that made the report, and 2) information about the periodic markets held in other market towns close to the village that made the report. The former recorded more reliable information about the periodic market.
These reports enable us to identify the creation, interruption and revival of periodic markets. For example, the periodic market of Koma was interrupted in 1771, revived in 1805, and interrupted again around 1810. Additionally, this analysis shows that some periodic markets were held for only a short time.
In the western area of Musashi Province, some periodic markets in marginal locales were interrupted in the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, while more centrally located periodic markets continued. The periodic market of Kawagoe, which was a castle town, operated in the important central place of western Musashi Province. There is abundant evidence that many people from mountain villages often went to periodic markets that could be over thirty kilometers from their villages. This is because there were only a few periodic markets held in the intermontane region. In the plains, however, periodic markets were formed at regular intervals.
