This study explores the nature of the labor market in late Edo period Kyoto, labor migration to Kyoto, and the regional structure of Kyoto and its surrounding areas, based on the employment and replacement of merchant’s servants. Previous studies on such themes have been conducted mainly in the historical demography field, and some of the proposed theories from that work include a dual structure of the urban labor market. This study builds on previous research by examining the Endo household which operated a drapery shop in Kyoto.
The Endo household’s servants were live-in, as with other merchant households. They were largely divided, depending on their workplace, into tana-omote (front office) and oku (domestic). The former group was composed of male clerks and their trainees, known as tedai. The latter group did housework and was further categorized into two types: genan (males) and gejo (females).
On the whole, the servants came from eight provinces, including Kyoto, the north Kinki region, and the Sea of Japan region. It seems that the distribution was influenced by conventional economic ties and areas of other large cities.
Many of the tedai were from Kyoto and were employed because of their connections to the Endo household. One such connection was through bekke, the Endo household’s branch families. Other connections were neighbors and business partners of the household. The bekke was an especially important connection. Their children often became live-in servants in the merchant’s household. In contrast to the tedai, most genan were from the predominantly agricultural hyakusho class in the north Kinki and Hokuriku regions. However, because the genan are not recorded in the old documents of the Endo household at the end of the Edo period, daytime employees may have replaced them. The gejo were from various socioeconomic groups, hailing mainly from Omi (modern-day Shiga Prefecture) and Kyoto.
As a result, the dual structure of the urban labor market is evident in this case study of the Endo household. The distribution of birthplaces and systems of servant’s replacement varied according to their duties: tedai, genan, and gejo. Thus, it is necessary to examine merchants’ servants based on their backgrounds and actual working condiitons in order to understand labor migration to Kyoto.
Studying servant employment by considering historical demography gives insight into the labor market, labor migration, and urban society.
