Abstract
Generally speaking, fishermen use the sea vertically and jointly. Of course along the shore we find the sea monopolised by one village for gathering seaweeds, etc., but off-shore the sea is usually opened to every fisherman. Nevertheless, on the narrow sea, for instance, on the Inland Sea, the sea area is divided into several sections, and each of them is opened only to one fishingvillage. Especially in feudal age, fishing villagers under the direct control of the Sho-gun, or under the control of Daimyo who is related to the Shogun family had the privilege to use relatively wide sea area in comparison with the villagers under other Daimyos. In both cases fishing villages which had the duty for sailing service to the Daimyo had a preference to use relatively wider area. In contrast, the villages without any privilege for fishery (many of them were those that newly started fishery with agriculture, or those that were settled by sea-nomads) were that only permitted the fishing of limitted ways in narrow sea area. After the Meiji Restoration these feudal privileges were disclaimed, but the government tried to maintain the order in the fishing grounds on the basis of old customs. In spite of this, the fishermen in some regions succeeded to organize a new way of joint use of the sea. Thus we find the fallowing four types of joint use of the fishing grounds in the Inland Sea during 1890's, when a modern Fishing Law was about to be proclaimed.
1. The type that feudal customs were as yet maintained, and relatively wide sea area including off-shore was monopolised by a small numbdr of privileged fishing villages.
2. The type that the privileged village had supreme rights, but non-privileged villages could also utilize the same sea area.
3. The type that several fishing villages could use the same sea equally.
4. The type that many villages were using the broad sea equally and extensively.
