Reclamation of Farm Lands and Rural Structures in a Mountain Village in the Edo Era

A Case Study of Echigo Province

Abstract

Studies in the historical geography of mountain villages in the Edo period are progressing. These studies mainly focus on upland field villages and forestry villages. But in Japan there were also terraced paddy fields as a type of land use on mountain slopes. These terraced fields are a result of long term reclamation. Furthermore, many small scale Shinden (newly reclaimed field) settlements were created by such reclamation. These Shinden Settlements are often branch rural settlements (Edagô). This paper deals with a mountain village in Kubiki-county of Echigo province.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of reclamation and socio-economic rural structures during the Edo period.
The results are as follows:
1) During the end of the 17th century (early part of in the Edo period), the farm lands were distributed around the lower mountain slopes, according to analysis of the cadastral books (Kenchi cho). In this period, the farmers were mostly small landowners. Especially numerous were many peasants (dependent farmers).
2) Such peasants sought more independence for themselves. They reclaimed farm lands for the expansion of their landownership. The forms of reclamation were extansive swidden cultivation and expansion of the borders of farm lands to the common lands (Iriaichi). During the early 18th century, this expansion was accelerated for the waste lands in the border areas between neighbouring villages. The peasant classes enclosed these lands and migrated to them. As a result, new branch rural settlements were created.
3) At the end of 18th century, the shortage of green manure for fertilizer occurred due to excessive reclamation. Therefore, the farmers converted extensive farm lands into new intensive paddy fields. The process of improvement was calld Hatadanari. This improvement was made possible by old land-slide landforms.
Thus, the reclamation of farm lands in mountain villages advanced with the independence of peasants and good use of physical conditions. I think that such processes were a new form of organization in which the settlements solved the problems of population increase and the hardships of farmer's lives, while stabilizing the old rural structures. This is a characteristic of rural communities in underdeveloped mountain villages in the Edo period.