地域社会の再編/統合と近代郵便制度

地域権力の解体と地域名望家層の官営事業への組織化

抄録

At the beginning of the Meiji era, the modern postal system was introduced to Japan. It was the preeminent historical event in the building of a nation and modernization of its society. The transportation/information system (‘Shukueki’ and ‘Sukegou’ systems) that the new Meiji government inherited from the Tokugawa shogunate government was dysfunctional; within every center (‘Tonyaba’) of regional organization, which had control led over its own transportation systems, was a state of anarchy and isolated regional powers. In this critical phase of the Meiji Restoration, through the establishment of a national postal network, the new Meiji government had succeeded in not only reintegrating core and peripheral regions into Meiji Japan, but also succeeded in organizing regional autocrats. Thus the modern postal system, as a social organizing technology, had played a decisive role in the development of the modern nation-state