The Development of Cotton Weaving in the Bakumatsu and Early Meiji Periods : With Special Reference to the Iruma District, Saitama Prefecture

Abstract

The Japanese cotton weaving industry, which began to produce fabric as a merchandise in the latter half of the 18th century, expanded with changing economic circumstances caused by the Opening of the Ports and the Meiji Restoration during the 1860's -1880's. In this paper, we want to study the reasons for the development of the industry during this period by observing the development in the Iruma district, Saitama prefecture. The Iruma district can be characterized as a newly-risen producing area of cotton weaving, for production of cotton fabric was on the increase during this period. A merchant (Hosobuchi) who lived in Miyadera village of that district increased his annual fabric selling from 3,000 tan (one tan being the length required for a kimono) to 30,000 tan during the 1860's-1870's. At first, his customers were merchants from neighboring villages, but in the process of expanding his sales, his customers changed to the merchants who were connected with the Hachioji Market. Hachioji was an important distributing centerin the South Kanto district. Newly-risen merchants (for example, Chogin), a new type of merchant compared to the older privileged merchants, were perchasing fabrics in Hachioji and distributing them nationwide. In this way, cotton fabrics produced in the Iruma district could find an expanded market through these merchants. As for the production structure of the cotton weaving industry in this district, weavers purchased cotton yarn from neighboring regions, because the production of raw cotton in the district was not enough to meet the demand. Thus the process of spinning and weaving came to be divided. After the Opening of the Ports, imported cotton yarn came to be an important source of supply. On the other hand, the scale of weavers' production was not so large, as most of the weavers produced fabrics as a cottage industry to supplement their farm income. They purchased the cotton yarn, dyed and wove them into fabrics, and then sold them to the merchants who came to their farmhouses. On the whole, they were not organized under putting-out system during the 1860's-1870's, and in fact putting out developed after the 1880's. Thus the development of the production of cotton fabric in the Iruma district was led by the local merchants and spurred on by the newly-risen merchants who developed nationwide markets, while production was done by the farmers as a sideline. It should be pointed out that there was the expansion of the nationwide market for the cotton fabric behind this development of weaving.