The Development of the Large-Scale Landlord in the Tohoku District

Abstract

In this paper the writer tries to clarify the development of the large-scale landlord in Tohoku district taking the Tsuchida family in Akita prefecture as a case study. The Tsuchidas' accumulation of land proceeded in the Meiji era and they were in possession of 500 cho in the Taisho era. The sources of income for the Tsuchidas were the farm rents, interest, dividend and wood-revenue, but the main one was the farm rents. In the latter Meiji era, the Tsuchidas' income from farm rents increased rapidly because of the extention of landholding and of the increased productivity of rice. Consequently the Tsuchidas were able to get a substantial amount of surplus funds and a large part of them were invested in land. In the Taisho era, the productivity of rice increased moreover, so that the Tsuchidas could obtain almost all rentals in contract. On the other hand this increasing productivity of ice brought about some rise in the levels of living of the tenant farmers and so made it possible for the upper class of them to become commodity-producing tenants. As to the investment there happened an important change in this period, that is, the investment in stocks exceeded the investment in land. Therefore, the income from dividend increased gradually from the latter Taisho to the early Showa era. The decline of Tsuchidas began after the economic depression of 1927 and 1930. The tenancy dispute, which took place in 1928, and the falling of the price of rice brought about the marked decrease of income. The Tsuchidas were so pressed for money that they had to reduce their investment. In consequence of that process they finally began to sell their land after the depression. This decline of landlordism was accelerated by the war system. As the rents were controlled and a double-price system on rice was introduced in this time, the Tsuchidas' income decreased still less, so that they were compelled to sell their rice-land about 200cho before the Land Reform'. But in spite of this process, the Tsuchidas still maintained fairly large landholding-the rice-land of 300 cho and the forest land of about 1000 cho. Accordingly the landlordism in the Tohoku district did not collapse from the inside untill the American occupation forces enforced the Land Reform program.