Tanzaburo, one of the villages in the valley of the Tama River, engages in the lumbering. The origin of the lumbering can be traced far back as the end of the 16th. century (at the beginning of the Edo Period). The Ome forestry has since been notable as private economic enterprise.
A certain family of
bushi (
Samurai) settled there with his clan, but did not establish a settlement of the form of gozokubyakusho-mura (settlement of a powerful family). The society was consisted of
shoki-hombyakusho, junhombyakusho (both freemen), and
fudai (the unfree). The system began to show changes and the unfree developed into the freemen in the early part of the 17th. century. Some of the
shoki-hombyakusho were comparatively large land-owners and they became the largest about 1797-1847, after that became smaller. The upper class occupied both rich arable lands and poor lands, the latter of which were transformed into forest. The lower class lost rich lands and got only the poor lands.
The population of the village showed no sign of increase until the Temmei Famine (1787). Following the decrease caused by the Famine, a gradual increase continued up until 1843. But the degree of increase was checked from that time. The number of a family in the lower class was not stable in 1806-1865, but in the upper class it either sustained or increased. In general, two types were recognizable in the size of families, one was of 5 members and the other of 8 in 1865. The uper class contained man and woman servants and formed large families.
In the management of farms, they produced cereals and vegetables only to suffice their consumption, not for sale. With their small products, they could not get into contact with money economy. Among the by-products such as textile, sericulture and charcoal, timber was the most important as merchandise.
A mountain proprietor (
yamamoto or
yamanushi) soled woods in the forest to
motozime. He bought it and employed teams of woodcutters who were called
soma, tems of transporters of logs called
hiyo.
Ikadashi who bought timber from him made raftsmen to transport to Rokugo or Fukagawa. In this villge,
motozime were usually
ikadashi, and often
yamamoeo, too. In the social structure,
motozime, ikadashi and
yainamoto were found among the upper class, but
soma and
hiyo mainly in the middle and lower classes. The forest labourers,
soma and
hiyo: were under the control of the upper class.
Thus amoung many which were inseparable into agricultural and mountain villages, this villge began to develop into a modern mountain vilige.
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