In rural villages which were situated north of the Yoshino River, in eastern Shikoku, indigo cultivation progressed. According to the survey conducted in 1740, indigo was grown in seventy percent of the villages along the Yoshino River, that is, 237 villages out of 331 villages in seven counties, and the indigo cultivation acreage reached 3,000cho(unit: 1cho= 2.451acres). Through the late eighteenth century indigo cultivation further developed and the acreage reached 6,500cho in 1800. The indigo cultivation acreage doubled in sixty years from 1740 to 1800. The Awa domain developed into a major indigo production area. However, the imports of foreign-produced indigo increased after the opening of Japan to foreign trade. According to trade statistics from Nihon Boeki Seiran (Foreign trade of Japan: A statistical survey) the imports of natural dry indigo expanded in the middle of the Meiji period. The import volumes surpassed 200,000kins (120,000kilograms (kgs)) at about the end of the 1880's. The figure reached 480,000kins (288,000kgs) in 1892, 950,000kins (570,000kgs) in 1896, and neared 2,000,000kins (1,200,000kgs) at the end of the 1890's. It seems that the Awa indigo industry was faced with increasing competition from the imported indigo. The author investigated the response of the Awa indigo industry to the new competitive conditions, taking the cases of indigo manufacturers and indigo merchants in the province of Awa-Tokushima from the Tokugawa period to the Meiji period. The case studies undertaken are those of the Okumura family, the Kinouchi family, and the Takahashi family from Itano County, which was a part of the center of indigo production along the Yoshino River. Their business revenues, mainly based on the indigo industry, stagnated. Consequently the Takahashi family could not help closing the indigo business. In order to get over the difficulties caused by the expanding inflow of foreign indigo, irrigation schemes were promoted in the villages along the Yoshino River. In 1908 the Asana-irrigation canal was built south of the Yoshino River and the Itana-irrigation canal was built north of the Yoshino River. Rice crop developed and Rice field acreage expanded steadily in the northern part of Tokushima prefecture.

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Indigo production grew in Tokushima Prefecture which was the biggest indigo producing district in the first half of the Meiji period through the development of the fiber industry. However, due to the inflow of Indian indigo and the rise in the price of manure, indigo work farmers became indigence and the number of people who tried to migrate to Hokkaido began increasing. As a result, from 50,000 to 60,000 people migrated from Tokushima Prefecture during Meiji period. Kousansha was established by ABE Okindo and TAKIMOTO Goro brothers in 1881. Kousansha was the company where farmers from Tokushima, who were skillful in indigo cultivation and processing, settled in the form of a group and manufactured blue indigo. In the latter half of Meiji era, ABE Okindo, who is the foundation person of Kousansha became a typical entrepreneur in Hokkaido. The purpose of this research is to explain the role of which indigo industry has made in the process of the emigration to Hokkaido, which was done in the turning point of the history when modernization and industrialization started. The object of the research is the management history of Kousansha. In the research, "the diary", written for field investigations for the reclaimed land selection which ABE went for in 1881, is analyzed to prove the indication of Mr. YUI Tsunehiko that "many-sided cooperation between the entrepreneurs" relations were seen in the industrialization process of Japan. By this analysis, it became obvious that the ABE's success was caused by forming strong connections between Hachisuka Mochiaki, the former lord and entrepreneurs, from the same prefecture as KONDO Renpei, the manager of Mitsubishi Company. He made use of these relationships well.

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Indigo is the major dye that made the world history and culture. It was called "Devil's Dye" by the rival woad dyers of the Middle Ages. In the modern world, the indigo cultivation was related to slavery in the European colonies of the West Indies and North & South America, and to the forced-labour cultivation system in Asia. Therefore, it is possible to say that it actually became "Devil's Dye" in history. In this thesis, we glance at the history, with the cultural and social meaning, of the manufacturing process of purple (Phoenician Blue) and woad dye. And the relations between indigo and slavery in the modern ages are analyzed. In addition, we prove the compulsion- cultivation system of indigo in India under the British rule, and we point out the fact that the shift of the policy of British Empire, from Americas to East India, was caused by American Revolution, and that the system played the main role with opium trade in the structure of industrializing British Empire. The huge exportation of the indigo dye from India reached Japan after 1880's. German synthetic dye brought serious damage upon the traditional indigo industry of the world and Japan, but it seems that enormous distribution of natural Indian indigo played a major role for a while in Japanese market even after the beginning of importation of the artificial blue dye.

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This paper compares the taxation system of the Ryukyus with that of Japan proper in their respective early-modern era. The taxation system called kokudaka-system, which has its levy basis on productivity of cultivated land, was common in the early modern Japan proper. Meanwhile, the taxation system in the Ryukyu Islands that former the Ryukyuan Kingdom, was different from kokudaka-system. Satsuma-han, one of Japanese political powers, conquered the Ryukyus in 1609 and conducted a thorough survey of the islands. Satsuma-han decided kokudaka of the Ryukyus, and tried to force the local people to pay tax based on kokudaka. Despite the invader's vision, the kingdom did not apply kokudaka as its levy system; the kingdom ordered its people to pay tax by products such as rice and beans. Upon the order of the kingdom administration, leaders of the local areas (magiri and mura) commanded their farmers to produce rice and beans, or substitutive products such as brown sugar and textile goods. Focusing on these "substitutes", the paper argues that what farmers in the early-modern Ryukyus paid as tax was rather "labor" than "product".

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This paper aims to restore the image of children's life in rural community of prewar Showa, and to clarify children's growth to be a person with full responsibility. For these aims, author investigated and found personal history using drawing archives. The drawings were painted by farmers, and their real experiences in the childhood were recorded. Analyzing these archives, we can restore the general images of children's life, unless it is hard to get that kind of data from documents or interviews. This paper analyzes a series of drawing called "Tsuishi Tsuisou" by KOIWA Michio, who was born in Seino region of Gifu prefecture. This series of drawing shows three aspects of children's life in rural community; family, community, and school. Farmer's house and its land were places of living and production, and community also played so. Children formed an original society through playing in the community. School was a place both for studying and playing. Children acquired necessary knowledge and technology to be a person with full responsibility by involved in the living of the rural community through house assistance or playing.

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Over the second and third decades of the Meiji period, a great number of rono, or skilled farmers, contributed to the improvement of agriculture. Among them, the farmer who made the greatest contribution to the development of Japanese agriculture and agronomy was Denjibei Funatsu (1832-1898). During his tenure at the Komaba Agricultural School, Funatsu taught Japanese agriculture to such students as Tokiyoshi Yokoi, Tsuneaki Sakou, and Tetsuya Onda, who all went on to become great agriculturists. In addition, Funatsu devoted further efforts to the improvement of agriculture by touring Japan as a traveling agriculture teacher. In his later years, he succeeded in becoming a technician at an agricultural experiment station, a position normally reserved for university graduates. It was Funatsu's affinity to Western agriculture, which he accepted due to its unique views of nature (the Western views of nature), that enable him to achieve success. He viewed man as rulers of nature who had the power to reshape nature as they saw fit. These ideas were supported by the "sossei" theory (「率性」論), which will be investigated herein.

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