I According to the data from Shulnon-ninbetsu-cho(1) and other records the auther found out following conclusions:
(A) In the middle period of Tokugawa Era, inspiet of the increase of population and family numbers farmers belonging to the semi-slavery class in rural villages freed themselves from the land lords and their number decreased remaraably.
(B) In the later period, we can see the population still increasing while the rate of increase was less than the preceding period. The analysis of social construction of population also leads us to almost analogous conclusions.
(C) The anther compared the population of this comnlumity in the later period with that of its neighbour, the community of Hirokawa, of which he had reported already. The conclusions are summarized as follows:
a) Before 1850, the ratio of increase is larger in this community than in the. latter (Hirokawa) where the population was rather stagnant.
b) After 1850, however, the relation was inverted. Population increase of Hirokawa, thence-forward, became exceeding rapid.
Thus. their tendencies are different, in terms of both time and area.
II Its cause and significance.
(A) The middle and later period, compared to the early, are stagnant, in which the social economy, became clogged: e. g. the reparation of the irrigation canals, vitally important to rice culture, was transferred into the hand of the community itself, from that of Bakufu, the feudal government, and increased labour from rural, community was absorbedd by public transportation service that was torceod upon them. These tests resulted to weaken the economic foundation of rural community.
(B) The reason why the ratio of population-change are different from each other.
a) Difference was seen in the development of productivity, which is seen from. Kokudaka(2) (The rate of encrease, 1685-1870, was 130.5%: 105.0%).
b) At Kitakaname, the cultivated area is consisted. of paddy and upland fiefds, while at Hirokawa 70.3% of it is occupied by paddy field.
c) Upland fieds became more and more profitable as the time went on. In. 1665, the ratio of yields from upland fields and paddy fields was 54:100, in 1870 it was 80:100. As a result predominance of the formerr to the latter in the profits from. their farms in the earlier period was lessened in the later period.
(C) a) In order to find the cause of the differences in the tendencies of population-change between the years before and after 1850, the deviations of the crop were examined. At Kitakaname the years of good harvest continued before 1850, and years of poorr harvest are. often seen after 1850. The. reverse is true with Hirokawa. It is. obvious that differences in the tendencies of population-change are closely concerned in the deviations of crops of both of those communities.
b) Why are there such remarkable differences in crops between these two periods in the adjoining communities ? To some degrees, it seems that the reconstruction of the river banks was its cause. Yet in terms of micro-topography, that of Kitakaname is of fan-like delta, while that of Hirokawa is of genuine fan. Both of them are close to the rivers, and easy to get water supply. But at Kitakanazne, the crops of paddy fields are good those of upland fields bad, in the years of drought, and in the years of. excessive rain, the crops of upland fields are, good, while those of paddy fields are bad. At Hirokawa, on the other hand, both paddy and upland fields were damaged, in the years of drought. It is supposed that it stayed droughty for several years before 1850. (particularly during the years of Tenpo), hence the increase of population.
Note (1) Shumon-nimbetsu-cho: The Book in which the religions of each individual person were described.
(2) Kokudaka: Agricultural producing power of the farm. represented by the quantity of rice crop.
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