Page 226 - Changing Living Spaces
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Satoshi Murayama, Hiroko Nakamura, Noboru Higashi and Toru Terao


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                  0
                  1600    1650    1700     1750    1800    1850     1900    1950
                                        Sakitsu   Takahama

               Figure 4  Population Changes in Takahama and Sakitsu, 1690–1879
               Sources  Amakusa Komonjyo-kai (1988–1993). II/III, 239–405; Amakusa-cho Kyoiku-
               iinkai (1985–1998); UkM, Ueda Yoshiuzu Diaries; UkM, Village Records; UkM, Population
               Register of Amakusa Islands in 1692]; Morinaga (1986).


               and fields, but were simultaneously supported by village and commercial
               networks (Murayama et al. 2017, 238).
                 In societies that suffered from frequent disasters and epidemics, mor-
               tality crises were a social premise, and therefore economic societies and
               individual families were doomed to be challenged by sudden failure. On
               the one hand, economic historians can wonder how ‘markets’ sustained
               economic growth in such societies. On the other hand, environmental
               historians can examine the resilience of the land and the ability of people
               and natural conditions to recover.

               Historical Sources for the Local Analysis
               The administrative diaries of a village, or mura in Japanese, are quite val-
               uable historical material. The local governors of Takahama wrote dia-
               ries every year, which were carefully preserved in the depository of the
               Ueda House, the family of the village head (shoya), until the present time,
               more than 200 years ago. These diaries detail the disasters and important
               events that occurred in the area and how the people of Takahama under-
               stood and managed them.
                 A shoya was the term for a peasant in the early modern villages of
               Japan. However, the term also refers to the administrative representative
               of the village. In Japan, the village head and administrator, i.e. the shoya,
               was free to keep an administrative diary to ensure the continuity and se-


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