AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF A SEASIDE VILLAGE IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE NOTO PENINSULA (I)

At many places on the coast of the Noto Peninsula, there was produced a great deal of salt every year, before the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868-1912). All of the salt produced went to the Kaga Feudal Lord, and in return for the salt the workers received rice. The method of salt-making in the Noto Peninsula has been called Agehama salt-making. The rice received in return for the salt was called Shiotemai. There were many social and economic problems in the salt-making and the receiving of the Shiotemai. Taking Uedo-mura, Suzu-gun (county), a village located on the coast of the Noto Peninsula, I have discussed in this article the following five aspects: 1. The salt-bed owners. The salt-makers were owners both of salt-beds and crop lands. Their numbers were about one fifth of all farmers. They owned relatively large farms and employed many workers from among those farmers who had only small farms or no land at all for their salt-making industry. People without land were called the Atamafuri in the domain of the Kaga Clan. 2. The relation between the salt-making industry and the keeping of horses. The percentage of the numbers of horses which had been bred by the saltmakers was larger than that of the ordinary farmers. Many more horses were needed in salt-making than in agriculture in Uedo-mura, because great amounts of fuel for salt-making had to be carried by horses. Fuel for salt-making was called Shioki and greater part of Shioki consisted of wood and brush. 3. The forests in Uedo-mura. In the Feudal System of the Kaga Clan, it was prohibited to cut down some species of trees, even when there were in forests used by the farmers. But the need for salt-making was so great that many forests of the farmers were left unplanted and turned iuto brushwood. 4. Self-supporting agriculture. There are no data about the sort of crops produced except for rice, in Uedo-mnura, but we may presume what the conditions were from data of the near by villages. Probably all sorts of crops needed in the daily life of the coastal people were planted. According to the data from the near-by village, it is of interest to note that some cotton, tea, and tabacco were planted. 5. Seasonal emigrants. It was very difficult to make a living only fromm agriculture or from working in the salt-making industry. Terefore, many peasants or farmers of small farms were accustomed to become seasonal emigrants. For example, Minamikata, a part of Uedo-mura, had fifty-eight emigrants in 1854. The greater number of them were employed in the breweries in Goshu (the Shiga Prefecture of Today). The chief of each little group of emigrants was called the Toji. In short, farmers and peasants under the, Feudal System were regulated strictly, but they did their best under these conditions.