Socio-economic activities of former feudal lords in Meiji Japan

Abstract

In the early stage of Japanese industrialisation after 1886, the former feudal lords, known as daimyo, played an important role as pioneers in equity investments in modern industries with their huge assets. In addition, when their ex-retainers attempted to establish modern enterprises, the daimyo often invested in their businesses. Moreover, the daimyo often provided opportunities for well-educating young people in their former fiefs. After explaining the daimyo in the Meiji period, this article first elucidates how the daimyo promoted equity investments in modern industries. Second, this study analyses the socio-economic activities of one of the main daimyo, Tsugaru Tsuguakira in the Tsugaru region, as a particular example.

Keywords:

• Meiji period
• daimyo
• kazoku
• peerage
• noblemen
• industrialisation
• modern enterprise
• equity investment
• Tsugaru Tsuguakira
• Tsugaru region
• education investment
• noblesse oblige

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Hirosaki City Public Library and Toogijuku High School Library for providing access to the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Session at the 17th World Economic History Congress held in Kyoto on 7th August, 2015, ‘Nobility and Business: The Contribution of the Aristocracy to Economic Development in the 18^th–19^th Centuries’ organised by Silvia A. Conca Messina and Takeshi Abe raised this argument

2 As for Shibusawa’s activities, many researches have been publishing in recent years (See Fridenson & Kikkawa, 2017; Sagers, 2018; Shimada, 2017).

3 For detailed information, see Schalow (1997), Matsuo (1986), Otabe (2006), and Ochiai (2015).

4 Koku was an important unit of the main tax, namely the land tax, during the Tokugawa period and the early Meiji years, and was measured by the volume of rice produced (1 koku was equivalent to about 180.39 litres of rice).

5 Correctly speaking, famous priests of Buddhism temples and Shinto shrines were included in kazoku, but they did not have much of a presence.

6 The pronunciation of ‘koshaku’ for prince and marquis is the same, but their Chinese characters are different.

7 Otabe (2006, Ch.1). Also see the above explanation on Peers Hereditary Property Law.

8 In this article ‘passive investment’ means investment only for dividend income, while ‘active investment’ is that not only for dividend income but also for capital gain.

9 Ishikawa indicated the possibility that the equity investments of kazoku gave the newly established companies some credibility, and, therefore, accelerated investments as a whole (Ishikawa, 1976).

10 Within daimyo, nine of 391 members returned their peerage titles before 1947.

11 Maeda Toshitatsu from the largest former daimyo family ranked in seventeenth position among upper-class taxpayers in 1947 when the property tax was introduced in Japan (Hirota, 1995).

12 The national banks were reorganised as ordinary banks in 1896-1899 (See Tamaki, 1995, p. 75).

13 As the main seventeen railroad companies were nationalised in 1906 and 1907, the name of Japan Railroad Company is not found in Table 6.

14 For more information, see Mandai and Nakabayashi (2018).

15 According to his biography, he visited the former domain in 1885, 1908, and 1915.

16 Before the Meiji period, daimyo had usually protected entertainment, such as sumo wrestling, and Noh traditional masked dance drama (Ito, 2015, p. 33). Donations to the kado society might have been such patron activity.

17 Fukuzawa had visited the United States and Europe in 1860, 1862, and 1867, respectively, as a member of a Japanese embassy to foreign countries.

18 Too Nippo [Daily Newspaper in Aomori Prefecture], December 22–23, 1900.

19 Kitahara (2002). For details of this school, see Keio Gijuku University (1936).

20 Employees belonged to banks, trading companies, colliery companies, paper companies, cotton spinning companies, printing companies, and so on.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI under Grant number JP15K13027.

Notes on contributors

Takeshi Abe

Takeshi Abe has a strong concern about the history of Japanese cotton industry, particularly weaving sector.

Izumi Shirai

Izumi Shirai is working on the socio-economic history of modern Aomori Prefecture, especially on apple growers.

Takenobu Yuki

Takenobu Yuki is involved in research on Japanese corporate finance and financial market from the Tokugawa period to the prewar period.