著者

岡 惠介

出版者

国立歴史民俗博物館

雑誌

国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告 (ISSN:02867400)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.87, pp.217-236, 2001-03

被引用文献数

1

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北上山地の山村ではかつて凶作・飢饉が頻発し,藩の重税や耕地面積の狭さもあって,通年分の食料をいかに確保するかは最重要の課題であった。北上山地の山村の人々の多くは地域の野生植物を最大限に利用し,山を開墾して耕地面積を広げることによって,不足しがちな食料を確保してきた[岡 1990]。このような戦略を「居住地域内完結型生存戦略」ととらえ,東北の山村では一般的な戦略だとする意見もある[名本 1996]。筆者の調査地である北上山地の山村・岩泉町安家においては,戦後の食糧難の時代にも,シタミ(ナラ類の堅果)がアク抜きして利用され,焼畑が開墾された。これらは藩政時代の飢饉時の対応とほぼ同じであり,いわば100年以上の有効性を持ち得た持続可能性の高い戦略であった。この戦略をとるためには,東北地方の中でも北上山地に集中して分布する,広大なミズナラ林[青野ら 1975]の存在が不可欠であった。そして藩政時代のたたら製鉄や昭和10年以降の製炭産業の経営にも,豊かなミズナラ林が必要であった。安家にも出稼ぎは明治期から一部にあった。しかしこの居住地域外を志向する生存戦略が拡大しなかったのは,明治以降に発達した地頭名子制度によって,村人が小作・名子化していったことと,農村恐慌対策による通年稼働型の製炭産業の隆盛が大きかった。農村恐慌の時代には,東北農村からの娘の身売りが問題になった。しかし安家では,食料の確保が難しかった家は村内の富裕層に子供を奉公に出したため,外部への娘の身売りはなかった。また山村の富裕層は,平地農村の娘を引き取って育てることもあった。これらが可能だったのはまだ山村の経済がかなり自給的だったためで,その自給性を畑作・焼畑と共に支えたミズナラ林の存在は大きい。富裕層は小作・名子の労働によって豊かだったのであり,その小作・名子の生存を支えた柱の一つとしてシタミがあったからである。In the villages of the Kitakami mountains, there used to be frequent harvest failure and famine, and due to the heavy fief tax and the small acreage under cultivation, it was the most important task how to secure annual food. Many people of the communities have made the maximum use of regional wild plants, and have opened ground in the mountains under cultivation, thus they have secured necessary food (OKA, 1990). Activities of this kind are considered as the "surviving strategy completed within the quarters", and some scholars think it quite common in mountain communities of the Northeast of Japan (NAMOTO, 1996).The author of this paper has conducted fieldwork at Akka, Iwaizumicho, a small community in the Kitakami mountains. There, after the Second World War in the difficult period of obtaining food, people utilized shitami (acorn), after removal of harshness and opened land by the slash-and-burn method. These were almost the same as the ways to cope with famine during the period of the feudal government. This strategy had high potentiality of long duration, which actually had more than one hundred years of effectivity. In order to work out this strategy, the vast forest of mizunara (a kind of oak) was indispensable (AONO and others, 1975), which intensively distributed in the Kitakami mountains among areas in the Northeast of Japan. The mizunara forest was also necessary for the iron manufacturing with foot bellows in the feudal days and the charcoal making business after 1935.In Akka like other places in the Northeast of Japan, some people worked away from home (dekasegi) since the Meiji period. However, this outside-the-quarter surviving strategy did not flourish in Akka, mainly because the villagers turned into tenants and serfs (kosaku and nago) under the jito-nago system developed from the Meiji period, and the whole year operated charcoal business grew prosperous by the countermeasures to the farming community crisis.At the time of impoverishment of rural communities, it became an issue that young girls from the Northeast farming villages sold themselves into bondage. But in Akka, families which had difficulties securing food sent out their children into service of the wealthy classes, then there were no girls who sold themselves into outside bondage. Moreover, the wealthy classes in mountain communities sometimes took over girls from agricultural communities and brought them up. These were possible because the mountain village economy was still fairly self-supporting, and the existence of mizunara forest was quite important, which sustained this self-support together with dry field farming and slash-and-burn agriculture. In other words, the wealthy classes were rich because of the existence of kosaku and nagoy and shitami was one of the means which sustained the self-support of kosaku and nago.