著者
筒井 正夫
出版者
政治経済学・経済史学会
雑誌
歴史と経済 (ISSN:13479660)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.46, no.3, pp.10-19, 2004-04-30 (Released:2017-08-30)

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how and when Kanazawa, a typical castle town of the Tokugawa Era, was transformed into a modern city. I conclude that Kanazawa accomplished the transition after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), mainly in the first decade of the 20th century, for the following three reasons: First, after the Sino-Japanese War, the newly developing bourgeois class and shizoku (samurai class) with an interest in modern capitalism organized a chamber of commerce and its political detached corps, the Jitsugyokai. This group gained a majority in the Kanazawa city council, which previously had been occupied by old-type shizoku, and had occasionally been paralyzed by political conflict before the war. Through petitioning at the prefectural and national level, members of the Jitsugyokai achieved several important accomplishments, including the construction of social facilities and the revision of tax laws, according to their interests. They also launched an anti "business tax" movement in cooperation with merchants and industrialists throughout Japan, and through this movement they clearly recognized their own urban interests, as opposed to rural interests. Subsequently, they successfully implemented independent electoral districts for cities, which can be regarded as the political manifestation of the establishment of the modern city, supported primarily by merchants and industrialists. Second, through the active efforts of the city council and the chamber of commerce, modern institutions and facilities in political, industrial, educational, traffic and sanitary domains were created in Kanazawa City, establishing its status as a modern city. Third, civil associations such as fire brigades, which originated in the Tokugawa Era, had resisted coming under public control in the early Meiji Era, but were successfully reorganized under the new administration of Kanazawa City after the Sino-Japanese War.