Tokushima merchants in the North Sea fishery business in the early 20th century

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1 The Fifth East Asian Conference on Slavic Eurasian Studies (ICCEES Asian Congress) August 9, 2013 Osaka University of Economics and Law, Yao Campus (Oval), Osaka, Japan Tokushima merchants in the North Sea fishery business in the early 20th century Ikuko Morimoto (Research Center for Cityscape and Cultural Heritage of Osaka in Kansai-university) Purpose of the study At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of Japanese merchants spread their business to the fisheries in the North, in the north part of the Japan Sea, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Bering Sea. Mainly they went to Kamchatka to run fishery businesses after the Russo-Japanese War ( ). Almost all previous studies of the fisheries in Kamchatka refer to the merchants from the northern part of Japan: Hokuriku, Tohoku, and Hokkaido 1. According to these studies, a lot of these merchants businesses had their origin in trade and became transformed into more industrial fishery. Today, I would like to point out that there were also some merchants from other parts of Japan not only from the northern part of Japan who were engaged in the fishery in the North Sea. Almost no research has been made about them. Here I would like to examine the business of one merchant family from a non-northern area as a case study. It is the Yamanishi family from Tokushima, Shikoku. This presentation has five parts. Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 outline the 1 Yasuo Mishima, The research for the management history of the North Sea fishery,the Minerva Press,1972 Yutaro Tone, The fishery management in Kamchatka as a case study of shipping agency Nakamura family The problems of Japanese marine history, The Bunken Press,1995 Satoru Nakanishi, The markets structure from the early modern time to the beginning of modern time in Japan -the research for the trading of Matsumae herring manure-,tokyo University Press, 1998 Satoru Nakanishi, The capitalism of the wealthy shipping agencies- Kitamae-bune and Japanese industrialization-,nagoya University Press,2009 The history of Hakodate,Hakodate city Press,

2 Yamanishi family, especially how they started their merchant business at Muya Port in Tokushima. Chapter 4 explains why they switched their merchant business to the fishery in Kamchatka in the early 20th century. Chapter 5 describes their fishery in Kamchatka, and why they had to close their business and leave Kamchatka. Chapter 1: The Yamanishi family Shogoro Yamanishi the first, the founder of their family business, started a shipping agency and wholesale dealership in 1823 in Muya port, at Tokushima (This port still exists in Naruto city, Tokushima prefecture). He traded salt, rice and manure. The 6th Shogoro Yamanishi added fishery management to the family merchant business. He also had a lot of salt farms in Muya. While devoted to their business, the Yamanishi contributed to the local community. They made contributions to the local temples and shrines. They also supported various local cultural activities 2. The important cities for the Tokushima merchants such as the Yamanishi were Osaka, Edo and Hakodate. Edo became Tokyo during the Meiji Restoration of Osaka was the center of merchandise and financial institutions in the modern times. According to two Japanese rich merchants lists (1849,1882) the Yamanishi had become one of the most influential merchant families in Japan in the 19th century. 2 In Naruto city,tokushima,shikoku, there are a lot of fences around shrines which are the contribution to local shrines of Yamanishi family.

3 ChapterⅡ.Characteristics of the management of the Yamanishi in the beginning and middle of 19th century The Yamanishi had many cargo vessels for trading with remote areas in Japan; they also had a broad trading network all over Japan at that time. They mainly exported indigo, salt, and sugar. These products were produced in Tokushima and transported to Osaka, Edo, and other areas. The transportation was under the protection of the feudal domain of Tokushima. Having delivered these products, the vessels loaded a large amount of herring manure and brought it back to Tokushima. The herring manure was used to fertilize the indigo plants in Tokushima. At that time, indigo was the special and important product of Tokushima. The Yamanishi were involved with the transportation of indigo and herring manure both as shipping agents and also as manure wholesale dealers. Indigo was the local specialty of Tokushima. In the early modern period, indigo from Tokushima was highly appreciated by dyers all over Japan. Tokushima indigo was superior to the indigo from the other parts of Japan, both in terms of quality and quantity. ChapterⅢ.The characteristics of business management of the Yamanishi in the late 19th century In 1868, during the Meiji Restoration, the Edo shogunate and the domain system were dismantled, and the Yamanishi lost their privileges which came from the feudal domain, such as the protection of the indigo trading. This forced the Yamanishi to transform their business. First, they gradually decreased indigo trading. Then, they increased importing herring manure from Hokkaido. As a result, the Yamanishi gained more responsibilities at Muya Port. They

4 controlled the importation of herring manure from Hokkaido. Herring manure from Hokkaido was brought to Muya by a group of merchants whose ship was called Kitamae-bune. These Kitamae-bune merchants were from the northern part of Japan: the Hokuriku or Tohoku area. They shipped herring manure from Hakodate or Otaru in Hokkaido to Tokushima. The Yamanishi received their manure at Muya Port and sold it wholesale to the local merchants on commission. The analysis of list of inventory that the Yamanishi family received from reveal that commissions from manure accounts comprise 22% and was the second largest source of income. The largest source was the interest on loans granted. This fact shows that herring manure was the most important merchandise for the Yamanishi at that time. In the later part of the century, the merchants from the north such as Hokuriku, Tohoku, or Hokkaido - became the most important trading partners of the Yamanishi. Chapter Ⅳ. Characteristics of the management at the beginning of the 20th century In the 19th century, the production of indigo increased in Japan. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, inexpensive indigo from Germany was introduced to Japan and began taking the place of domestic indigo. It caused a gradual decline in the indigo production of the Tokushima area. In addition, the herring stock was decreasing and the production also decreased in Hokkaido. People in Tokushima who were raising indigo gave up buying herring manure. Therefore the Yamanishi had to find something else to trade. This opened them to the new opportunity fishery in Kamchatka, catching trout and salmon. ChapterⅤ.The last stage of the Yamanishi business Before the Russo-Japanese war, Japanese fishermen poached on Russian territories such as Primorski Krai, Kamchatka. Circumventing Russian law, they bought fish from Russia fishermen, or fished using the names of Russians. The Russian government tried to control it, but mostly failed to stop the poaching. From 1904 to 1905, Japan and Russia were at war. In September 1905, the war ended and Japan and Russia concluded a peace treaty. Within the treaty, the

5 Yamanishi found a new business opportunity to start a fishery. Article 11 of the treaty says Russia to grant to Japanese subjects full fishery rights along the coasts and in the bays, harbors, inlets and rivers of her possession in the Japan, Okhotsk and Behring Seas. Two years later, in July 1907, both the Russian and Japanese governments signed a Russian-Japanese Fishery Agreement. It went into force in September Article 1 says the Russian government grants Japanese subjects fishery rights to capture the marine plants and animals along the coasts in the Japan, Okhotsk and Behring Seas, except for in rivers and inlets. Regarding animals, sea otters and fur seals were exceptions. Article 2 says Japanese subjects are granted fishery rights to catch and produce in the fishery area on both land and water. The fishery area was leased by auction, and Japanese subjects could be granted the same status as Russian people. In December 1908, the Primorski Krai Fishery Union was established. Japanese who were fishing in Russia territory were to be members of this union. Later the Yamanishi joined this union. The Yamanishi s fishery management in Kamchatka The Yamanishi started a fishery business in Kamchatka around They took two leases for fishery areas, Bryumkinskii and Utkinskii. Bryumkinskii was around the estuary of the River Bryumka. Utkinskii was around the estuary of the River Utka. There were two main ports related to the fishery management of the Yamanishi. They got food, essential items, and fishing boats from their trading partner in Hakodate. They also hired local laborers there to work in the fishery in Kamchatka. The Yamanishi paid customs through their trading partner in Otomari Port in the south of Karafuto (Sakhalin). The Russian name was Korsakoff. The Japanese merchants who worked at Otomari Port were the members of Kitamae-bune, who were from Hokuriku area. They were the trading partners of the Yamanishi in the late 19th century. It is remarkable that the market and the trading partner network connections

6 which the Yamanishi established in the 19th century enabled them to challenge the fishery business in Russian territory. The Yamanishi s main bank was the Awa Commercial Bank. This bank was established by the indigo merchants in Tokushima. The Yamanishi family was one of the large stockholders of the bank. The main stockholder was a member of the extended Yamanishi family. In Kamchatka, the Yamanishi caught mainly salmon and trout. They preserved these fish with salt and sold them to the merchants in Hakodate. From 1916 to 1917, the members of Yamanishi family went to the west coast of Kamchatka in six boats which were borrowed from the merchants in Hakodate. When they arrived at the fishing area, they rented a local fishing boat for ten days and caught a large quantity of trout and salmon. In 1916, they caught a total of about 5000 ton of trout and salmon 3. They fished for 10 days in September that year. For 10 days fishing, a total of 100 people were hired. When Japanese fished in Russian territory, they were obligated to report the quantity of fish they caught, the kind of salt they used to preserve fish, the number of the sailors who worked, the number of cans of fish they produced, any accidents that occurred, and so on. The report was made to the Fisheries Union of Russia Territory. The impact of the Russian Revolution and the rise of the canned fish industry The Russian Revolution in 1917 significantly affected the Japanese fishery businesses in Russian territory. For example, the newspaper issued in Kamchatka reported that the village headman of Opara notified the Japanese that he himself had been authorized to supervise the fishery for the west coast of Kamchatka. Opara was located close to the fishery area of the Yamanishi. In response, the secretary of the Japanese consulate in Petropavlovsk asked the foreign minister of Japan to make a formal announcement to the Fishery Union of Russia Territory that the Opara headman s statement had exceeded his authority. In addition to such problems, the large merchants with large assets, such as Tsutsumi and Company, started manufacturing canned fish in Kamchatka. The 3 Regarding to herring weight, 1-koku was equivalent about 150 kilogram. This calculation was used for other fishes like salmon. In the times of the large haul of herring,the booklet of The Yoichi Marine Museum 2001, p5

7 canned fish were exported to the British market. During the First World War, canned fish was in great demand for the wartime food supply in Europe. This damaged the management of the private fishery business such as the Yamanishi s. It was then time for the Yamanishi to renew their lease on the fishery area. Considering these difficult conditions, they decided to give up the fishery business there and left Kamchatka in These are the reports written in Russian, which the Yamanishi family still keeps. When leaving Kamchatka, the Yamanishi had to report about the property they were leaving behind. The reports had to be submitted to the National Property Agency of Russia. The report says that in 1918, the Yamanishi needed to win the bid and renew the contract to lease the fishery area. In case they lost the bid and left the area, the property which was left would go to the new tenant. In 1918, they called for bids for the lease of the fishery area which the Yamanishi had rented. This was just after the revolution, and both the Bolshevik and the temporary Russian government controlled it. Many Japanese and Russians joined in the bidding. Inflation after the revolution and the heated competition pushed the rents up high. It became so expensive that the private fishery businesses, like the Yamanishi, could not afford to bid for it. Yamanishi went back to Japan, leaving their property in Bryumkinskii. What they left was valuable for the new tenant of Bryumkinskii. For example, the office room was valued at 2500 Rub. 25,000- Kamasu (about 1,000 ton) straw bags of Japanese salt valued at 12,500 Rub 4. This price was very high but Yamanishi could use the salt that was produced at their salt farm at Shikoku. There 4 In Japan, the salt was filled into the straw of Japanese bag at that time. It was called Kamasu. 1- kamasu was equivalent about 40 kilogram. The history of salt in Kagawa, Shikoku ( The center for salt business in Takamatsu, Japan Tobacco inc. 1991)

8 also were listed 75-kamasu of coal, a steam winch, nine fishing boats, 40 deck boards, 65 oars, a hand-rolled winch, 150 rails, 6 tilting cars and so on. These assets were valued five times higher in Russian rubles than in Japanese yen. In this case, Japanese calculations for the prices were considered to be too high, and the Russian Finance Agency did not accept it. In conclusion Throughout the 19th century, the Japanese merchants ran shipping agencies and were wholesale dealers of herring manure, mainly around Hokkaido. At the beginning of the 20th century, they moved to Kamchatka and started the fishery business. After the Russian revolution, they closed their fishery businesses and left Russia. Regarding the management of Yamanishi family business, there are points which need to be considered. The first is that the import of inexpensive German indigo had changed their business. The second is that Yamanishi was a salt farm owner since the 19 th century. The fishery management in Kamchatka needed a large amount of salt. They could get it easily. Throughout the entire presentation, there are two notable points. The first is that the merchants who started the fishery businesses in Russian territory used the markets and the connections that they had created in the Hokkaido area in the 19th century to gain footholds in the Russian areas. The second is that the Russian-Japanese Fishery Agreement in 1907 allowed Japanese to be involved in the fishery business in Russian territory. This resulted in the development of fisheries in the Far East. Today, I discussed the Yamanishi family, merchants from Tokushima, Shikoku. I believe that the merchants who were not from the northeastern part of Japan and went to the Russian territory for the fishery business should be also carefully researched when we study the history of relations between Japan and Russia 5. 5 In recent years there are some notable researches about Japanese fishery in Kamchatka. Yuyaka Watanabe, The contact between the Indigenous People of Kamchatka and Japanese in the Day of Japanese Fishery, The Bulletin of the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples Vol. 10, 2001 pp17-46, Kungas and Hyotan-pan : As Symbolic Materials of the Contact in the Kamchatka, The Bulletin of the Hokkaido Meseum of Northern People Vol.12, 2003 pp37-50, Relationship between the Japanese Fishery and the Russian-Soviet Fishery in Kamchatka: Japanese Influence to the Russian-Soviet Fishery, The Bulletin of the Hokkaido Museum of Northern People Vol.20,2001 pp