2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Study on the development and the flood-control system in early modern Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19520570
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Japanese history
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	MURATA Michihito Osaka University, 文学研究科, 教授 (40144414)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	堤外地 / 堤外地政策 / 流作 / 葭刈り捨て / 貞享期畿内河川整備事業 / 元禄期畿内河川整備事業 / 新田開発 / 摂河治水政策
Research Abstract	Historians have not considered water policy in early modern Japan in the light of riverside land policy. To remedy this lack, I investigated a set of river improvement projects by the Tokugawa Shogunate in both Settsu (摂津) and Kawachi (河内) provinces with special attention to riverside land policy. The Shogunate strictly enforced reed cutting (葭刈り捨て強制, a measure intended to curb the growth of reeds and leave bare land) and the prohibition of ryusaku (流作, the cultivation of land by ploughing and flooding at high water) during the Jokyo (貞享) era (1684-7). Nevertheless, such a strict policy was incompatible with the developmental trend for new rice fields at that time, because riverside land was especially suitable for this. The Shogunate water policy was greatly transformed in order to develop riverside land during the Genroku and Hoei eras (1688-1710).