The townspeople's consciousness of the government and international relations in the early Edo period

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fundamental law
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: KUWAHARA Asako 北海道大学, 大学院法学研究科, 教授 (10292814)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 近世前期 / 町人 / 近松門左衛門 / 意識構造 / 国際関係 / 上方 / 貿易 / 自由

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study tries to clarify the townspeople's consciousness of the government and international relations in the early Edo period, by analyzing Chikamatsu Monzaemon's "Joruri"(traditional puppet theater scripts) and related texts. This analysis has discovered that in this period the townspeople of the Kamigata district expressed their resentment to the repressive regime, became more interested in foreign cultures, and wished to conduct free external trade, having little hope to build an autonomous economic society under the government of that time. However, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, their resistance to the regime rapidly waned and their view of foreign countries also changed radically.

Free Research Field

日本法制史