Kiyotaka Maeda: Gathering Historical Materials on Foot

2018/07/13

In April, I returned to the nostalgic Mita Hill. For the five years prior, I had been teaching in Fukuoka City. As a researcher interested in the production, distribution, and consumption of salt, as well as the salt monopoly system, I had frequently visited the Seto Inland Sea region—a major salt-producing area—for archival research since my graduate student days. However, when I first started working in Fukuoka City, I could not find any historical materials in the vicinity that piqued my interest. Nevertheless, I desperately wanted to write a paper using primary sources held locally. This is because doing so is an advantage for historical researchers working at regional universities.

Historical researchers specializing in the modern and contemporary eras make full use of databases and online archives, but the number of universities that can afford them is limited due to high usage fees. However, being in an excellent research environment does not necessarily mean one can write an excellent paper. This is because the foundation of historical research lies in the painstaking excavation of primary sources. At regional universities, information about local historical materials that does not reach universities in Tokyo is often passed down by word of mouth. As a historical researcher, there is no reason not to utilize this information. Therefore, based on information obtained from a colleague, I began researching historical materials in the suburbs, traveling for over an hour by train and bus from Tenjin in central Fukuoka City.

In the late Meiji period, Fukuoka Prefecture boasted a salt production volume second only to the prefectures along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, and until the early Meiji 40s, the salt consumed for household use in Fukuoka City was primarily produced within the prefecture. My research focused on historical materials concerning a small salt production company that produced such locally distributed salt during the Meiji 30s and 40s. A noteworthy characteristic of this company was its involvement in the illicit manufacture and sale of salt under the salt monopoly system introduced in Meiji 38 (1905). The cause was that the government set the purchase price of salt excessively low under the system. While illicit manufacture and sale under salt monopoly systems occurred in other parts of Asia, such as China and India, Japanese cases—where the frequency of occurrence in major production areas (the Seto Inland Sea region) was low—had not received much attention. However, these materials richly illustrated the vivid circumstances leading up to the salt company's involvement in illicit manufacture and sale, greatly advancing my research.

Gathering historical materials on foot. Reconfirming the importance of this essential task in historical research was a valuable experience gained during my five years living in Fukuoka City. Now that I have moved to a campus in the big city overlooking Tokyo Tower, I want to take this lesson to heart once again.