Changes in the ‘Koya-gami’ Manufacturing Area

Abstract

The ‘Koya-gami’ (‘Koya’ hand-made paper) is produced in the area along the Kozawa and the Niu Rivers, which flow down the northern foot of the Mount Koya and join the Kinokawa. While the area included about ten villages in the pre-Meiji Era, nowadays Shimo-kozawa on the lower Kozawa is the only production center of the paper.The paper manufacture, grown up on the narrow economic zone of the Koya temple estate, has undergone the inevitable process of decline in the developing capitalistic economy since the Meiji Era, on account of its primitive industrial character such as combination of both paper mulberry raising and processing within an enterprise. From the very beginning the paper-making was a subsidiary work in farmers' slack seasons, and as silk culture was adopted as another sideline in the Meiji Era, mulberry growing gradually replaced paper mulberry growing. This particular change did achieve the division between raw material production and processing, but it did not affect the subsidiary character of the industry. No notable progress was seen in either its capitalization or its mechanization; as transport facilities grew and urbanized economy made way, many of the population found jobs in nearby cities and, after the last War, fruit-growing began to expel paper-making.Under this process of decline, regional differences are seen in the ‘Koya-gami’ producing area. Regional stratification is under way as decline of the paper manufacture and growth of fruit culture, respectively from the upstream villages and from the downtsream villages, proceed.