GOLD MINING AND THE VILLAGE LIFE

Abstract

Until 15th Century gold mining industry in Japan had mainly consisted in alluvial mining. It was in 16th Century that ways and means for digging deep mines and getting refined gold from ores developed. The Gold Mine of Kahi, in the former territory of the Takeda family, and the Surugaroku Gold Mine, in the former territory of the Imagawa family, were two of the first mines of this kind in the country.As for the two gold mines treated in the present paper, i, e., the Umegashima Gold Mine and the Igawa Gold Mine, both located in Abegun, Suruga, they too seem to be examples of the same kind. In the early part of 17th Century, when precious metal mining was at its height in our country, these two gold mines were developed under the direct management of the shogunate, but this situation had continued only less than 10 years.Both the Umegahima village and the Igawa village are situated in small valleys in the upper reaches of the Abe river and the Oi river respectively, and produce a small amount of wheat and other grains. After the gold mining in a comparatively large scale had become a thing of the past, the villagers took to placer mining, calling it “Oppori” in the case of disposing of remaining ores in old mines and “Sawanagashi” in the case of placer mining along the river-sides.Since the latter part of 17th Century, the tradesmen from Sumpu had occaisonally contracted for the mining but in such a case too, it was the village people who offered labor as miners or handy men. However, in most cases, villagers were directly engaged in mining under the so-called, village contract and paid to the shogunate taxes called “Oppori-eki”.Many were engaged in alluvial gold mining between harvest times but there were some who made “Oppori” in the old mines of Hikagezawa in the Umegashima village their occupation, and became almost specilized gold-diggers.In modern times, what with technical advancement in agricultural production, particularly in cultivation of crops as merchandise, and growing commercial traffic in fire-wood and timber, alluvial mining industry had gradually lost its meaning in the village life. Of course, decrease in the produced amount of gold contributed toward this phenomenon.Thus, in the Meiji era, the population in the abovementioned two villages increased remarkably despite the fact that production of grains went down. and articles of food had to be brought in from outside in great quantity.