Water-power Utilization during the Industrial Revolution in Japan

Abstract

Generally speaking, in the pre- or early times of Industrial Revolution, water was employed as the principal power in almost every kind of industries. Especially in Japan, as it is a mountainous and rainy country, there were a large number of suitable spots for the exploitation of water-power in these days.At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Japan, water was the most important motive power. For example, in 1885 (before Sino-Japanese War), the number of factories* which were equipped with water wheel was 364, while only 53 factories were equipped with steam engine.After Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars (1894-5 and 1904-5), the modernization of Japanese industries have progressed very much. Instead of water wheels, modern motive powers, such as steam engines, oil engines or electric motors began to be more widely used in factories. In 1909**, the number of steam engines became 5, 319, with 197, 335HP, and that of electric motors was 2, 559, with 37, 617HP. In the same year, 2, 390 water wheels were still used, but the total power of these was only 10, 038HP.At that time, about half of total water wheels, i.e. 1, 128 wheels, belonged to silk manufacture, which had rural and traditional character but one of the most important industries in these days. Fig. 1 shows, how much degree water wheels were used in silk manufacturing in 1909 (unit of numbers written in Fig. 1 is 10%). As shown in Fig. 1, in Chubu District, especially in Nagano Pref., water was well utilized as the motive power of filature.It might be said that other traditional industries inclined to depend on water-power. For example, almost all of cotton-spinning factories, which was modern and whose technique was imported from abroad, depended much more on steamengine, whereas, cotton-spinning, which started in Japan, deppended on water. And it was reeling and twisting of silk thread or silk-weaving that depended more on water than on steam engine even in 1909.In Fig. 3, cities, towns and villages, which had more than 5 factories equipped with water wheels in 1909, are dotted.*** They might be centers of water utilization in Japan at the beginning of 20th century, because not registered small factories, in which water-power utilization was more diffused, might gathered there. Most of these centers situated at the foot of mountains, where water was rich to exploit for power. In some cases, factories were built in the place where water-power was available, but in many cases factories of traditional handicraft began to utilize water-power if it was available.NOTES*factories…limited whose capital were more than 1000 yen in this case.**In this year, list of factories and statistics of industry were published. They are the most detailed list and statistics in these days, because they show factories which had more than 5 workmen.***legend-F (silk manufacturing) RC (rice cleaning)W (reeling of silk thread) St (starch manufacture)CS (cotton spinning) P (pottery)T (twisting of silk or cotton thread) Sa (sawing)SW (silk weaving) M (metal goods industry)CW (cotton weaving)