Yasuhiro Makimura - Yokohama and the Silk Trade: How Eastern Japan Became the Primary Economic Region of Japan, 1843–1893

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Makimura, Yasuhiro, 1971- author.

Title: Yokohama and the silk trade : how Eastern Japan became the primary economic region of Japan, 18431893 / Yasuhiro Makimura.

Description: Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, 2017] | Series: New studies in modern Japan | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017023874 (print) | LCCN 2017007450 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498555609 (electronic) | ISBN 9781498555593 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: JapanCommerceHistory19th century. | Silk industryJapanYokohama-shiHistory19th century. | JapanEconomic conditions16001868. | JapanEconomic conditions18681918.

Classification: LCC HF3826 (print) | LCC HF3826 .M27 2017 (ebook) | DDC 330.952/031dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023874

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

This book is a history of the connections that the silk trade fostered. It explains how and why silk products were sent from the interior of eastern Japan to Yokohama and then shipped from Yokohama to the West in the nineteenth century. For much of the early modern period, the shogun tightly restricted trade with the outside world. However, in the nineteenth century a total of five ports were opened to international trade, and Japanese trade suddenly exploded. Chief among the products traded was raw silk. This book explains the impact this trade had on the Japanese economy.

In this preface, I explain how I came to this topic. I first started the research for this book because I was attracted to the modern, almost futuristic, aspects of Yokohama, Japan. The Minatomirai (future port) district with its tower, skyscrapers, and hotels, the latest stores in its shopping mall, the Yokohama Bay Bridge, and the beautiful view of the city at night were all seductive. Yokohamas international aspectwith Japans largest Chinatown and the former Western quarters at Yamatewas also alluring. It was easy to choose this modern and exotic city as the focus of my research.

Once I began to learn about the city, Yokohama continued to enthrall me. Unlike many other cities in Japan, it is a new city founded in 1859 with little to remind visitors of Japans feudal past. It was also one of the five ports that allowed trade between Japan and the outside world in the nineteenth century. It was a city that suffered tremendously in the Great Kant Earthquake of 1923 and then recovered to become a major industrial city. Yokohama also burned during the fire bombings of World War II but then emerged after the war greater than before. In this postwar era Yokohama continued to transform itself from a port city to an industrial city and then to a suburban city. By 1978 Yokohama surpassed Osaka to become Japans second most populous city. With its strong Western influences and my personal background as a Japanese person growing up in the United States, writing the social history of this remarkable city seemed to be the obvious thing to do.

However, as I continued to study the history of the city of Yokohama, its economic history became an obsession. Yokohama was the center of the silk trade for Japan. From this city, various silk products were shipped to the West, and this trade helped Japan earn valuable foreign currency. In fact, raw silk was Japans number one export until the start of World War II, and it was crucial in financing Japans early industrialization. Slowly the focus of my research changed from the social history of Yokohama to the various aspects of the silk trade in Yokohama. As the research interest changed, new sites and new sources emerged that needed to be examined. Thankfully the Yokohama kaik shirykan (Yokohama Archives of History), the Yokohama Silk Center, and other libraries in Yokohama had plenty of material. Sources on the merchants who helped to gather the silk products at Yokohama and made the port city a thriving center of trade were particularly plentiful and, I must confess, enjoyable to recount.