大坂の火消組合による通達と訴願運動

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The early modern Osaka was made up of around 600 townships and had a population of around 300,000. For administrative purposes the city was divided into 3 large districts (三郷), which were sub-divided into the 600 or so townships. To carry out many of the functions of the city these towns were organized into many different associations. In this article the author deals with two functions of one of these associations, the fire-fighting association (火消組合), from the 18th century on. These two functions were (1). the transmission of the will and directions of the office of the Osaka magistrate (大坂町奉行所) to each township, and (2), the organizing and the channeling of the ever increasing flow of petitions coming from houseowning towns folk (家持町人) to the magistrates office. Regarding function number (1), from the latter half of the 18th century, the representatives of the association townships became in effect the representatives of the houseowning townsfolk of all the towns comprising Osaka ; and so as a result of this, injunctions came to be communicated directly to the association representatives in the presence of the Osaka magistrate. It is important to note that this communication route did not go via the officially designated Osaka elders (惣年寄) and came in time to be used by the magistrates' office as the formal means of delivering directives to townsfolk. The first association to have representatives act in this capacity was the Shushi association (宗旨組合), an association organized for the purpose of citizen registration and census (宗門改). The town elders of the leading town within the association were its representatives ; however, by the 19th century the importance shifted to the town elders of the current years' head township (this changed yearly) of the fire-fighting association. This is related to the fire-fighting associations role in the growing movement of petitioning by houseowning townsfolk. Instances of the towns grouping together and presenting petitions to the Osaka magistrate or to the official Osaka elders can be seen from the early half of the 18th century ; but from the end of that century petitions were presented through the representatives of the fire-fighting association and became very frequent. Judging from both the content of these petitions as well as the process by which they were formulated, they represented the interests and the formulation of consensus of the houseowners of all the townships of Osaka. Since this petitioning movement was brought about by the channeling power of the fire-fighting association and became a route of petitioning for houseowning townsfolk to protect their businesses and living interests, it can be viewed as the achievement of cohesion by houseowing townsfolk all over Osaka. Indeed, the above-mentioned use of the representatives of the fire-fighting association as the path by which the Osaka magistrate communicated with houseowning townsfolk can be seen as the magistrate's reaction to the representatives' role in petition presentation. The route of presenting petitions, which was developed by the houseowning townsfolk, was absorbed by the magistrate into the city's administrative system as an important route of conveying directives to houseowning townsfolk and as a means of gaining their cooperation and consensus. Said from the opposite point of view, houseowning townsfolk had via the fire-fighting association developed a territorial cohesion into a powerful social force which the Osaka magistrate could not afford to ignore and had to include into the city administrative structure.
1985-08-20

大坂の火消組合による通達と訴願運動

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