【江戸時代後期】9割が知らない!?関東第3位の都市

【江戸時代後期】9割が知らない!?関東第3位の都市

Do you know what the third largest city in the Kanto region was during the late Edo period? Of course, number one was Edo. Number two was, yes, Mito, home to one of the three privileged branches of the Tokugawa clan. So, what was number three? Yokohama? No, it was actually Choshi, located far down the Tone River. How did Choshi become the third largest city? This time, we’ll dig into its history. Hello. My name is Minato from DigDeepTravel, where we dig deep into the history of one place. Choshi is located at the easternmost tip of the Kanto region. It’s a bit hard to imagine this place becoming the third largest city in Kanto. However, the fact that the mouth of the Tone River was located in Choshi plays a huge role. During the Edo period, the Tone River was also a major artery for logistics, transporting large amounts of rice and other goods. It boasts Japan’s largest drainage basin area, about 16,840 square kilometers, and even today, the population within the basin is about 12.79 million people, meaning nearly a tenth of Japan’s population lives along the Tone River. This Tone River was connected to the Edo River, making it an ideal transportation route for the various domains in the Tohoku region that wanted to send and sell rice to the populous city of Edo. Before the Tone River took its current form, if you wanted to sell rice from Tohoku to Edo, you had no choice but to transport it overland from around Mito. This was because the sea area around Choshi was famous for being extremely dangerous. While today we have trains and trucks, at that time, there were no means to transport large quantities of goods overland, so when it came to transporting large amounts of rice, water-based transport was inevitably the only option. Therefore, the domains on the Pacific side of the Tohoku region used something called the Eastern Sea Route, which utilized the Tone River. The Eastern Sea Route is named in contrast to the Western Sea Route, often used by domains on the Sea of Japan side like the Shonai Domain, which sent rice to Edo via Shimonoseki, Osaka, and the Kii Peninsula. The Eastern Sea Route was its counterpart in the opposite direction. The main route used in this Eastern Sea Route was not one that hugged the coast all the way, but one that used the Tone River partway. You might think they could just cross the sea, but the waters around the Boso Peninsula were known as a treacherous sea passage. I’ll explain the reason for that later, but because of this, the Tone River was in a perfectly convenient location to avoid that dangerous area. As for the specific route, cargo was transferred to riverboats in Choshi. These riverboats are often called Takasebune. They would travel upstream on the Tone River to the connected Edo River, and then it was just a quick trip down the Edo River to arrive in Edo. This is true all over the world, but ports where cargo is transferred tend to prosper as post towns, and Choshi was no exception, flourishing as a result. However, this route using the Tone River had a downside: the boat fare was expensive. The riverboats and the sea-faring ships were operated by different companies. Therefore, one had to go through a wholesaler (ton’ya) to arrange for the boats and pay a commission, and the fare for the riverboats themselves was by no means cheap. That’s because, while it’s easy to say “go upstream,” there were no engines or motors back then. So, if you try to imagine how they went upstream, the idea of rowing with oars isn’t out of the question, but it’s a long distance, and there are physical limits. Another option might be to use a sail to catch the wind, but the wind doesn’t always blow upstream. So, a commonly used method was ‘hikifune,’ or boat-towing, where people would get on land and pull the boat. It was a truly laborious method, but it was a reliable one. Of course, for a small boat, the boatman might have pulled it himself, but for a large Takasebune, one person couldn’t possibly pull it, so there were teams of ‘hikiko,’ or boat-towers. So, as you can imagine, this incurred significant labor costs. Now, one might argue that this was fine because it enriched the lives of many people, but naturally, some people were dissatisfied with this situation. And that was the Edo shogunate. By that time, Edo was a city with a population approaching one million people. The shogunate wanted rice to be transported cheaply and stably. So, a man was appointed by the shogunate to investigate whether the Eastern Sea Route could be made cheaper. That man was the brilliant businessman, Kawamura Zuiken. Kawamura Zuiken was originally born in a poor farming village in Ise. He went to Edo at the age of 13 and made his fortune mainly through civil engineering works. He was a truly amazing person, having achieved this in a single generation. During the Great Fire of Meireki, many houses were burned down, so he anticipated that lumber would be needed and bought up timber before anyone else, selling it for a large profit in Edo. This shows his knack for seizing business opportunities. As a result, he was commissioned by the shogunate for the reconstruction projects after the Great Fire of Meireki. Not only that, but through this, he even managed to build relationships with powerful politicians. He went on to receive many public works contracts from the shogunate, an incredibly skilled businessman. The government recognized his skills and commissioned Zuiken to develop a new Eastern Sea Route that did not rely on the Tone River. Zuiken himself had previously undertaken civil engineering work at Kujukuri Beach near Choshi, so he was well aware of how dangerous the sea in this area was. By the way, why was it so dangerous? The name of Choshi itself gives a hint. The name Choshi comes from its resemblance to the shape of a ‘choshi,’ a sake server. Following that topography, the warm Kuroshio Current comes from the south. And from the north comes the cold Oyashio Current. It is the point where these two currents collide. This alone is enough to make the sea unpredictable for sailors, but furthermore, the influx of fresh water from the Tone River makes the tide movements even more complex. Additionally, places like Cape Inubo, which has a lighthouse designated as a National Important Cultural Property, are very rocky and could easily puncture the bottom of a ship. Incidentally, the opening sequence of Toei films is also filmed at this Cape Inubo. Just imagining that should give you an idea of how rough the waves are and how rocky it is. Therefore, to avoid that treacherous sea passage, the Tone River, located just before Cape Inubo, was truly the optimal distribution route for rice from the Tohoku region. So, how did Kawamura Zuiken tackle this difficult problem? It seems he wondered if it was at all possible to get to Edo by sea alone. Indeed, if he could save the money being paid to the riverboat operators, the shipping cost would drop dramatically. But that would mean having to cross a treacherous passage like Cape Inubo. What did he do? First, he tried sailing in the summer, when the temperature difference between the Oyashio and Kuroshio currents is small. Furthermore, instead of leaving the ships to the wholesalers, he also tried to secure skilled sailors by selecting them directly himself. He also devised human error prevention measures, such as stationing pilots and marking the ships with a line to prevent overloading with rice. But he didn’t stop there. By listening carefully to the opinions of the sailors on the ground, he came up with a plan: sail far out into the Pacific, beyond Cape Inubo, wait at either Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula or Misaki on the Miura Peninsula for a southwesterly wind, and then ride that wind to enter Edo all at once. It seemed possible. And Zuiken actually tried it. As it turned out, the southwesterly wind he had heard about from the sailors actually blew, and by riding that wind, he proved it was possible to enter Edo in one go. Thus, he finally succeeded in developing an Eastern Sea Route that did not rely on the Tone River. The shogunate was delighted with this success and decided to officially adopt it as a future route. However, the riverboat operators in Choshi were not happy about this. In order not to lose their existing customers, they were forced to make the painful decision to lower their prices. However, fortunately, this coastal route also had several disadvantages. First, no matter how much of a detour they took, the sea around the Boso Peninsula remained dangerous. It’s especially rough in the winter, so a route that can only be used in the summer can’t be called a stable route. Moreover, the long detour itself, taking them far from land, carried the risk that if something happened, they couldn’t quickly return to a nearby port. Furthermore, even if they waited for a southwesterly wind at Shimoda or Misaki, they couldn’t predict when that wind would blow. This meant that the arrival time was left to the mercy of the wind. For these reasons, even Zuiken himself, though he wanted to send rice from places like Sakata via the eastern route, ended up prioritizing the western route via Osaka. Incidentally, this Western Sea Route was also developed by Zuiken. He was truly amazing. Therefore, in the end, the Eastern Sea Route came to use both the sea-only route and the route utilizing the Tone River in parallel. Nevertheless, the fares for the riverboats on the Tone River did moderately decrease, and since he was able to develop a low-cost sea transport route, it can be said that Kawamura Zuiken accomplished a truly great feat. Also, domains like Sendai prospered considerably because of this, so Zuiken left an immense fortune not just for Edo, but for the domains of the Tohoku region as well. Furthermore, for Choshi, it meant that ships from both the sea route and the river route would make a stop there. This simply meant that the number of routes increased, and the volume of trade grew. This, in turn, led to an increase in the number of ships making port calls. The town prospered even more, so Choshi can be said to be a town that benefited from Kawamura Zuiken’s achievements. Moreover, Choshi was originally a town with a thriving fishing industry. While the collision of the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents and the inflow from the Tone River were extremely inconvenient for sailors, for fish, it meant that nutrients from various directions gathered there. This attracted a large number of fish, leading people from the fish-savvy Kishu region to move to Choshi, creating the Choshi Fishing Port, which boasts the largest catch in Japan. In the midst of this, migrants from Kishu also brought another culture to Choshi. That was the culture of soy sauce production, at which the people of Kishu excelled. Choshi also became a major center for soy sauce production. This was also related to the fact that even if it was produced there, the Tone River was right next door, making it easy to export to Edo. As a result, factories for Yamasa Soy Sauce and Higeta Soy Sauce were established, and even today, they deliver a traditional flavor nearly 400 years old from Choshi to dinner tables across the country. Through the development of various industries centered on the Tone River and its surrounding sea, Choshi developed into the third largest city in the Kanto region. However, this is a story from the Edo period. Naturally, trucks and trains later began to run on the land routes. For the Tone River in particular, the construction of the Narita Line, which runs parallel to it, put a definitive end to its role as a transportation route. Even so, the Tone River has countless modern roles. It still plays a vital role as a water source for many people today. With various dams and regulating reservoirs, it has facilities to adjust the flow to the downstream area. This feels like something that could only come from a river that has experienced numerous floods. It also naturally plays a role in dispersing flood risk for the capital, Tokyo. Not only that, but it also plays a part in maintaining the ecosystem, making a significant contribution in ways we don’t even see. This is a river that has been intertwined with people for over 400 years since the Edo period. So, how did this Tone River come to be involved with people in the first place? Did you know that there were actually four reasons, four objectives, behind the creation of the Tone River’s current course? We hope to tell you that story in another video. If you’re interested, please subscribe and like the video, and we hope you’ll wait for it. see you next time.

江戸時代後期、銚子は関東第3位の都市でした。
利根川と切れ者商人・河村瑞賢がその都市の発展に大きく関わりました。
今回は米の流通経路である東廻海運がもたらした財産に迫ります。

銚子市ウェブサイト　銚子ってどんなところ？
https://www.city.choshi.chiba.jp/shisei/page110081.html

映像制作
https://eyelidpictures.com/

目次
00:00 オープニング
01:04 利根川について
02:24 東廻海運とは
03:30 利根川を使う具体的なルート
03:59 利根川ルートのデメリット
05:56 不満を持つ江戸幕府
06:18 切れ者商人・河村瑞賢
07:43 銚子の海が危険な理由
09:09 瑞賢のチャレンジ
10:55 新しい東廻海運
12:14 河村瑞賢の功績
13:12 銚子の発展（紀州民の努力）
14:57 銚子の現在

#歴史
#銚子
#利根川
#犬吠埼
#東廻海運
#ヤマサ醤油
#河村瑞賢
#千葉県