Collaborative Research
A. Research on Cadastral Maps of the Meiji Era
| Type of Research | Scientific Research |
|---|---|
| Project Title | General Study of Materials and Advanced Historical Information of Artifacts |
| Research Title | A. Research on Cadastral Maps of the Meiji Era |
| Head of the Research Team | AOYAMA Hiro'o |
| Research Period | 2004–2006 |
| Research Team |
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| Purpose | Cadastral maps are large–scale plans, which were made in the early Meiji era on the order of the government, which recorded the location, category, and ownership of land in every village in Japan under the same scale and style. Therefore, cadastral maps are a valuable historical resource which have recorded precise historical information of local lands in the early modern age, and were used not only in research of modern history, but also in research of ancient and medieval history, and in research on manors, villages and tower houses. But a revision of the law in the 1960s made cadastral maps lose their characteristics as legal plans, the conditions of their preservation and use became worse, so there has been research aiming to preserve and ensure the usage of the cadastral maps which are owned by local governments and the Legal Affairs Bureau. In this research, considering the current status, we will collect and publish cadastral maps from some model prefectures in the Meiji era. Through this research, we aim to establis systems for the preservation and usage of cadastral maps of the Meiji era. |
2006
Progress
| 1st survey: July 23 and 24, 2006 Materials research, photographing |
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Venue: Oita Prefectural Library Survey and photographing of original texts of cadastral maps owned by the Oita Prefectural Library |
| 2nd survey : Sep 29, 2006 Materials research |
Venue: Niigata Prefectural Archives Institute Survey on original texts of cadastral maps from the Meiji era of Kitakanbara–gun Niigata, owned bythe Niigata Prefectural Archives Institute. |
| 3rd survey: February 1 and 2, 2007 Materials research, photographing |
Venue: Wakayama City Museum, Wakayama Prefectural Archives Survey and photographing of the original text of cadastral maps of Wakayama |
| 4th survey : February 15 and 16, 2007 Materials research |
Venue: Maibara–shi Santo–chosha Survey of the original texts of cadastral maps from the Meiji era in the regions of Maibara–shi, Shiga |
| 5th survey, workshop: March 3 and 4, 2007 Materials research and workshop |
Venue: Niigata Prefectural Archives Institute Survey of the original text of cadastral maps from the Meiji era related to Kitakanbara–gun Niigata, and workshop |
Held discussions on the overall summary of the cooperative research and research results. In this survey and workshop, we called for local researchers to participate. Additionally, we continued with the survey on the original texts of the cadastral maps from the Meiji era owned by the Tax Research and Archives Center.
Result
We assembled a database of bibliographic data on cadastral maps from the early Meiji era collected through cooperative research, and aim to release it by 2008. We will also publish the results of the cooperative research as a special edition of "National Museum of Japanese History Research Report" in 2008.
2005
Progress
| May 19 and 20, 2005 |
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cadastral map survey Otsu City Museum of History・ Bukkyo University |
| August 30, 2005 |
cadastral map survey Gunma Prefectural Archives |
| November 18, 2005 |
cadastral map survey Tax Research and Archives Center |
| December 11 and 12, 2005 |
cadastral map survey Oita Prefecture Ancient Sages Historical Archives, Oita Prefectural Library |
| December 16, 2005 |
cadastral map survey Tax Research and Archives Center |
| March 4, 2006 |
cadastral map survey and workshop Tax Research and Archives Center |
In addition to the above, cooperative researchers will organize surveys and data collection of cadastral maps of the Meiji era in different regions, in surveys divided among them.
Result
At Otsu City Museum, we organized auxiliary surveys of cadastral maps of the Meiji era of Shiga, which we have been surveying since the beginning of this cooperative research, and have almost completed data collection at the prefectural level. In Shimane, we are planning to collect data on the prefectural level, which is related to cadastral maps of the early Meiji era, as we did in Shiga. As for Shimane, we discussed the surveys and actual usage of the basic data, which was collected and left unpublished by Grants–in–Aid for Scientific Research, and decided to undertake the planned data entry next year. In order to make comparisons with actual cases where local governments have already preserved original documents and entered data from the Meiji era on prefectural levels, we visited the Gunma Prefectural Archives and collected information related to Gunma's cadastral maps from the Meiji era.
We also continued with the survey and collection of bibliographic and image data on original texts of cadastral maps of the Meiji era owned by the Tax Research and Archives Center, and the compiling process. Additionally, we proceeded with surveys on cadastral maps of the Meiji era related to Oita (formely Buzen and Bungo), which are owned by the Oita Prefecture Ancient Sages Historical Archives and the Oita Prefectural Library and we collected bibliographic and image data.
Through the above materials research, we managed to gather bibliographic and image data and proceed with the assembly of a database. (1) Data collection for the whole prefecture of Shiga, etc. (2) Data collection for of partial regions, Oita, etc. (3) Inventory surveys of material preservation collection institutes, Tax Research and Archives Centers, etc. Part of this appeared in the local histories and cultural treasures survey reports made by Usukine–shi, Oita and Takatsuki–cho, Shiga, and the results have been made public. On the other hand, a task remaining for next year is to consider methods for enhancing the surveys on original texts and data collection in Wakayama and Kagawa, which was carried out until last year
2004
Progress
| July 30, 2004 |
|---|
cadastral map survey Tax Research and Archives Center |
| August 23 and 24, 2004 |
cadastral map survey Shiga Adogawa–cho and Imazu–cho |
| September 27 and 28, 2004 |
cadastral map survey Hiroshima University Library and Kagawa History Museum |
| January 12 and 13, 2005 |
photographing of cadastral maps Shiga, Kouhoku Library |
| February 4, 2005 |
cadastral map survey Otsu City Museum of History |
In addition to the above, the cooperative researchers divided up and the surveyed Tax Research and Archives Centers, in Shiga, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, etc., surveyed the cadastral maps of the Meiji era and collected data.
Result
After the study "Basic Research on Non–documentary Materials", which was the basis of this cooperative research, we have collected precise data on cadastral maps in Shiga and have almost completed the entire prefecture. Based on this, we managed to survey the original texts, collect data and make comparisons with related documents, finely–preserved cadastral maps of the Meiji era in Kagawa, which we had not planned on initially. In addition to these surveys in each prefecture, by beginning to survey the cadastral maps owned by Tax Research and Archives Centers, we were able to obtain a national perspective. As a result, collecting data for the database of locations of early cadastral maps of the Meiji era has progressed well. We also had great success in photographing, in color, the large–sized cadastral maps of the Meiji era owned by Kohoku Library, Shiga, and secured them as research materials.
