近世後期の村役人層と村落秩序 -松本藩大町組大庄屋栗林家の「由緒」に着目して-

Abstract

What happened to rural order during the Bakumatsu era? This paper explores this problem by examining the relation between village officials and so-called yuisho, that is, a self-awareness cultivated through the outward assertion of historical consciousness. My analysis will focus on Ōmachi village of the Matsumoto domain. In the late eighteenth century, as a countermeasure to increasing class differentiation within the village, the grand village headman Kuribayashi, together with nine other prominent houses, unified themselves under the name of the Ōmachi Elders, a position that went back to medieval times and was connected with the powerful Nishina clan. Although this position provided them with an authoritative rhetoric to trace their lineage back to the Nishina, it did require that they "practice" yuisho through traditional duties such as helping the poor, receiving outside visitors and conducting various seasonal ceremonies. The awareness and practice of these duties thus, in a sense, was the "education" necessary for their role as local leaders. With the Meiji Restoration, however, this type of education changed. In order to adapt to trends from the Meiji government Kuribayashi Kyūzō transformed himself from an Ōmachi Elder into a representative of "civilization".