<論説>日本近代都市における水利事業の展開と慣行水利権 : 琵琶湖疏水鴨川運河における「伊藤水車」の水力使用をめぐって

Abstract

従来、日本の近代における水利について論じる場合、その多くは農村における灌漑用水が主であり、都市において論じられることは稀であった。本稿で考察する琵琶湖疏水事業は、一八九一年に開始された京都市営の水利事業である。その用途は灌漑用水のみならず水力、電気、舟運等に及ぶ多目的水利事業であり、事業開始以来、京都の近代化を牽引してきた社会資本であった。本稿ではその中でも、鴨川運河から引水使用した精米水車業の「伊藤水車」の水力使用に注目した。大正期以降の京都市の経済発展の進展に伴い、琵琶湖疏水事業の重点が水力・舟運から電気に移行していく過程で、一九二〇年の使用条例の改正を機に、京都市は、鴨東地域南部の地域名望家、伊藤庄兵衛等が近世以来の慣行水利権を根拠に認められ続けてきた疏水の特権的使用に反対し、両者の論争のうえ最終的に特権が否定され、使用料の公平化が実現し、近代都市における「市民的公共関係」が成立する過程を解明している。

In scholarly writing on water rights (suiri) during the modern era in Japan, the most studies have chiefly dealt with water rights for irrigation in farming area, and those dealing with city have been rare. The Biwako Canal project dealt with in this article was a public water-rights project managed as a municipal enterprise by Kyoto city from its beginning in 1892: it was precisely a water-rights project managed by a city administration. This enterprise was a multipurpose water-rights project in which water was to be used for various ends-waterpower, the generation of electricity, water transport-and not only for irrigation. It was social infrastructure that propelled the modernization of the city of Kyoto. Although previous studies of the history of the modern city in Japan have seen the formation of the "relationship between the burger and Offentliclkeit" (bourgeois or the citizens of the city and public space) in cities as advocated by German sociologist Jurgen Habermas as an indispensable object for verification, they have proceeded without inquiring fully into his concept of "the relationship between the bourgeois and public space." In this article, I reconsidered this concept and redefine "the relationship between the bourgeois and public space" as a relationship that fundamentally forbids special privileges or special exemptions, and binds everyone equally under the law stipulated as a result of the rational agreement among the bourgeois (citizens of the city) in the form of "public opinion." Moreover, by focusing on the use of hydraulic power by the Itoh Waterwheel, a the rice-polishing waterwheel business that used water from the Kamogawa Canal section of the Biwako Canal project, I will clarify the process of the development of "the relationship of the bourgeois and public space" in the Kyoto municipal water-rights project. Since the early modern era, the Itoh Waterwheel enterprise had been controlled by three persons: Itoh Kisaburou, Hayami Ritsu, and Itoh Shoubei. They were the most powerful rice-polishing waterwheel traders in Kyoto, and used and a large volume of water drawn from the Kamogawa River using a watercourse built along the east side of this river. During the water shortage of 1883, they were accorded relatively favorable terms in using and irrigation water from the Kamogawa River. But as municipal government of Kyoto City started the construction of Kamogawa Canal on the east side of Kamogawa River in 1894, this watercourse was demolished, and the Itoh Waterwheel could not draw water from the Kamogawa River at all Therefore, they demanded compensation from the municipal government of Kyoto City due to this fact. This resulted in the municipal government accepting their demand. This allowed the Itoh Waterwheel to use large quantities of water from the newly built Kamogawa Canal at a discounted price as compensation for their loss. Thereafter, the municlpal government recognized the traditional water rights of the Itoh Waterwheel that had been held since the early modern period, and continued to recognize their special right to use the Biwako Canal. But with the economic development of the city of Kyoto after World War I, the first priority for the Biwako Canal project moved from water transport and waterpower to the generation of electricity, and with this change, waterpower began to be employed for various uses-not only rice polishing but also for industrial power, extinguishing fires, and supplying garden ponds, thus the granting of special usage rights to the Itoh Waterwheel became conspicuous. Upon the revision of the waterpower ordinance in 1920, the municipal government changed water rates in accordance with waterpower use. At this moment, the continued authorization of the special usage right granted the Itoh Waterwheel by the municipal government became a great political issue in the Kyoto municipal council where it was seen as an unfair use of waterpower. However, municipal government was unable to justify its granting of special rights to the Itoh Waterwheel in response to these views. In contrast, the Kyoto municipal council demonstrated the legal basis for making clear that the special-right use was illegal, and passed a resolution demanding the Itoh Waterwheel pay appropriate fees for waterpower use based on the rate set by this ordinance. Therefore, Itoh Waterwheel sued objecting to the resolution. The municipal government of Kyoto City and Itoh Waterwheel argued whether their traditional water rights were a public legal contract or a private legal contract However, in the end, Itoh Waterwheel's appeal was rejected by the government of Kyoto in 1926. The government formally decided that Itoh Waterwheel must pay a legal waterpower use rate in accordance with this ordinance. In this way, traditional water rights in modern Japan were denied and dismantled by the city government on the basis of the resolution of the municipal council in Kyoto that was influenced by the diversification of water right usage due to economic development following World War I in Kyoto and the accompanying increase and discrimination in use in the waterpower use rate based on revision of regulations. This meant that a fairly balanced relationship between the costs and benefits to the citizens of the city within "the relation between the bourgeois and public space" first materialized in the 1920s. In other words, I believe that it can be claimed that the "the relationship between the bourgeois and public space, " which forbade special privilege and special exemptions, was not first formed in the public water-rights project managed by the municipal enterprise in Kyoto city until the citizens had shown increased public interest in their private property rights after the World War, and this resulted in the rational agreement that applied the law to Itoh Waterwheel.