大串金山

Abstract

The diggings of the Okushi gold mine stretch over the villages of Okushi and Kametake, in the Nishisonoki District in Nagasaki Prefecture. During the Edo period, the diggings were in the feudal lord Omura's territory, and were mined twice, from March 1627 to November 1629, and from November 1662 to December 1666. At this gold mine, both yamakin (gold smelted out of gold ore) by means of mabu (drift) and gold dust by the hoppa-meihod were mined. There were two systems of mining. One was niwake, which distributed ore at a definite rate between the official payment to the lord of a manor and the share of those engaged in the mining industry, when the output of ore at each drift during one night and day was in excess of a fixed amount of money. Usually, the higher the output, the higher the rate of official payment. In Okushi, the percentages of the official payment and the portion of the miners were 30% and 70% respectively in 1627; about the middle of the year 1628, the official payment was 10%. The Ukeyama system was frequently used for declining gold and silver mines; under it, contract for a mining operation was made with the lord of a manor, by fixing a definite amount of official payment for a certain period. In the case of Okushi, four miners undertook it for 86 kan (1 kan - 3.75 kilogrammes) of silver for the period of one year from October 1628. The ore was purchased by kaishi, and was smelted. A hoppa was a place to dig gold dust, where miners worked after obtaining a licence, and paid 4 bu of gold per person monthly. The area of the gold mine being defined, 10% tax was imposed on goods coming into the area, and a tax was also imposed on various trades there. Kaishi paid a duty on the basis of their implements, such as the mortar and basin for selecting ore and the anvil for refining it. The above-mentioned official payment of ukeyama included all these kinds of taxes. In 1627, more than fifty drifts were opened, and the number of hoppa-licences then issued was probably above two thousand. However, there were not many drifts which realized a profit, and there were even fewer for which official payment was made according to niwake. Following the principle of state ownership of mines held by the Tokugawa shogunate, Lord Omura offered the feudal government the amount of production of two drifts he himself worked, along with various taxes of the gold mine, which up to the year 1629 amounted to 7 kan 933 + momme (a. momme - 0.1325 ounces; 3.7565 grammes) of gold and 70 kan 480 momme 7 bu of chogin (white money of the feudal government, Keichogin). He piled up an enormous profit by monopolizing kuramai (rice collected by a feudal lord as the land-tax) in the area of the gold mine at a price nearly twice the market value. Also, he charged 2 bu 1 momme of chogin monthly to anyone who came into this area. These two profits were his main income. As one of his measures to meet financial needs, Lord Omura filed with the feudal government after 1660 an application for authority to reopen the Okushi gold mine. It was the time when the prosperity of gold and silver mines in Japan was over, and the time immediately prior to the exploitation of copper mines on a large scale. Every province was flooded with miners who were out of employment. They eagerly cooperated to develop the gold mine. The feudal government did not readily grant Lord Omura's petition, the plan of which was to exploit the mine by gathering some three thousand men out of other territories. One of the reasons for delay was that the govern- ment feared that Christians were hidden somewhere. In 1662, the petition was granted on condition that the exploitation be carried out by the men in his own territory; but the result of the development was not so successful as Lord Omura had expected.