<研究ノート> 京都大原の山林文書(二) 御入木山代官木村宗右衛門を中心として

Abstract

Ohara is located north of Kyoto City, and long provided fi rewood to downtown Kyoto, until the 1950s. The previous article (1) introduced old documents concerning the production and sale of fi rewood from the Edo Period until the early Meiji Period. This article (2) introduces 21 old documents related to Kimura Sohemon, the Governor of the Forest in Ohara through the Edo Period until the beginning of the Meiji Period. As a retainer and magistrate (Daikan) of the Edo government, the head of the Kimura family has taken the name Kimura Sohemon for generations. Together with the Suminokura family, they held the concession on the boats sailing the Yodo River between Osaka and Kyoto. The family was also put in charge of forests in several villages around Kyoto, and the forests under the control of the Kimura family were called gonyubokuyama. The trees growing in gonyubokuyama included sugi (Japanese cedar), hinoki (Japanese cypress), and matsu (Japanese red pine), which were designated as goyoboku, and it is thought that the villagers could not cut these species without permission. Kimura Sohemon occasionally made inspection tours of gonyubokuyama. Documents regarding these tours have been preserved and include Documents 1 through 16. Document 7 is a villager's record of the preparation for one such tour and what happened during the tour. Documents 1, 5, 8, 12, and 13 reveal the miscellaneous expenses that the villages had to bear for the tours, and how they shared the expenses. Documents 2-4, 6, 9-11, 14, and 15 document goyoboku, listing each tree with its location, the name of the villager or temple in charge, and the species. Some of the documents include the height of the lowest branch and circumference at eye-height. Documents 17 to 21 concern the Kimura family. Document 17, which was written in 1791, describes the history of the family. It refers mainly to deeds of arms and blood relationships of the family, but it also shows that the family was already in charge of the forests in the early Edo Period. The family control over the forests ended in the Meiji Period. Documents 18-21 are petitions submitted by the family at the beginning of the Meiji Period, when the family suffered economic hardships.