The development of the Kamioka mine Tochibora District in the Late Edo era

Abstract

In the early 1830s, when the redevelopment of old mines began at Mt. Nijugo-yama, the Kanayama-shi (the mining engineer as well as the operator of a small mine) who came from Echizen (currently Fukui Prefecture) led the exploitation. The funds and equipment for exploitation were provided by merchants in Funatsu-machi village and Takayama. In the late 1830s, when the copper merchants under government patronage who lived in Edo (the metropolis of the Tokugawa Shogunate, present-day Tokyo) began to participate, the exploitation improved greatly. However, they pulled out of the Kamioka mine shortly thereafter. The mining engineer who had been sent from Edo by the copper merchants took over the exploitation of that mine and operated it for about the next 10 years. In the late 1840s, a group of wealthy merchants who lived in Funatsu-machi village began to operate the mine, recruiting engineers and laborers. In 1855, the official smelter that was organized by the wealthy merchants who lived in Takayama was established next to the government building of the Hida domain at Takayama, and all mineral resources produced in the Hida area were smelted at this facility. After that, the number of shitakasegi-nin (mining subcontractors) increased significantly. They included many small merchants and kanayama-shi who could not secure sufficient funds. However, they were able to receive payment for mineral resources in advance after establishing the smelter, thus procuring operating funds. It has been thought that the active development of the Kamioka mine in the late Edo era was due to the mining policy of the government of the Hida domain. Actually this development was closely related to the positive participation of the inhabitants around the mine and the characteristics that were developed throughout the history of mine exploitation in the Hokuriku and Tokai areas.