江戸期というのは本来海洋国家であった日本が貿易による海外発展を制限して、国内治安優先で作り上げた社会だった。そのなかで経済は土地執着性の強い武家の価値感が主体的で、基本的にコメ生産中心の考え方で各藩毎の経済規模を、万石単位というコメ生産基準で定めていた社会。
しかし、コメ生産は江戸幕府体制が確立して100年後ほどの1700年前後には総人口3,000万人に対してほぼ調和する3,000万石生産が達成されて、その後は幕末までそのコメ生産規模が安定して推移したとされる。人口１人あたり年間消費は１石というのが単位の計算基準。
で、基本になるコメ生産は増えずに一定に定まってくると、それ以外の商品作物に農地を利用するようになるのが自然の成り行き。そういったなかで、開明的な藩などが大阪の全国流通市場を睨んで積極的に全国規模での「名産」づくりに取り組んでいった。江戸中期以降、コメ生産以上にこうした商品作物の多様化が進展した。日本各地の文化的多様性はこのことが裏付け。
社会固定的な米一本足経済から、社会全体の経済発展の結果、多様な商品作物が経済の中心領域に推移していったということだろう。多様な商品作物毎に最適化された肥料を選別的に商う商家というビジネスが成立するほどになっていったのだろう。幕末期に開国に舵を切っていく政治変動はこうした経済発展の必然だったともいえるのだろう。
わたしの生家、父は戦後期には北海道の商品作物産品を買い付けて大阪の市場に対して送るビジネスを行っていた。小作解放によって得られた自作農の地位だけでなく、いわば商品作物流通、それも全国規模での市場構造に着目して、投機的なビジネスを行っていたというのです。
一時期は親の代から根付いた北海道栗沢を中心とした地域で「ユリ根」を集中生産して大阪まで送りつけて利を得ようとした。けれど、商品市場では「暴落」という事態もまま発生する。貨車を仕立てて大阪まで全財産を賭けてユリ根を大量に送ってから至急電報で「大阪の市場価格暴落！」の知らせが入って、急遽、貨車を新潟で停止させて、それをまだ暴落していなかった関東に送ることで危機を免れたという。
あまりにも投機的な危険性に深く気付いて、その後、札幌での食品製造業に進出していくきっかけだったと父のコトバで聞いたことがある。
街道筋の商家という共通性のある浦和の古建築をみることで、江戸から今日に至る農本主義から資本主義経済への転換期の民衆の生活史を具体的にみることができたように思う。そのままわが家の家系の推移もシンクロさせてみていた。非常に生々しい記憶なども再生されてきてしまった。
北海道内の住宅史推移なども見てきていたけれど、むしろこういった商家の生業感のほうが自分的にはよりリアリティがあり、取材の観点でもより奥行きを感じさせられる。

English version⬇

Social Transformation from Farmerism to Capitalism: Machiya in Urawa-juku, Nakasendo – 9
A major social transformation to a commodity distribution economy in a concentrated city. This group of merchant houses visualizes the transformation from the Edo period to the present day. …

During the Edo period, Japan, originally a maritime nation, restricted overseas development through trade and created a society that prioritized domestic security. In this society, the economy was based on the values of the samurai clans, which were strongly attached to the land, and the economic scale of each clan was basically based on rice production, which was defined by the rice production standard of 10,000 goku.
However, around 1700, about 100 years after the establishment of the Edo shogunate, rice production reached 30 million koku, which was in harmony with the total population of 30 million, and remained stable until the end of the Edo period. The standard for calculating the unit is that each person in the population consumes one stone of rice per year.
When rice production, which is the basis of the unit, was fixed at a certain level without increasing, it was natural to think of using farmland for other commodity crops. In such a situation, open-minded clans and others actively worked to produce “specialty products” on a national scale, with an eye on the nationwide distribution market in Osaka. From the mid-Edo period onward, the diversification of such commodity crops progressed beyond rice production.
This may be the result of the economic development of society as a whole, which has shifted from a fixed, single-footed rice economy to one in which a variety of commodity crops are at the center of the economy. The business of merchants who selectively traded fertilizers optimized for each of the various commodity crops may have been established. The political changes that led to the opening of Japan to the outside world at the end of the Edo period can be seen as an inevitable consequence of this economic development.
In the postwar period, my father’s family was engaged in the business of buying commodity crops from Hokkaido and sending them to the Osaka market. He was engaged in a speculative business, focusing not only on the status of tenant farmers, which had been gained through the liberation of smallholdings, but also on the distribution of commodity crops, so to speak, and the structure of the market on a national scale.
For a time, he tried to gain profit by producing “lily root” intensively in the area centering on Kurisawa, Hokkaido, where it had taken root since his parents’ generation, and sending it to Osaka. However, the commodity market was prone to “crash prices. After sending a large quantity of lily bulb to Osaka with all his money, he received a telegram immediately saying, “The market price of lily bulb in Osaka has plummeted! The company was able to avoid the crisis by stopping the wagons in Niigata and sending them to the Kanto region, where the market had not yet plummeted.
I have heard my father say that this was the beginning of his later foray into the food manufacturing business in Sapporo, as he was deeply aware of the dangers of being too speculative.
By looking at the old architecture of Urawa, which has the commonality of being a merchant house on a street, I think I was able to see in concrete terms the history of the people’s lives during the transition from an agrarian to a capitalist economy from the Edo period to today. I was also able to synchronize the transition of my family’s history. I was able to replay some very vivid memories.
Although I have seen the history of housing in Hokkaido, I feel that this kind of business of a merchant family is more realistic and gives me a greater sense of depth from the perspective of the research.

Posted on 7月 18th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
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写真は浦和の町家、旧・綿貫家の壁面の構造と外観。外観からは通りに面した開口部でもていねいに木部が土壁で「塗り籠められて」いる。建物外部の柱や窓枠などを大壁造として白壁で塗り籠む建築様式。内部からは柱が見えるが、外部からは柱や窓の木部が見えない。
明治22年の浦和の大火にもこの家は無事に残った。現在は移築保存されていて、忠実に解体前の造作が復元されているけれど、移築前の外観写真では白壁ではなく、全体として「黒塗り」のような印象。

これはこの明治の大火のときに、周辺からの火焔に燻された結果のようだ。「塗屋造」は近世以降の町家によく用いられ、耐火建築としての効用からつくられた。一般に町家では側面は1、2階とも塗り籠められるが、正面と背面の一階部分は軒裏の垂木(たるき)や桁(けた)などが塗り籠められるのみで、柱や格子はそのまま木材部分を現し、腰回りの蹴(け)込み部分も木を残している。
ただ塗屋造といっても、すべてを塗り籠めるわけではなく、なかには背面の軒裏を省略するもの、また二階の壁体部分を塗り籠めるだけで、正面・背面とも軒裏は塗り籠めないものなど、簡略化したものもある。この綿貫家では解体前も移築後も正面の柱まで塗装仕上げされている。かなり念入りな防火への備え。
こういう塗屋造りの問題点はなんと言っても工事価格が高いこと。江戸期の大工仕事でどれほどだったかは、資料に乏しいけれど、塗り壁はすべて手作りなので手間がかかりどうしても工期が長くなる。そのため、人件費がかかり材料によっては価格が高くなってしまうデメリットがある。

そこでふと気付いたのが、この綿貫家では肥料などの商い、それも大口需要に対してのビジネスが主体であったと言うこと。店舗内には厳重な耐火金庫が見られ、その風貌・印象共に「証文」などの超一級ビジネス文書が厳重管理されていた様子をうかがわせている。こころなしか、この金庫、たしかに大火をも生き延びたような風格を淡々と物語っているように感じさせられる。
「○○屋さん、お宅との商取引の証文、無事でしたよ（笑）」
「おお、それはよかったですね（ゲ、マジかよ，しぶといヤツだなぁ）」
土蔵造りなどの建物が大火を生き延びた様子の大和絵などは風俗画として残されているけれど、日本の商業の発展にとって繰り返された都市火災を生き延びることは、必要要件だったことだろう。とくに火災に繰り返し襲われ続けた町人主体の街、江戸の近隣都市商家として生き延びる必須要件だったと思う。
解体前のこの商家のたたずまいから、日本の資本主義の生々流転を感じる次第。最近はデジタル化が進んで取引でも、こういう目に見える建築文化要素が消えてゆくだろうか。さて。

English version⬇

Traditional “Nuriya-zukuri” style townhouse in Urawa-juku, Nakasendo district, withstood a large fire.
The rise and fall of commerce due to repeated “big fires” in Japan, a cultural sphere of wooden architecture. The wisdom of architectural fire prevention to fight against crisis. Protect the business certificate! ・・・・・.

The photo shows the wall structure and exterior of the former Watanuki house, a townhouse in Urawa. From the exterior, even the openings facing the street are carefully “painted” with clay walls. The exterior columns and window frames are painted with white walls in a large wall construction style. The pillars can be seen from the inside, but the wood of the pillars and windows cannot be seen from the outside.
The house survived the Great Urawa Fire of 1889. The house has been relocated and preserved, and the original structure has been faithfully restored to its original state.

This seems to be the result of being smoked by flames from the surrounding area during the Great Fire of the Meiji Era. The “nuriya-zukuri” style was often used in machiya (townhouses) from the early modern period onward, and was created for its utility as a fireproof building. In general, the sides of machiya houses are painted on both the first and second floors, but only the rafters and girders behind the eaves are painted on the front and rear ground floors, leaving the pillars and latticework as they are and the wooden parts around the hips.
Some of them omit the eaves lining on the back, while others only paint the walls of the second floor, but not the eaves lining on both the front and the back. In the Watanuki house, the front pillars were painted both before and after demolition and reconstruction. This is a very careful preparation for fire prevention.
The problem with this type of nuriya-zukuri is the high cost of construction. Although there is little information available on how much carpentry work was done during the Edo period, the labor required to paint walls is all handmade, which inevitably lengthens the construction period. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the cost of labor and some materials are more expensive than others.

Then, I suddenly realized that the Watanuki family was mainly engaged in the fertilizer business, which was a business for large orders. Inside the store, there is a fireproof safe, and its appearance and impression suggest that top-class business documents such as “certificates” were kept under strict control. Perhaps it is because of its appearance, but the safe seems to have survived the great fire.
The safe was in the safe.
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that.
Yamato-e paintings depicting how buildings in the dozo-zukuri style survived large fires have been preserved as genre paintings, but surviving repeated urban fires must have been a necessary condition for the development of commerce in Japan. In particular, I believe it was a prerequisite for the survival of merchant houses in the neighborhoods of Edo, a city where townspeople were the main residents, to survive fires that repeatedly ravaged the city.
The appearance of this merchant house before its demolition reminds me of the life and death of Japanese capitalism. I wonder if these visible elements of architectural culture will disappear in the course of trade with the advance of digitalization these days. Now, let’s see what happens next.

Posted on 7月 16th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 住宅マーケティング, 日本社会・文化研究 | No Comments »

日本の街道というのは、経済発展の基盤としての流通の大動脈。律令制国家システムが本格的に導入された奈良の首都建設で大陸国家・唐の都市計画を導入したときに本格的に「官道」が整備されたと伝わる。律令制時代に、中央と地方国府とを結ぶための幹線道路として整備された大型直線道路（五畿七道）などを指す。五畿七道とは、古代日本の律令制における広域地方行政区画。明治になって北海道が加わって五畿八道と呼ばれる。現在の日本各地の地方名の多く（東海、東山、北陸、山陽、山陰、北海道など）は、五畿七道(八道)に由来している。
余談ながらこうした官道整備と並行して輸送手段としての馬が輸入されていった歴史が重なる。列島には馬は自然的には存在せず、こうした官道・街道整備と一体のモノとして馬の輸入・生産も広がっていった。流通を起点とした古代社会での「技術革新」の実態を見る思いがしてくる。
ただ日本は海洋国家であり、物流では伝統的に水運が主力だったことで社会発展に於いて世界の中でも独自の進化をもたらしたように思える。海運・水運が大量輸送の主力であり大都市はそれらの港湾が基盤となり、一方陸路の要衝地というのはより農業を基盤とした流通路として発展したのだろう。この中山道・浦和宿は他の地域とは異なって全部が陸路という独自性がある。浦和宿は戦国時代に発生した「市」が発祥だと考えられている。それが江戸期に整備された中山道の宿場町として発展した。1844年当時で上町96軒、中町47軒、下町69軒の合計212店の商店の記録がある。旅籠・穀屋・水油屋・飲食店・建具屋・道具屋など多様な店舗群。
この浦和宿の２軒目の住居一体型の生業町家建築は「荒物・肥料」屋さん綿貫家であります。


中山道の旅客や周辺地域の人びとのさまざまな生活必需品などが商われたことだろう。旅籠・飲食店などを中心にして「歓楽」的要素も大きな吸引力を持って暮らしに彩りをもたらせたに違いない。そしてそうした交流の中から情報も伝達されていった。それもまた地域の人びとにとって生きる支えになったことだろう。周辺の農村的環境とは隔絶した「キラキラ」した地域存在としてあり続けたことだろう。
いわゆる住宅という「住むだけ」機能よりもより人間性の本質を刺激するのがこうした街区環境といえるだろう。どうもこのあたりの人間性の本然の部分が気になってきて仕方ない（笑）。
中山道を中心に裏通りまでの短冊形の地割りであり、建物の間隔1mほどの道があってそれに沿って店舗・蔵・物置・住居棟などが配置されている。綿貫家も間口４間を西に向けた配置図になっている。
前振りが長くなったので、店舗と建築については明日以降に続きます。

English version⬇

A group of stores that fulfill the needs of “Aramono Fertilizer Store” Machiya in Urawa-juku, Nakasendo – 5
The transportation network originating from “government roads” that brought “industry” to the archipelago. The exchange of people, goods, and money stimulates social evolution and the true nature of humanity. The “Nakayamamichi Urawa-juku” townhouses

Kaido in Japan is a major artery of distribution as a foundation for economic development. It is said that “official roads” were developed in earnest when the Ritsuryo system of state system was introduced in earnest when the city planning of the continental state Tang Dynasty was introduced with the construction of the capital city of Nara. The term refers to the large straight roads (Gokyo seven roads) and other roads that were developed during the Ritsuryo period as trunk roads to connect the central government with the local national governments. The Gokyo-Seventh Province was a broad regional administrative division under the Ritsuryo system of ancient Japan. In the Meiji era (1868-1912), Hokkaido was added to the list and the region was called the Ginki Hachimichi (Five Kinai and Eight Provinces). Many of the current names of regions in Japan (Tokai, Higashiyama, Hokuriku, Sanyo, San’in, Hokkaido, etc.) are derived from the Ginki seven provinces (eight provinces).
As an aside, the history of the importation of horses as a means of transportation coincides with the development of these official roads. Horses did not exist naturally in the archipelago, and their importation and production spread as an integral part of the development of these official roads and highways. This is a realistic picture of “technological innovation” in ancient society, with distribution as its starting point.
However, Japan is a maritime nation, and water transportation has traditionally been the main form of distribution, which seems to have brought about a unique evolution in social development. Sea and water transportation were the mainstay of mass transportation, and large cities were based on these ports and harbors, while key locations on land routes developed as distribution routes based more on agriculture. Unlike other areas, Urawa-juku on the Nakasendo Road is unique in that it is entirely an overland route. Urawa-juku is thought to have originated as a “market” that arose during the Warring States Period. In 1844, there were a total of 212 stores (96 in the upper town, 47 in the middle town, and 69 in the lower town). This diverse group of stores included inns, grain stores, water oil stores, restaurants, fixture stores, and tool stores.
The second house in this Urawa-juku, a living machiya building with an integrated dwelling, is the Watanuki house, a “rough goods and fertilizer” shop.

Various daily necessities for passengers on the Nakasendo route and people living in the surrounding areas must have been traded. The “entertainment” element centering on inns, restaurants, and other such establishments must have attracted people to the area and added color to their lives. Information was also transmitted through such interactions. This must have been another source of support for the local people. The area must have continued to exist as a “sparkling” community that was separated from the surrounding rural environment.
It can be said that this kind of town environment stimulates the essence of humanity more than the “living only” function of housing. I can’t help but be curious about the true nature of humanity in this area (laughs).
The land is divided in the shape of a strip of land centering on Nakasendo Road to the back street. There is a road with a distance of about 1 meter between buildings, and stores, warehouses, storehouses, and residential buildings are arranged along it. The Watanuki family also has a layout with a frontage of 4 ken, facing west.
Since the introduction has become lengthy, we will continue with the store and the architecture tomorrow or later.

Posted on 7月 14th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 住宅マーケティング, 日本社会・文化研究 | No Comments »

街道筋の立地を活かした「煎餅店」の看板と「店先」の様子がわかる写真。そして広い土間では毎日、煎餅製造の作業が繰り返された。使い込まれたカマドからは、まさに生業を支えた火力の力強さを感じさせられる。
３枚目の写真は昭和30年代のこの家での「生業」の様子とされている。個人的にわたしの父と面影が近似している。・・・江戸期までの社会は農業を基本立国戦略とした社会。武家支配の体制で米の石高によって経済の基本が計量された社会だけれど、田沼時代など、市場経済重視の「改革」も試みられていた。
明治の変革で関西経済を牛耳っていた三井や住友などの旧財閥系が出資することで明治政府軍が江戸幕府の体制をひっくり返すのだけれど、市場経済的社会発展の方向で大きく社会は変換していった。そういう社会改造は昭和まで継続してきたともいえる。
この浦和の煎餅店にはそういう社会変革の空気感が伝わってくる。
以前には栃木県宇都宮の駅前に今でも残っている商家を探訪したこともあるけれど、江戸期の市場経済、都市経済の実質が関東各地では一部で濃厚に残されてきている。たぶん江戸の街というのはこういった商家・家内制手工業の家が軒を接して街区を形成していたのに違いない。江戸から東京に一変していく中で都市景観のそうした残滓はほぼ一掃されていったのだろう。というか、最先端としてどんどんスクラップアンドビルドが進展して江戸社会の状況は感じられなくなっていったのだろう。


煎餅の原材料をこねて上の「型」で型抜きして、カマドに懸けた油で揚げて、醬油ダレなどにくぐらせてから網焼きした工程が写真展示されていた。写真を見る限り「家内制」というよりも近隣の女性労働力に支えられてこの家の生産は維持されていたように思う。この街道に面した建物部分は、生産の場、ビジネスの場として特化された空間だったのだろう。
ちょうどわたしの生家でも昭和30年代、こうした家内制手工業そのままの生業が営まれていた。わが家では男兄弟が５人いたので、それが労働主体となって生産が回転していた。徐々にパートなどの労働力が投入されていって事業規模が拡大した。生産労働の現場感、その雰囲気が通底していて、えぐられるような感覚を持ってしまう。子どもたちは早朝から必死の生産労働に従事した後、食事して学校に通っていた。わたしたち年代でようやく、周囲に「サラリーマン」世帯が居住するようになったけれど、子どもたちの家の大方はこうした生業感を維持していた。
令和の今の時代では、街からこうした息吹は消えて行きつつあるけれど、日本の都市の成立期とはこのような空気感がベースなのだと思える。意識的な文化継承が必要ではないだろうか。

English version⬇

The Architecture of Means of Survival in the City: Nakasendo, Urawa’s Sembei Shop – 3
Just 40-50 years ago, the air of subsistence was everywhere in Japanese cities. Is the modern “house just for living” really progress? …

This photo shows the signboard and “storefront” of a “sembei store” taking advantage of its location on a street. In the large earthen floor, the rice cracker manufacturing process was repeated every day. The well-worn kamado (a kind of wooden stove) shows the power of the fire that sustained the business.
The third photo is said to show the “livelihood” of this house in the 1950s. Personally, it is a close resemblance to my father. …Until the Edo period, society was based on agriculture as a basic national strategy. The economy was based on the amount of rice produced under the samurai rule, but during the Tanuma period, there were attempts at “reforms” that emphasized a market economy.
The Meiji government forces overturned the Edo shogunate system by investing in the former zaibatsu groups such as Mitsui and Sumitomo, which had controlled the Kansai economy during the Meiji Restructuring. Such social transformation can be said to have continued until the Showa period.
This rice cracker store in Urawa conveys the atmosphere of such social reform.
I once visited a merchant’s house that still remains in front of a station in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, and the substance of the market and urban economy of the Edo period is still strong in some parts of the Kanto region. The streets of Edo (present-day Tokyo) were probably made up of such merchant and cottage industry houses. As the city changed from Edo to Tokyo, these remnants of the urban landscape were almost completely wiped out. In other words, the state-of-the-art scrap-and-build process has progressed rapidly, and the conditions of Edo society can no longer be felt.

The photo exhibit showed the process of kneading the raw ingredients for the rice crackers, cutting them into molds, frying them in oil over a kamado, dipping them in shoyu sauce, and then grilling them. The photos suggest that the family’s production was maintained by the female labor force of the neighborhood, rather than a “cottage industry. The part of the building facing the street must have been a specialized space for production and business.
In the 1950s, my family was engaged in this type of cottage industry. There were five male siblings in my family, so production revolved around them as the main labor force. Gradually, part-time and other workers were brought in, and the scale of the business expanded. The on-site feeling of production labor and its atmosphere is so pervasive that it has a gut-wrenching effect. Children were engaged in frantic production labor from early in the morning, and then had to eat and go to school. Although “salaried” households finally began to populate the neighborhoods around my generation, most of my children’s families maintained this kind of work ethic.
In the current era of 2025, this kind of atmosphere is disappearing from the city, but I believe that the founding period of Japanese cities was based on this kind of atmosphere. We need to consciously carry on this culture.

Posted on 7月 12th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 住宅マーケティング, 日本社会・文化研究 | No Comments »

当たり前のことですが、日本人は社会の中で必死に生きてきた。わたしたちが現在にまで生き延びてきたのは、先人たちが必死に生業を営んできたことのおかげ。この浦和の古民家には強く感じさせられる。
という感覚には時代背景、この煎餅店の立地、生業ともわたしの生家と近似点が多いことがある。幕末から明治の混乱期にこの家は大きな街道筋である中山道に面した立地で、そこそこの都会である浦和で、たぶん旅人などの移動者に対して、食品を提供していのちを繋いできた。
わたしの生家は、札幌の石山通という南北の幹線道路に面した敷地で食品製造業を戦後の混乱・復興期から開始して、なんとか家族を養ってきた。
展示されていた家内制手工業らしい生産風景の写真に見入っていて、わが家との類似性に激しく共感の思いを抱いた次第なのです。撮影されている女性たちの表情に母親の面影をすら感じてしまう。
街道に対して間口を大きく開口して道行く人たちに手軽な食品を提供することで、いつの世にも確実な食品で生業を確保しようという生存戦略。わたし自身はまだ３才だったので、そのような父母の考え方はわからなかったけれど、戦後の混乱期を超えてそれまでの農家をやめて札幌という北海道最大の都市に一家を挙げて移住したという、そういう生き方の選択ではまったく同じように感じている。


そんなふうな感慨を持って見ていると、当時の街路地図、そこに表現された商店名などにもどこか、既視体験のような空気感を感じさせられる。もっと言えば、活字ではなく手書きと思われる文字にも、それ以前の日本社会からの伝統的価値感のようなものまで匂い立っている。
わたしたち社会の根源の姿、その一端が表現されている。
〜「せんべい」の起源は、空海が中国から持ち帰った説、千利休の弟子が考案した菓子の由来説、草加のおせんさんという人が旅人から教わって団子の残りを焼いたのが始まり説とか、種々言い伝えがある。団子状のもちを焼いて食べることは弥生時代にはすでに普及していた。しかしこれはあくまでも主食で、間食として菓子の性格を持つものは室町時代以降であり、江戸時代になって多くの名物せんべいが誕生した。江戸時代に「せんべい」と称したのは小麦粉に砂糖を混ぜて練り焼いたもの。「塩せんべい」は下級品とされ、農家が残り飯を煎って蒸し塩を混ぜて伸ばしてから竹筒で丸形に抜き、天日干しして炭火で焼いたのが始まりとされる。塩せんべいにしょうゆが用いられ現在のようになるのは1645年以降。江戸に近い町屋、千住、金町、柴又、草加などで繁盛した。とりわけ奥州街道宿場町・草加の「草加せんべい」は「塩せんべい」を代表するほどの人気となった。・・・参考/全国米菓工業組合「米菓とともに半世紀（50周年記念誌）」〜
弥生時代かよ（笑）。まことに深遠な日本人の食の世界。・・・

English version⬇

Nostalgic Domestic Food Handicraft Industry: Nakasendo, Urawa’s Sembei Shop-2
The universal survival strategy of the Japanese people from their parents’ generation to prehistory. The unchanging business of food production. The control of the cultural flow path called “Kaidou-suji”. The

Japanese people have struggled to survive in society. We have survived to the present day thanks to the desperate efforts of our predecessors to make a living. This is a matter of course, but this old house in Urawa makes me feel it strongly.
The reason is that the historical background, the location of this rice cracker store, and its business have many similarities to my family’s. The house was built during the period of turmoil from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period. During the turmoil from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period, this house was located facing Nakasendo, a major roadway in Urawa, which is a reasonably urban area, and probably provided food to travelers and other mobile people to sustain their lives.
My family started a food manufacturing business on a site facing Ishiyama-dori, a major north-south road in Sapporo, during the postwar turmoil and reconstruction period, and has managed to support my family.
As I looked at the photos on display of production scenes that were typical of a cottage industry, I felt a strong sense of empathy for the similarities with my own family. The women in the photographs even have the look of their mothers on their faces.
The strategy of survival is to secure a livelihood with reliable food products by opening a wide frontage to the street and offering easy food products to people on the street. I myself was only 3 years old, so I did not understand such a way of thinking of my parents, but I feel the same way about their choice of life, which was to quit farming and move to Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido, after the chaos of the postwar period.

Looking at the map with this kind of emotion, the street maps of the time and the names of stores expressed on them also give one a sense of déjà vu. More specifically, even the handwriting, which appears to be handwritten rather than typed, evokes a sense of traditional values from the Japanese society of earlier times.
The work expresses a part of the roots of our society.
〜The origin of “senbei” is said to have been brought back from China by Kukai, or from a confection invented by a disciple of Sen no Rikyu, or from a baked dumpling leftover by a Soka resident named Osen-san, who learned it from a traveler. The practice of baking and eating dumpling-shaped glutinous rice cakes was already widespread during the Yayoi period (710-794). However, this was only a staple food, and it was not until the Muromachi period (1333-1573) that it took on the character of a snack, and it was not until the Edo period (1603-1867) that many specialty rice crackers were born. In the Edo period, “senbei” were made by kneading and baking wheat flour mixed with sugar. Shio senbei” was considered a lower class product, and is said to have originated when farmers roasted leftover rice, mixed it with salt, stretched it out, cut it into rounds in bamboo tubes, dried it in the sun, and baked it over a charcoal fire. It was not until 1645 that soy sauce was added to salt rice crackers. They thrived in the town houses near Edo (Tokyo), such as Senju, Kanamachi, Shibamata, and Soka. In particular, “Soka senbei” from Soka, a post town on the Oshu highway, became so popular that it represented “shio senbei” (salted rice cracker). Reference: National Rice Cracker Industry Association, “Half a Century with Rice Crackers (50th anniversary commemorative magazine)
The Yayoi Period? The world of Japanese people’s food is truly profound. ….

Posted on 7月 10th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 住宅マーケティング, 古民家シリーズ | No Comments »