Everyday People in Early Modern Kyoto: Family, Firm and Community

by Mary Louise Nagata

Overview

This social history explores the lives of urban commoners in early modern Kyoto during the dramatic political shift from famine to revolution in the final decades of the Tokugawa regime, through an extensive survey of the detailed record changes from 1843 in response to these crises.

The study focuses on three aspects of urban life, beginning with individual and household relations with the neighborhood communities that comprised the institutional framework of urban administration and provided financial and legal resources for residents. It then moves to the lives of ordinary people, taking a life-course approach to analyze life-cycle work: marriage, divorce, blended families, fertility, adoption, migration, mobility, and mortality. The final theme discusses households people lived in, headship succession and devolution of property; family business as a network of household shops and workshops; and the roles women played, while testing the patriarchy theories commonly used in this field and finding new explanations.

Written for all levels of expertise and including many stories of everyday people, this book will appeal to undergraduate students and general readers interested in historical Kyoto.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032473109
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/21/2025
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Louise Nagata is Professor Emeritus of History at Francis Marion University, associate member of EHESS/CRH, and co-editor of Continuity and Change. She is the author of Labor Contracts and Labor Relations in Early Modern Central Japan (2005) and numerous articles.

Table of Contents

Introduction  Part 1: The Neighborhood Communities  Introduction to Part 1.  Narrative 1: Fukui Sakuzaemon and the Kyoto Measures Guild  1. An Era of Crisis  2. City and Neighborhood Administration.  Narrative 2: Tsutaya Mohachi, Pillar of Kankiji Neighborhood  3. Property Relations, Family and Community .Part 2: Population and the Life Course  Introduction to Part 2  4. Paths to Marriage and to the City.  Narrative 3: Hoteiya Gohei’s Blended Family  5. Fertility and Adoption.  Narrative 4: The Household of Omiya Seibei  6. Was Kyoto an Urban Graveyard?: Mortality, Mobility, and Population Change  Part 3: Household and Family Practice  Introduction to Part 3  7. Married Men and Household Structure.  Narrative 5: Yamatoya Kane’s Lawsuit: Just Because I’m a Woman!  8. Headship, Succession and Household Division.  Narrative 6: Kondaya Nihei: Headship Succession and Devolution of Property  9. Gender and the Family Business Network.  Conclusion: Everyday People in Early Modern Kyoto

Editorial Reviews

"The book gives unique insights into the life of families and individuals of Japan in the past."

Beatrice Moring, University of Helsinki, Finland

“Professor Nagata’s study illustrates the vibrant lives of urban residents: high mobility, diversity of their life course, multiple choices, and extensive family business networks, all of which are clear and accessible to a non-specialist. It addresses interesting aspects regarding patriarchy, arranged marriages, headship succession, and the impact of economic issues on the urban population dynamics in Kyoto. This book provides a very good insight into the everyday life of people during a period of political and social transformation in Japan.”

Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Waseda University, Japan

From the Publisher