Porcelain and power: Merchandising policies in Tokugawa Japan, 1800--1870

This dissertation examines merchandising policies of porcelains in the domains of Saga and Owari and the district of Mino in 19th-century Tokugawa Japan. The relationships of the bakufu, the regional political authorities, and those who were engaged in porcelain production and distribution shaped the distinctive type of arrangement in each of these regions. In Saga, a series of “mercantilistic” arrangements, called gengawase-shihō (display check policy), was implemented by the domain government that absorbed capacities of merchants and producers. The kuramoto-shihō (public warehouse policy) of Owari was a “corporatist” arrangement, being made through a collaboration of the guilds of producers, merchants, and the domain government. In Mino, “capitalistic” arrangements were made through competitions and struggles among various types of producers, merchants and the regional authorities.; The regional variances of the arrangements for porcelain illustrate different contexts and patterns of industrialization under the Tokugawa regime. In Saga, porcelain industry developed under the strong guidance and support of the domain authorities. In contrast, in Owari and Mino, private agents had more capacities to legitimatize their interests and create capital through porcelain production and distribution. In Owari, the guild associations of producers and merchants established the channels of institutionalizing their claims under the warrant of the domain authority. In Mino, under the absence of political control and the established guilds, various types of agents made competing claims over porcelain production and distribution.; Implementing merchandising policies caused a series of tensions and conflicts among producers, merchants, and the governmental authorities at local and national state levels. For the arrangements often undermined capacities of specific groups by institutionalizing claims and interests of others. The existing relationships of regional authorities and those who were engaged in production and distribution of pottery shaped the regional variances of the issues, frequencies, and intensity of these conflicts. The arrangements also challenged the bakufu's influence over the markets. Analysis of merchandising porcelain policies illuminates dynamics of the relationships of political authorities and the subject population that shaped the various patterns of industrial development in 19th-century Tokugawa Japan.