Industrial Modernization and Agents : A Case of Tea Industry in Yame Region, Fukuoka Prefecture, at Modern Age

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  • 産業近代化とエージェント : 近代の八女地方における茶業を事例として
  • サンギョウ キンダイカ ト エージェント キンダイ ノ ヤメ チホウ ニ オケ

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Yame region (Fukuoka Pref. ) is known as one of the tea-growing districts. Although its market share in general tea production in Japan is not so great, now tea of higher quality is being produced there. In this paper the author tried to adapt and modify a new method of historical geography by Derek Gregory who had influenced from the "Structuration Theory" of Anthony Giddens. Here, agents as subjective actors for industrial modernization are focused on at the national, regional and local levels. Concretely, they were consisted of government officials and tea manufacturers or dealers. Focusing geographical attention upon agents within space and time, should contribute to the more dynamic regional or historical geography, binding human agents into a framework of national, regional and local levels ahead. We can trace the history of Yame tea industry at latest to Yedo era (1603-1868). But through modern age, especially in Meiji era (1868-1912), the tea pro-duced there was of worse quality because of its method in roasting tea leaves on a big pan directly ("Kama'iri tea"). As the Meiji government had considered tea as one of the most important trade items, they suggested the producers in tea industry to make their products of higher quality. For this sake, the government had planned to promote its industrial modernization, and tea industry was to organize guilds for preventing the production and distribution of the tea of poor quality. It was the innovation of tea processing that Yame tea industry had been called for. But in Yame region, there were many kinds of agricultural products, and in addition, the new method of tea processing took costs while the traditional one, "Kama'iri tea" was convenient for many people there. So the innovation had not proceeded ahead, then the Yame region had lost their economic competitiveness with the other tea-producing regions. Almost all the term in Meiji era, the guild of tea industry in Yame region was in the condition as same as be dissolved. But some individual producers there had attained the innovation for themselves at the end of Meiji era through Taisho era (1911-26). In Yame region we could see contradictory relationships between abundant tea as resource and intention to modernize tea industry. It was some agents who could attain the sublation (Aufheben), beyond the activities by the guild of tea industry there.

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