移住型植民地・北海道における名望家の登場 : 阿部仁太郎、豊平村移住までの軌跡

北海道大学大学院文学研究院北方研究教育センター

北方人文研究

Traditional studies of Modern Notables have tended to understand them as a continuum of early modern wealthy farmers. However, in recent years, it has been confirmed that there are Notables who have newly risen in the modern era, and it has been proposed to reassess the Notables as modern beings. Hokkaido will be a very important area in studying Notables as a hierarchy unique to modern times. Because, in Hokkaido, especially in the inland area, new villages were formed one after another by a large number of immigrants in the Meiji era. Therefore, there is no wealthy farmer since the early modern period. However, at present, there are few studies on Notables in Hokkaido. I think this is partly because they have been considered as pioneers in Hokkaido rather than Notables. Based on the above, the author keenly realized that it is necessary to increase research on capitalists in Hokkaido. To do so, it is first necessary to discover historical materials related to Notables. Therefore, the author has been working with the people of Hokkaido University to investigate the materials related to Nitaro Abe in the Kitahiroshima City Eco Museum Center. Nitaro was a person who settled in Toyohira Village (currently Toyohira Ward, Sapporo City) in the Meiji era and became a Modern Notables. However, due to the spread of the COVID-19, the investigation had to be interrupted. Therefore, this time, I would like to clarify the trends of Nitaro before the settlement of Toyohira using the materials stored in the Hokkaido Public Library and the National Archives of Japan. In this paper, it is revealed that Nitaro, who became a modern capitalist, came from a poor class. This result would indirectly indicate that the Modern Notables and the wealthy farmers are not necessarily continuous.