P01-05 – Lecture 5: Modern History I “Foreign Settlements and Brothel Districts as Windows on Osaka and the Meiji Restoration”

Hero Image: “Layout of the Officially Licensed Matsushima Pleasure Quarter (Gomen yūjomachi Matsushima kuruwa no zu)”,
owned by Osaka Municipal Library

Introduction

Hello, I’m Saga Ashita, a professor at Osaka City University. Starting today we’ll be entering into the modern period.

In today’s class I’ll first provide a general overview of the effects the Meiji Restoration had on Osaka. Working off that, I’ll then introduce some concrete examples of the highly particular local social formations that helped define the larger urban society of Meiji-period Osaka.

Recent work in urban social history has given us a few important considerations to keep in mind during our examination of urban society in the Meiji period: first, the need to pay careful attention to both the continuities and the discontinuities with the early modern period; second, to look at urban formations from a spatial perspective; and third, the importance of reconstructing the everyday lives and social connections of people in specific urban localities and social groups.

Keep these points in mind as we go through today’s class.

1. Osaka and the Meiji Restoration

Naturally, the Restoration gave rise to big changes in Osaka. In the first month of 1868 (old calendar), Ōkubo Toshimichi called for the relocation of the capital to Osaka as the new government, dominated by Satsuma and Chōshū domains, brought the city under its control. The reflected the political ascendance that the neighboring poles of the Kansai region, Osaka and Kyoto, had experienced over the Bakumatsu period (the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate). The relocation didn’t happen in the end, but Osaka did rapidly take on important roles, first as Japan’s base for diplomatic negotiations when, later in 1868, the Foreign Office was set up there, and then as home to the Mint, from 1869, where the new government produced its coinage. However, Osaka’s economy suffered two successive body blows with the actual move of the capital to Tokyo later in 1869, and then the abolition of the silver ginme currency in 1870 (in the early modern period the Edo area used gold and Kansai silver). Further, the city’s political position steadily declined as governing authority was centralized in Tokyo. The most radical departure in this regard came with domain abolition in 1871 (haihan chiken), through which the plethora of relatively independent Edo-period domains (han) was replaced with (eventually) a far smaller number of subordinate “prefectures” (ken). Osaka’s population, which had reached over 400,000 in the Edo period, also declined for a time.

Of course, there were also various changes in Osaka at the level of urban society. As an example of those changes, we’re going to look at the Kawaguchi foreign settlement and the Matsushima brothel district that was attached to it. Both were new, products of the Meiji period, but the process by which they came to be and the course of the events that followed were heavily influenced by early modern social structures. So now let’s dive into this locality, keeping eyes on both the changes wrought by the Restoration and the deep-rooted persistence of early modern social forms.

2. The Kawaguchi Foreign Settlement

① The Social Structure of the Kawaguchi Foreign Settlement

First, let’s take a look at the events leading up to the establishment of the settlement in 1868. The Ansei Five-Power Treaties of 1858 (with the US, UK, France, Russia, and the Netherlands) stipulated that Osaka be opened as a market (kaishi). The deadline was pushed forward once, but on January 1, 1868 the Osaka market opened together with the port in neighboring Kobe. In September of the same year, Osaka’s port was opened as well, the land at Kawaguchi auctioned off, and the settlement formally established.

Kawaguchi comprised the western edge of the city’s built-up area (i.e., on Osaka Bay). In the early modern period, it hosted shogunal guard stations for inspecting cargo coming into Osaka, branch offices of the House of Hitotsubashi (relatives of the Tokugawa), and the like; in short, the area was defined by a high concentration of official/“public” facilities. It was this character that influenced the choice of location for the development of the foreign settlement.

The Kawaguchi Foreign Settlement,
owned by the Office of the Editor for Osaka City History

What foreigners from the treaty countries purchased at auction (and so became “owners” of) was actually perpetual lease rights to land. The Japanese government provided deeds to that effect and collected rent from the rights holders, but the rights themselves could be bought and sold freely thereafter. The money from the initial auctioning of these rights, along with a portion of each year’s rents, was set aside as an endowment fund for the administration of the settlement.

In terms of spatial structure, the foreign settlement was divided in two. First, in the strictest sense of a foreign settlement, the area where foreign “owners” (i.e., perpetual leaseholders) lived. Here Japanese were not allowed to own/rent land and internal governance was left to the newly established Osaka Foreign Settlement Municipal Council (I’ll come back to the Council and the endowment fund shortly).

Second was the mixed residential area, which abutted the settlement proper and was also open to foreign residence, but on different terms: foreigners, including non-Westerners, lived amongst Japanese people and rented their lodgings from Japanese owners. Over time, these mixed areas became home to large numbers of Chinese (i.e., Qing subjects).

 The makeup of the Western residents by country and occupation
in the Kawaguchi Foreign Settlement

The make up of the perpetual leaseholders by country aroud 1870
Great Britain United States Prussia Holland France Total
13 6 5 3 2 29
The make up of the foreign residents by occupation in Osaka urban area
Year Commerce Technican Teacher Doctor Missionary Diplomat Other Total
1872 27 12 5 8 2 1 8 63
1887 7 2 4 2 67 2 2 86

Now let’s turn briefly to the makeup of the settlement’s Western residents in the early years of Meiji. If we look at perpetual leaseholders by country around 1870, British were most numerous, followed by Americans, then Prussians, and so on. By occupation, using statistics from 1872, a large number of foreigners were involved in commerce of some kind, followed by technicians, doctors, etc. However, by 1887 missionaries made up the overwhelming majority, with very few commercial agents and technicians.

(hence the large numbers of businesspeople). But because of the excessive silt that the Yodo River deposited each year around the jetties, the area was eventually judged inappropriate for that purpose. Idle foreign settlements being the devil’s workshop, the number of missionaries increased, transforming Kawaguchi into a base for proselytization and educational activities.

② Self-Governance in the Foreign Settlement

C. T. Warren, in the Uniform of the Osaka Municipal Fire Brigade
in St. Andrew’s Archives

As I mentioned before, the Kawaguchi foreign settlement had its own governing body, the Osaka Foreign Settlement Municipal Council. It began with the establishment of the endowment fund system in the “Osaka-Hyogo Foreign Settlement Agreement” of August 1868. This agreement stipulated that the management of the fund be carried out by a council made up of the governor of Osaka Prefecture, each treaty power’s ambassador, and three lease-holding representatives. The first election for these representatives was held in October and the Council’s first session in May 1869, in the home of the Dutch vice consul.

In total, 126 sessions were held, the last in July 1899 (Meiji 32), which was the year that foreign settlements were abolished. The Council dealt with all matters related to the management of the settlement, such as roads and sewage, firefighting, public safety and hygiene, the cemetery and parks, etc. To give illustrate the degree of self-governance in the settlement, let’s briefly look at firefighting and police.

The settlement’s fire brigade got its start in 1875, the Council having purchased a steam-powered pump from Britain in 1874, after which point residents themselves carried out the brigade’s activities.

Further, the council set up a police board in 1869, and from 1874 until the abolition of the settlement, Englishmen served as chief of police.

As you can see, the foreign settlement council had the authority over its internal affairs and maintained its own police and fire departments, ultimately on the basis of the extraterritorial rights established in the commercial treaties concluded with Western countries.


③ The Foreign Settlement and Related Facilities

Despite extraterritoriality, the Kawaguchi foreign settlement did not exist in isolation: many associated facilities and services took shape around it.

First of all, there was the foreign cemetery in Zuikenyama, a part of the Ikeyama shinden (lands reclaimed for rice agriculture) slightly down the Aji River from the settlement.

The Jiyūtei, a Western-style hotel referred to by the Japanese as the “foreigners’ lodge,” opened in 1868 in the Umemoto-chō neighborhood of the mixed residential zone. To serve the demands of meat-heavy Western diets, a slaughterhouse was built in the Ishida shinden (along the banks of the Aji River) on land the government had bought up and leased to an Englishman. Last, but certainly not least, the Mastushima brothel district was opened specifically for foreigners.

In sum, the Kawaguchi foreign settlement constituted a zone of extraterritoriality within Osaka, where, on the basis of the unequal treaties, foreigners’ self-government was permitted. But it also exerted a great influence on local society because of the various derivative facilities and services that it called into being. Foreign settlements were abolished in 1899, when revised commercial treaties came into effect that rescinded the rights of extraterritoriality and permitted mixed residence throughout Japan. Accordingly, the grounds of the settlement in Osaka were integrated into the city as a part of the Kawaguchi-chō district.

3. The Matsushima Brothel District

① Basic Character and Spatial Structure

Now let’s take a look at Matsushima, not just as an element of society in the foreign settlement, but also with attention to its connections to the surrounding local society and the history of Edo-period brothel districts.

In 1867, the Osaka Magistrate, Shibata Takenaka, submitted a proposal to the shogunal elders for a brothel district serving foreigners to be established as one of the facilities attached to the planned foreign settlement. After the settlement opened in the tenth month of 1868, the Foreign Office, which the Restoration government had set up in Osaka, began preparations for just such a brothel district. There was some local resistance because the authorities bought up, and vacated residents from, the designated land over just two months. Nonetheless, by the twelfth month they had named the site “Matsushima-machi” and begun recruiting prospective brothel operators. The establishment of the new brothel district thus proceeded, with extreme speed, as a development project of the areas surrounding the foreign settlement.

We can summarize the basic character of the new brothel district as follows:

  1. It was legal and officially sanctioned (gomen yūjomachi), built on government land (managed by the Foreign Office) essentially as an annex to the Kawaguchi foreign settlement.
  2. Its purpose was to provide sexual services to foreign sailors and laborers, etc., thereby preventing sexual contact between foreign men and the general population of Japanese women.
  3. the Matsushima brothels were set up as “branches” (demise) of the Edo-period brothels that had operated out of the Shinmachi district, officially licensed by the shogunate for such activities, or other unofficial locations (whether tacitly permitted or completely illicit).

These special characteristics set Matsushima apart from preexisting brothel districts.

Next let’s have a look at a layout drawing that shows the spatial layout of Matsushima.

“Layout of the Officially Licensed Matsushima Pleasure Quarter (Gomen yūjomachi Matsushima kuruwa no zu)” (http://image.oml.city.osaka.lg.jp/archive/image.do?id=29495&&mno=0),
owned by Osaka Municipal Library, partial modification

First we should note how the preexisting built-up area on the east side of Terashima (the island) fell outside the enclosure that demarcated the brothel district. Second, four new bridges and gates were built, along with east and west meeting halls, and other sites for official business. Third, there was the Shōkaku Pleasure House, a grand structure crowned with a small tower, which was built by the government and rented out to brothel operators (otategashi). We also see how Matsushima was envisioned as a space where businesses would be compartmentalized according to both type of occupation and class: the brothels themselves, divided into four ranks; chaya “tea houses” large and small, serving as intermediaries between brothels and customers; sections for merchants, entertainers, tea stalls, etc. Finally, the large open space on the south side labelled “Hanazono” provided a space for temporary attractions like archery and theater.

As you can see, this illustration allows us to pick out several of the defining features of the Matsushima brothel district.

② Osaka’s Brothels and the Transition to the Modern Period

The Matsushima brothel district became a keystone in the regulatory framework that was erected to govern Osaka’s preexisting Edo-period brothels, which included the officially licensed Shinmachi area as well as multiple tacitly permitted operations.

The Brothels of Early Modern Osaka,
owned by the Office of the Editors for the Osaka City History

In the tenth month of 1872, the Meiji government promulgated the Entertainer and Prostitute Emancipation Act (geishōgi kaihōrei). It forbade the sale and purchase of persons as a source of labor for such operations, which had been general practice during the Edo period under the pretext of adoption or indentured servitude. However, the sale of sex itself was not banned. Ergo bondage to a brothel became illegal, but not the selling of sex (and entertainment) that occurred with the providing individual’s consent. The Act still pulled the rug out from under brothel districts throughout Japan, but Osaka’s response was noteworthy. In Osaka, the government had already developed a policy a year prior of preserving large-scale brothel districts like Shinmachi and Matsushima, using the latter as a receptacle for consolidating the city’s many petty, tacitly permitted brothel operations. This was also a means of promoting business in Matsushima. An so, following the promulgation of the Emancipation Act, Osaka immediately decreed Shinmachi, Matsushima, and four other Edo-period brothel districts to be licensed for the “space rental” trade (sekigashi)—in other words, the business of providing newly emancipated sex workers with places to operate.

In sum, the regulation of brothel districts in Osaka underwent a major shift through the municipal government’s strategies for promoting Matsushima, and these in turn shaped the modern system of legal prostitution in the city.

 

③ The Matsushima Brothel District and Local Society

In closing, let’s look at Matsushima’s connections with local society.

Provisionally, we’ll call the land area of the island where the brothel district was located the Matsushima area. The built-up area on the eastern side, Matsushima-chō, dated from the Edo period and was dominated by boathouses, boat builders, and the like. During the construction of the brothel district, the land owners and boat builders from this area opposed the government’s buying up of land and the building of new bridges. But when the new bridges made ferry services obsolete, former operators petitioned for, and were granted, monopoly rights over the transport of goods and provision of water to the brothels. Basically, at first there was opposition to the establishment of the brothel district, but when that became unavoidable, people came to rely on it as part of their livelihood.

Eventually, in order to accommodate patronage by government forces shipping out of Osaka during the Satsuma Rebellion, the brothel district’s borders expanded, swallowing up the normal town area on the island’s east side. In terms of the power relations between the town and brothel areas, originally born out of resistance and then reliance, we can therefore say that the latter came to dominate the whole of the local society.

As we have seen today, the Matsushima brothel district, which began as a development of the area around the Kawaguchi foreign settlement, evolved historically through the interaction of a variety of factors, including central and local government policies of brothel regulation and business promotion, transformations within the sex trade, and the district’s multifarious subtle connections with local society. When the foreign settlement began to stagnate, its connection with the brothel district weakened and Matsushima became more and more independent of its influence, eventually growing into a force that would direct the development of the entire local society. In the persistence and evolution of brothel districts despite the Emancipation Act, we can see the entrenched nature of the social connections that early modern Japanese society had brought into being.

Thus while it does, at first glance, look as though urban Osaka changed greatly with modernization, in fact Edo-period structures remained deeply rooted, shaping the conditions of local urban society. We must, therefore, understand modern urban society as an entanglement of old and new elements.


第5回:近現代史①「明治維新と大阪―居留地と遊廓を例に」

まえおき

 こんにちは。大阪市立大学の佐賀朝です。今回の授業からは、近代に入ります。

 まず、今日の授業では、明治維新が大阪にもたらした影響を概観した上で、明治時代の大阪の都市社会について、それを構成する個性的な地域社会の事例を紹介します。

 近年の都市社会史研究をふまえると、明治時代の都市社会を見ていく上で大切な視点として、第一に、近世からの連続と断絶に注目すること、第二に、空間的視点から都市構造を見ること、第三に、都市における社会集団や都市内部の具体的な地域での人々の生活と社会関係を明らかにすること、などが挙げられます。

 この時限では、以上の点に留意して、授業を進めていきましょう。

1.明治維新と大阪

 明治維新は、大阪にも大きな変化をもたらします。幕末期に京都や大坂の政治的地位が上昇したのを背景に、1868年1月、薩摩・長州を中心とする維新政権が大阪を押さえると、大久保利通が大阪遷都を唱えます。これは、結局、実現しませんでしたが、同年には外国事務局を大阪に設置して諸外国との交渉が行われ、翌69年には造幣局を設置して新政府の貨幣製造を行うなど、大阪の役割は急速に高まったのです。しかし、同じ年に事実上の東京遷都が行われ、70年に銀目(ぎんめ)の廃止が断行されると、大阪経済に打撃を与えます。また1871年の廃藩置県により中央集権体制が出来上がると、大阪の地位は徐々に低下し、江戸時代に40万人を越えていた人口も、しばらくは減少を続けることになりました。

 とはいえ、明治維新で大阪の都市社会にも様々な変化が現れました。以下では、大きな変化が生じた事例として、川口居留地とその付属施設だった松嶋遊廓を取り上げます。川口居留地も松嶋遊廓も、それ自体は新しいものなのですが、これらが生まれる過程や、その後たどった経緯には、近世以来の社会構造が影響を与えています。ここでは、そうした明治維新がもたらした変化と、近世社会の根強い持続の両方に注意して見ていきましょう。

2.川口居留地

①川口居留地の社会構成

 まず、1868年に居留地が開設されるまでの経過を見ましょう。1858年の安政の五ヶ国条約では江戸と大坂の開市(かいし)―市場として開くこと―が約束されました。期限は一度延期されましたが、1868年1月1日に兵庫の開港と同時に大坂の開市が実現し、同じ年の年9月、さらに大阪は開港場に昇格し、川口の土地が競売され、居留地が誕生しました。

 居留地がつくられた川口という場所は、近世には幕府が船番所を設置し、大坂に入る荷物の検査を行ったほか、一橋家の川口役所が置かれるなど、公的な施設が集まる場所でした。市街地の西端にあたるこの場所の性格が、居留地の開設場所の選択に影響したのです。

 さて、外国人が競売で購入したのは永代借地権でした。彼らには日本政府から権利証書が発行され、借地料を納入しましたが、売買は自由でした。また、この永代借地権の売却高や毎年の借地料の一部は、居留地積金(つみきん)―基金として積み立てられました。

 居留地の空間構成を見ると、二つに分かれていました。

川口居留地絵図、大阪市史編纂所所蔵

 一つは、狭い意味での外国人居留地です。これは、永代借地権を持つ外国人が居住し、日本人は借地できない土地で、ここでの行政は居留地会議による自治にゆだねられました。

 もう一つは、雑居地です。居留地に隣接しており、外国人の寄留が可能な土地で、外国人は借家人として、日本人が所有する家屋に居住し、日本人と雑居状態にありました。この雑居地には、次第に清国人―当時の中国人が多くなっていきます。

 次に、明治初年の居住者の構成を見ましょう。まず1870年ごろの借地権者を国別に見ると、イギリスが多く、アメリカ、プロシアなどが続いています。一方、職業別では、1872年の統計では、商会関係者が多く、技師や医師などが続いていましたが、1887年には、宣教師が圧倒的になり、商会関係者や技師などはわずかになりました。

川口居留地の外国人の国別・職業別構成

1870年ごろの永代借地権者の国別構成
イギリス アメリカ プロシア オランダ フランス 合計
13 6 5 3 2 29
大阪市街地に居住する外国人の職業別構成
年次 商会 技師 教師 医師 宣教師 外交官 その他 合計
1872 27 12 5 8 2 1 8 63
1887 7 2 4 2 67 2 2 86

 川口は、当初、貿易港として期待され、商会関係者が多数だったのですが、淀川からの土砂が年々堆積し、川口の波止場付近は貿易には不適当な場所とされてしまったのです。そのため、次第に宣教師が増加し、川口は、布教活動・教育活動の拠点に変化しました。

②居留地の自治

 川口居留地には居留地会議が設置されました。これは、1868年8月に締結された「大阪兵庫外国人居留地約定書」に居留地積金制度が定められたことに始まります。この積金の運用は大阪府知事、各国公使、借地人代表3人からなる会議が行うとされたのです。第1回借地人代表選挙は1868年10月に行われ、1869年5月、オランダ副領事宅で第1回大阪居留地会議が開催されました。

 その後、1899年(明治32)7月の最後の会議までに126回の会議が開催されます。ここでは、居留地内の道路や下水の整備、消防・治安や衛生問題、墓地・公園の問題など、様々な議題が話し合われました。居留地自治の典型例として消防と警察を見ましょう。

 居留地における消防隊は、1874年に居留地会議がイギリスから消防機械を購入し、翌75年、居留地消防隊が発足、以後、自前の消防組織による消防活動が行われました。

消防士の帽子を被ったC.T.ワレン、 桃山学院史料室所蔵

 一方、居留地内の警備については、1869年、居留地会議に警察委員会が設置され、1874年以降は、居留地撤廃まで、イギリス人が居留地警察長をつとめました。

 以上のように、居留地では、通商条約によって認められた領事裁判権を基礎に、居留地会議が居留地内部の警察権を掌握し、独自の警察機構と消防組織を維持していたのです。


③居留地と関連施設

 居留地は、それ単独で存在していたわけではありません。川口に居留地ができたことで、その周辺には関連する施設や機能が形成されました。

 まず外国人墓地です。これは、安治川下流の池山新田にある瑞軒山(ずいけんやま)に設置されました。

 外国人止宿所と呼ばれる西洋ホテルも、1868年、雑居地である梅本町に「自由亭ホテル」が開業しています。肉食の開始によって屠牛場(とぎゅうば)もできました。1868年、安治川沿岸の石田新田に屠牛場用の官有地が用意され、イギリス人に貸し出されました。また、外国人向け遊廓として松嶋遊廓も開設されました。

 以上のように、川口居留地は、不平等条約に基づいて外国人自治が認められた都市内の治外法権領域でしたが、同時に、周辺に様々な施設を派生させ、地域社会に多大な影響を与えました。外国人居留地は、1899年、領事裁判権の撤廃と内地雑居の容認などを定めた諸外国との新しい通商条約が発効したのに伴い廃止されます。川口居留地の敷地も、この時はじめて、川口町の一部として大阪市に編入されたのです。

3.松嶋遊廓

①基本的性格と空間構成

 松嶋遊廓については、居留地社会の一要素として見るだけでなく、地域社会との関係や、江戸時代以来の遊廓の歴史との関連に注意して、見ていきましょう。

 1867年、大坂町奉行だった柴田剛中(たけなか)は、居留地に付属する施設の一つとして外国人向け遊廓の設置を幕府の老中に提案し、許可されました。居留地開設後の1868年10月になると、大阪に維新政権が設置した外国事務局が、遊廓設置準備を開始します。わずか2か月で土地買収と住民の立ち退きを進めたため、地元の住民からは抵抗もありました。そして12月、設置場所を松嶋町(まつしままち)と命名し、営業希望者の募集を開始したのです。こうして新遊廓設置は居留地周辺の開発事業として急ピッチで推進されたのです。

 この新遊廓の基本的性格は、以下のように整理できます。

①川口居留地の付属施設として、政府の外国事務局が管理する官有地に建設された「御免遊女町」、つまり公認の遊廓であったこと。

②居留地に来航する外国人のうち、水兵や労働者などに性的なサービスを提供し、外国人男性と一般日本人女性との性的な接触を防止することを目的としていたこと。

③江戸時代以来、大坂にあった公認遊廓である新町のほか、複数の遊所から「出店」(でみせ)するという営業形態を採用したこと。

 松嶋遊廓は、これまでの遊廓にはない特異な性格を持つ遊廓だったのです。

 次に、遊廓の空間プランを示す「御免遊女町 松嶋廓之図」(ごめんゆうじょまち まつしまくるわのず)という絵図を見ましょう。

「御免遊女町 松嶋廓之図」(http://image.oml.city.osaka.lg.jp/archive/image.do?id=29495&&mno=0)、
大阪市立図書館所蔵より一部改変

 全体プランとしては、第一に、寺島の東側に元からあった町場は廓の外部とされたこと、第二に、4つの新しい橋と大門(おおもん)、東西2つの会所、「御用地」などがつくられたこと、第三に「御建貸」(おたてがし)―政府が建設して業者に貸与する―とされた松鶴楼も見えること、などが注目されます。また、四ランクに分けられた遊女屋、大小の茶屋、商人、芸人や水茶屋など、営業内容や階層に応じた業者の棲み分けが構想されています。最後に、「花園」という南側の広場には、土弓(どきゅう)・芝居などの仮設的な芸能・娯楽営業が誘致されようとしていようです。

 この絵図からは、松嶋遊廓を特徴づけるいくつもの点が読み取れるのです。

②近世~近代移行期大阪の遊廓史

 松嶋遊廓は、江戸時代以来、大阪にあった遊所――これには、公認遊廓である新町と、それ以外に黙認の遊所も多数ありました――に対する遊廓統制の要に位置付けられます。

近世大坂の遊所、大阪市史編纂所所蔵

 1872年10月、明治政府は人身売買禁止の太政官布告、いわゆる芸娼妓解放令を布告し、養女や年季奉公を名目とした娼妓・芸妓の人身売買を禁止しました。ただし、性売買そのものは禁じておらず、遊女屋による拘束はダメだが、本人が望んでやる芸娼妓営業は認める、とされたのです。この解放令は、各地の遊廓に大きな混乱をもたらしたのですが、大阪府の対応が注目されます。じつは大阪では、すでにその1年前から、新町や松嶋を含めた大規模な遊所は温存し、その他の零細な黙認遊所は、松嶋遊廓に統合するという方針を立てていました。これは松嶋遊廓の振興策の一環でもありました。そのため大阪府は、芸娼妓解放令が出ると、すぐさま6か所を新たに「席貸」営業の許可地に指定したのです。

 以上のように、大阪の遊廓統制は、松嶋遊廓の営業振興策にもとづいて転換され、大阪の近代公娼制度のあり方は、松嶋遊廓を要(かなめ)として決定づけられたのです。


③松嶋遊廓と地域社会

 最後に、松嶋遊廓と地域との関係について見ましょう。

 遊廓のあった島状の土地を松嶋地域と呼ぶとすれば、その東側にあった松嶋町は、近世以来の町場で、船大工(ふなだいく)や船宿(ふなやど)が集まる場所でした。この東側の地主や船大工たちは、遊廓開設時の土地買収や新しい橋の架設に反対しました。反発の側面です。一方、架橋に伴う渡船の廃止にあたっては、仕事を失った東側の業者たちが遊廓関係の運送・水汲みを独占したいと出願して許可されました。つまり依存の側面ですね。つまり、東側の人たちは、当初は遊廓設置に抵抗したのですが、設置が避けられなくなると、遊廓に依存していくような動きを見せたのです。

 じつは、1877年の西南戦争によって遊廓が発展していくと、遊廓の範囲は次第に拡大し、東側の町並みも飲み込んでいきます。反発と依存という形で出発した松嶋町と松嶋遊廓の力関係は、遊廓が地域全体の主導権を握る方向に転換したのです。

 以上見てきたように、居留地の周辺開発として出発した松嶋遊廓は、政府や大阪府による遊廓統制や地域振興策、遊廓営業の発展、周辺地域との微妙な関係などの要素が絡まり合う中で、その歴史を展開させていきました。居留地の不振で、それとの関係が弱まると、遊廓は居留地から自立して、自らが地域社会を主導する存在に成長していったのです。芸娼妓解放令の発令にもかかわらず、遊廓が存続、発展していくところには、日本の近世社会が産み落とした社会関係の根深さも見て取れます。

 こうして、明治時代の都市大阪は、一見、近代化によって大きく姿を変えたように見えながら、江戸時代以来の旧い構造が根深く、都市地域社会のありようを左右していました。近代の都市社会は、新しい要素と旧い要素の絡み合いとして捉えるべきなのです。