In 1641, Nagasaki was officially recognized as the only trade port in Japan. But actually the port was already opened in 1579, and the city formation had also been taking place since then. Meanwhile, there had been many thousands of martyrs and exiles among citizens as well as among foreign missionaries in consequence of the persecution to Christianity.
Kyushu University owns the old census registers called “Ninbetsucho” of Hirado-cho in Nagasaki, some of which, in perfect preservation, are taken up as the data in this paper. Besed on them, I intend to examine the dynamic movements of family in those days. This study covers 29 years, from 1634 (K an-ei 11) to 1659 (Manji 1), during which the war of Amakusa broke out and the trade monopolization mention above took place.
Some of our findings are as follows.
Dividing the population into houseowners (Ie-mochi) and tenants as done in the census, we can observe that the former group contained a considerable number of large households. But houseowners at that time generally kept many domestics or servants other than normal family member of servants was almost as many as the other. So if we exclude them from the household members, the number of normal member of both types does not differ very much. Moreover, considering the relationship between normal members, many of them were in- or un- complete families.
It is considered so far that ambitious people who gathered there from many parts of the country were stimulated by the rapid urbanization in Nagasaki. We tried to analize these mobile circumstances appeared in the family register of 1642, which alone had the “descriptive” style just suiting our purpose. According to this, people born in the city were less than half, and more than 80 % of their fathers were immigrants. As for sex distinction, the in-moving mobility rate of males was higer than that of females. We can confirm that they married native-born females in Nagasaki after moving into the city. In short, families in those days, in our impression, were the units of«laboring»rather than«living».
To add the effects of the trade fluctuations to these, therefore, family continuity was very low in general. There were little cases of creation of branch families, too. On the other hand, the residential mobility after moving into the city was fairly high. An example illustrating such a mobility at that time was the case of converts, so called «Korobi». For instance, in 1634«Korobi»amounted to 60% of the population, which in 1659 decreased to 18% including the dead.
Through the analysis of family dynamics, the image of early Nagasaki as a growing «Western City»could clearly be seen.