A walk around "Mukaino" in Habikino, Osaka, where many vacant houses are on the verge of collapse

Mukaimura Village is located in Tannan County, Kawachi Province, and is composed of the main village of Mukaimura and the branch village of Hideda. The number of households and population of the main village are unknown, but the number of households in Hideda village in 1872 (Meiji 5) was 120 according to the Jinshin family register, so it is believed that the number of households and population of Hideda village far exceeded that of the main village in the middle and late early modern period.
For Hideda village, the headman of the main village strengthened his authority over the Hideda village, strengthened the system of surveillance to prevent them from blending in with commoners, and strengthened punishment within the ranks.
The following document is an "Announcement" issued in May 1733 (Kyoho 17) as a "Notice to the Eta of Mukaimura".
In 1849 (Kaei 2), more than 100 years after this "Announcement" of May 1733 (Kyoho 17), the headman once again submitted a "copy" of the entire contents to the headman. It is not clear from this historical material alone whether the village headman submitted the document voluntarily, in other words, requesting a similar crackdown on skin fields once again, or whether the head village headman or feudal lord followed precedent and requested the document to be submitted as a reference for further investigation.
An early example of power adjusting and intervening between the main village and the branch village of Skin fields is the three-article "Announcement" ("Saraike Village Documents") made in 1731 (Kyoho 16) to the village headman of the main village of Saraji village, Tanboku county, Kawachi province, in the Akimoto domain (Kawagoe domain, Musashi province). This was an announcement made by the village headman of the main village of Saraji village, Okiemon, ordering his son Seiemon to serve as the village headman's successor, and the allocation of skin fields is written down as one of the central articles.
Saraike village and Mukaino village were both in the Akimoto domain, and the "Announcement" made to Mukaino village the following year can be said to have been a law that further specified and systematized these three-article "Announcement." Not only is it probably the first law to regulate the relationship between the domain, the main village, and the branch village of Hideda, but the 17th year of the Kyoho era "Declaration" is also specific and detailed in content. The fact that the domain was an exclave with its castle in Kawagoe, Bushu, and that Mukaimura had a village structure in which the population of Hideda in the branch village far exceeded the population of the main village farmers from an early period, are two characteristics that are thought to have led to the detailed regulations in the "Declaration" at an early stage.
Mukainomura and Saraikemura are the birthplace of meat production in the Kansai region, and are also the source of the meat industry in Japan. In 1858 (5th year of the Ansei era), Hidedamura, a branch village of Mukaiinomura, and Hidedamura, a branch village of Saraikemura, were called "butcher villages" and were insulted by the Hideda community of Settsu Yakuninmura, the center of the leather industry in the Kinai region. In another historical document from the same year, they were also called "Mukaino Slaughtering Department." It is also clear that there were many hoarders of Hideda rank.
In 1868 (first year of the Meiji era), the headman of the main village of Mukaino was still a child, so the Tanaka family, headman of the main village of Saraike, also took charge of the administration of the villages of Saraike and Hita, which were branch villages of Mukaino.
In 1920, the "Yamagami Munechika Ryuzawa Monument" was erected to commemorate Mukaino's headman Yamagami Munechika, who completed the Nidoike pond during the Kanei era to secure irrigation water.
In 1923, the National Suiheisha Youth League was formed in Mukaino and its headquarters was set up in Nishihama. From the first year to the third year after the end of the war, the village was a mixture of excitement and confusion. Beef innards (horumons) sold like hot cakes in Kamiroku and Tennoji.
In 1950, the number of slaughtered cattle in Mukaino exceeded 10,000 head per year. In 1956, the number of slaughtered cattle exceeded 20,000 head per year. In 1961, the number of slaughtered cattle exceeded 30,000 head per year. In 1964, the number of slaughtered cattle exceeded 50,000.
#walk
#Osaka
#Habikino
#Mukaino
#on the verge of collapse
#vacant house
#danger
#narrow alley
#declining population