Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Tokugawa Institute for the History of Forestry
Thematic Exhibition Tokugawa Yoshichika and the Study of the Owari Family’s Governance of the Kiso Mountains

Prologue: The Scholar Patriarch

Tokugawa Yoshichika (1886-1976), the 19th head of the Owari family, was the founder of the Tokugawa Institute for the History of Forestry, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. At the time of the institute's founding, forestry research focused mainly on the natural sciences of botany and silviculture, but Yoshichika brought in historical elements, including financial and economic history, to the institute's research mandate, creating a new academic field of Forestry History that aimed to illuminate aspects of forest management and policy.
The fruits of Yoshichika's research, beginning with his graduation thesis on the Kiso Mountains, have been made public through a number of publications, including Kiso no murakata no kenkyū (A Study of the Villages of Kiso), Owari han kokudaka kō (A Study of Rice Production in the Owari Domain), and Saigo no tonosama (The Last Daimyo). With these writings, Yoshichika became a pioneering figure in the field of forestry history.

Chapter 1: The Kiso Mountains in the Edo Period

In 1615, Tokugawa Yoshinao, the first Lord of Owari, was given domain over the Kiso Mountains, with their rich lumber resources, including high-quality cypress trees, by his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu. From the end of the Warring States Period to the beginning of the Edo Period, there was an unprecedented rush to build castle towns and roads, which led to excessive logging of the mountains and forests. The Kiso Mountains were no exception. Witnessing this situation firsthand, the Owari family established a timber management office in Agematsu under the direct control of the clan in 1665. The office served to centralize control over lumber production and prohibited the felling of trees on mountains with prime lumber resources by designating them as tomeyama, or "forbidden mountains." Throughout the Edo period, the Owari clan carefully managed the Kiso Mountains in an effort to preserve their rich timber resources.

Chapter 2: Yoshichika's Research on the Kiso Mountains

How was it possible for the Kiso Mountains to preserve their beautiful forests of cypress trees through the Meiji period? This question prompted Tokugawa Yoshichika to investigate the history of the governance of the Kiso Mountains under the Owari domain in earnest. For his research, Yoshichika actively sought out and scrutinized old documents and conducted field research in an effort to glean a fuller picture of the history of the region from local documents handed down within the families of Edo-era village officials of the Kiso region. Although his work was not accepted as historical research in academic circles, which at the time focused on national history of the ancient and medieval periods, Yoshichika’s research methods paved the way for postwar studies of early modern Japanese history. As head of the Owari Tokugawa family, Yoshichika saw it as his duty to deepen research on the history of the Kiso Mountains, a history that was inseparable from the history of his own family in the Edo period.

Feature Column: Kiso and Yakumo Town, Hokkaido

The connection between the Owari family and Hokkaido dates back to the time of Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, the 17th Lord of Owari. Yoshikatsu acquired lands being sold off in the wilderness of Hokkaido and promoted development in the area as a means of providing aid to former members of the Owari clan who had lost their official posts amidst the societal reforms of the Meiji era. The site is now the town of Yakumo in Futami County, Hokkaido.
The land these pioneering settlers cultivated in Yakumo was eventually transferred to them and the rest was developed by the Owari family into the Tokugawa Farm. Yoshichika also introduced the craft of carving bear figurines out of wood as a source of income for the people of Yakumo during the off-season. This is said to be the origin of the kumabori carved wooden bears that are today a signature Hokkaido souvenir.

Chapter 3: Establishment of the Hōsa Library in Tokyo

In 1930, Tokugawa Yoshichika, the 19th head of the Owari family, established the Owari Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation (now the Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation) through a donation of artworks and books from the Owari Tokugawa family collection. In 1935, the Hōsa Library was established in Takada-chō, Tokyo (now Mejiro in Toshima ward) as a facility for the preservation and public display of the Owari family's collections. At this time, the Tokugawa Laboratory for the History of Forestry became the Historical Research Laboratory of the Hōsa Library. Although the position of the laboratory had changed, under Yoshichika's direction it continued to engage in research on forestry history and to promote comprehensive research on the history of the Owari domain.
This section introduces some of the historical materials that were displayed at the 1935 opening of the Hōsa Library and the inaugural exhibition of its permanent collection.

Epilogue: The Legacy of Yoshichika's Vision

In the one hundred years since Tokugawa Yoshichika established the Tokugawa Laboratory for the History of Forestry (now the Tokugawa Institute for the History of Forestry) in 1923, prior to the opening of the Tokugawa Art Museum, the institute's affiliated researchers have continued to actively engage in surveys and research, collection and preservation of historical materials, even amidst restructuring of the organization and the societal changes accompanying the Second World War. The institute further presents the results of its research and studies in a variety of other ways, including holding lectures and presentations in various locations, and publishing annotated editions of historical documents.
Since 2018, the institute has resumed research in Urakiso (Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture), where Yoshichika also once conducted research, and continues to report on the results of the studies conducted by the Naiki family, who were the mountain forest keepers of the Owari clan.
The Tokugawa Institute for the History of Forestry will continue the work that Yoshichika pioneered a century ago in this new field of Forestry History for another one hundred years to come.

• Previous
• Back to the list