Drawing on a preliminary reading of The Secrets of Salt Making 塩製秘録, a 1816 salt-making manual by an obscure Japanese slat-maker Miura Genzô 三浦源蔵 (?-1835), this talk seeks to address the change in production dynamics in the Seito Inland sea region in the first half of the 19th century. In so doing, this talk contributes to the rethinking of the nature of Japan’s early industry by drawing attention to actors and initiatives that call for a reassessment of the importance the logic of growth for profit-making.
Aleksandra Kobiljski is a historian of modern Japan and a Senior Research Scholar at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). She is the Director of the Japan Research Center at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). She served as the guest editor of Industry in Common: Thinking with Modern Japan, a special issue of Technology and Culture (April 2022). Her current research project is on salient features of the change in production technologies of Japan’s early industry from 1800 to 1885 is funded by the European Research Council (ERC).