[Fukushima History] 1873: Asaka Irrigation Project - an early Meiji national project

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government transformed Japan's warlord clans into the current prefectures in several steps. First, in 1871, the clans were converted to prefectures. Then over a period of a few years, these prefectures were consolidated. Today's Fukushima resulted from the consolidation of 10 clans and 10 sub-clan areas.



Shortly thereafter, Chujo Masatsune, an administrator and former samurai of the Yonezawa clan, was assigned to Fukushima's development administration. There, he conceived and promoted the development of the barren lands west of Abukuma River at present day Koriyama. Eagerly adopted by then Interior Minister Okubo, this project was carried out by Kaiseikan, a company set up for this purpose with 22,138 yen (1873 value).



A main irrigation canal, 51 kilometers long, was dug from Inawashiro Lake with additional distribution canals to supply newly constructed rice paddies, fields and housing plots. About 500 ex-samurai families were recruited from across Japan to settle these new fields. Although some of the families were from the nearby Nihonmatsu clan, the largest group of 141 families came from the Kurume clan in Kyushu. Other families came from Okayama, Kochi, and Tottori. They were given land, stipends and preferential financing.



Unfortunately, most of the new settlers were lower level samurai and poor farmers. Yields from the new fields were extremely poor and most settlers fell into extreme poverty. By the end of the Meiji period, 80% had left the area for better prospects in America, Hokkaido and Joban coal mines.



Chujo's granddaughter, novelist Yuriko Miyamoto, told of these settlers' in her book "A Crowd of Poor People."



Source:

福島県の百年 (県民100年史)
Oishi, Kaichiro, Fukushimaken no Hyakunen (Fukushima Prefecture's One Hundred Years, Yamakawa Insatsu, Tokyo, 1992, pp. 44-49