Family, Enterprise, and Corporation: The Organization of Izumiya-Sumitomo in the Tokugawa Period

The purpose of this article is to review organizational characteristics of Japanese merchant houses during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868), based on an examination of Izumiya-Sumitomo as a family, enterprise, and corporation. In particular I discuss the ideal of undivided inheritance and single succession, the co-existence of managerial delegation and owner-control, and the cluster of autonomous and semi-independent branches tied to the main house by a moral code of allegiance. I further assess these features through an account of the Sumitomo house feud, which occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century. The findings suggest that joint management centering around the main house and its assets did not exclude factional rivalry and the pursuit of self-interest. The feud further shed new light on the role of ownership, i.e., the function of the household head as nominal owner of the estate. Finally, the conflict can be considered a benchmark in the evolution toward a managerial enterprise with the household head as symbol of authority. 本論文は、泉屋住友を俎上に上げ、近世日本における商家の組織を再検討ことを目的としている。とくに、(1)(当主の地位及び「家」の財産という意味での)家督の単独相続、(2)所有者による統制と経営者への大規模な代表権委譲の併存、及び(3)本家・分家・別家による共同経営に焦点を当てて分析を行う。次に、「御仕置例類集」に見られる泉屋のお家騷動は、住友の「家」内部組織と、親戚・分家・別家・支配人・手代の関係を考蔡する契機を与えてくれる。十八世紀後半に起こったお家騒動は、実際上の単独所有と理想上の共有・共同経営の不調和を発露させる出来事であった。本論では具体的事例をあげてこれを例証するとともに、「家」制度における個人的な榷限発揮及び自己利益の追求の潜在的可能性をも明らかにする。この事件は泉屋住友における所有と経営の完全な分離、そして当主の象徴的存在への転換の前兆にもなったと考える。