MIURA GENZŌ’S THE SECRETS OF SALT-MAKING OR ENSEI HIROKU (1816): INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST CHAPTER

Abstract

The Secrets of Salt-Making or Ensei Hiroku 塩製秘録 was written by a Japanese salt producer, Miura Genzō (1738-1835), for salt producers and entrepreneurs of the Seto Inland Sea in 1816. Miura was a major figure with both the salt business and entrepreneurial thinking of the Japanese salt
industry in the early 19th century. He wrote at a time when the key challenge for salt producers was to break out of the boom-and-bust cycles associated with salt overproduction. Not only had Miura been an entrepreneur in salt-making since the late 18th century in Mitajiri (today the town of Suō
in the department of Yamaguchi), a salt zone that was driving the industry, but he also became the Great Elder 大年寄 of Mitajiri, i.e. an office that involved liaison between the producers and the local administration. The Secrets of Salt-Making was conceived as a best-practice guide for all producers
and, over time, its principles became quite the industrial standard among Seto Inland Sea salt makers, which amounted to 90 % of salt production of the country. In it, Miura develops his vision of the economy and of the role to be played by anyone wishing to enter the salt business. He also presents
new production methods aimed at rationalizing and controlling salt production on a wide scale. While it is a well-known work in the small circle of Japan’s salt historians, it is virtually unknown outside of it and has never been translated. Yet from the point of view of the history of technology and business
history, it is an invaluable document which sheds light on aspects of salt-making techniques, as well as the economic practices of modern Japanese salt-makers. We offer here a translation of the introductory chapter of this guide.