Item No: #362528 [Preamble, Bylaws, and Membership Application of the North American Society for the Promotion of Agriculture]. Hokubei Kanno Doshikai.
[Preamble, Bylaws, and Membership Application of the North American Society for the Promotion of Agriculture]
[Preamble, Bylaws, and Membership Application of the North American Society for the Promotion of Agriculture]
[Preamble, Bylaws, and Membership Application of the North American Society for the Promotion of Agriculture]

Japanese Colonization Scheme for Texas

[Preamble, Bylaws, and Membership Application of the North American Society for the Promotion of Agriculture]

Notes: A rare 1904 colonization scheme document promoting investment in Japanese-owned and -managed farms in Texas.

The document opens with a preamble referencing the Russo-Japanese War and Japan's international ambitions. It then discusses the difficulties faced by Japanese farmers and offers Texas as a viable alternative with ample opportunities for buying and renting farmland.

The organization was to be based in Tokyo and Houston and was to be "a voluntary association of overseas entrepreneurs who manage agricultural businesses in Texas, North America." The idea seems to have been for investor-farmers to contribute funds that would be pooled to buy land in Texas. The investors would have three years to emigrate to the US and begin working on the land. Anyone who did not arrive within three years would lose their investment. The land would be owned or operated as a communal venture, overseen by a business manager, with profits shared by the member-workers.

The concluding section is a preprinted membership form, with blank spaces for the prospective new member to complete.

According to Thomas Walls in The Japanese Texans, at least thirty Japanese rice farms were founded in Texas in the first decade of the twentieth century. At least a few of them were planned as cooperative colonies, including the Kaigai Kigyo Doshikai, organized by Daijiro Yoshimura and Matsutaro Asai, and Nippon Kono Kabushiki Kaisha, organized by the Japanese socialist Sen Katayama and the most successful Japanese business owner in Texas, Tom Brown (Tsunekichi Okasaki). Your cataloger has not found any references to the Hokubei Kanno Doshikai.

21 by 7 inches, printed one side only.

Edition + Condition: A very good copy with old folds and a few pin holes in the upper margin. With the Hokubei Kanno Doshikai red chop stamp in the lower margin. A rare survivor.

Publication: Tokyo: Hokubei kanno doshikai honbu, 1904 (Meiji 37).

Item No: #362528

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