Preface
Japan faces issues today that are unique in her history. She must
respond to the increasing diversity of public desires and needs as
the domestic economy grows. She is challenged to promoteenergetic cooperation with other nations as a responsible memberof the international community. She must cope with anunprecedented variety of matters in this modern era.
However, we must realize that the force that has driven Japan
rapidly forward since the Meiji Era to the position she holds today
among the the advanced industrial nations, in spite of centuries
of pre-Meiji isolation, was powered by the skills and abilities thatcreated the society, economy, and culture during those centuries ofisolation in the Tokugawa Era. This fact provides the motive forpromoting scholastic studies in modern Japanese history. The
clear and accurate understanding of the history and society of ourpast should be very important to our nation’s future political,economic, and social progress.
The house of Morita, in which I was born and am the present head,goes back fifteen generations, the head of each generation honoredby the title Kyuzaemon. My ancestors served as the head ofKosugaya, an out-of-the-way village on the Chita Peninsula in theancient provice of Owari, now Aichi Prefecture. The familybusiness has been the brewing of sake, miso, shoyu, begun in the
mid-Edo period and continuing to today. The house-brewed sakehas the name “Nenohi-matsu,” and our storehouses for sake andmiso in Kosugaya are still in use.
In the compound of our house are other storehouses filled withold documents lefr by the successive generations of my forebears.
About ten years ago, I showed some of these documents toProfessor Tokuei Mezaki of the University of the Sacred Heart,
who is interested in historic documents. It was found that in eachgeneration the head of the house had carefully maintained
voluminous records of the activities of each generation; These wereincluded among the daily accounts of the family business from theEdo period to the Meiji Restoration.

I therefore decided to make these documents available to scholars
engaged in historical research. To compile them properly andmake them widely available, I asked for the help of members ofthe Department of History and Social Science at the University of
the Sacred Heart, under the direction of Professor Mezaki. Thisalso occasioned the establishment of The Ray-Kay Foundation of
The People’s Culture in November 1978, to promote research inthe modern history of Japan, and the building of a museum-library
in Kasugaya so that scholars can have access to the documents.
The Foundation has been active for some years supporting
research activities in this field, awarding prizes for superior
research, collecting data and research results, releasing
publications, and sponsoring lectures and conferences. ProfessorTetsuzo Tanikawa (Chairman of the Board of Trustees of theFoundation; Member of the National Academy of Art), my greatfriend from the same locality, and other distinguished individuals
have guided the Foundation in its many activities. The Foundation
also aims to clarify the relationship of the past to the present andfuture through exchanges of views among leaders in various fields
in and out of Japan and thereby contribute to perspectives for thefuture of society.
I am very happy that a bibliography of the documents has now
been published through the cooperation of many research
associates and hope that these historic materials will be widelyutilized by researchers in this important field. Finally I express
my deep appreciation to Professor Minoru Takamaki, who directed
the actual complication of the bibliography, and the staff of theDepartment of History and Social Sciences of the University of theSacred Heart.

Akio Morita
Akio Morita
Trustee, The Ray Kay
Foundation ofThe People’s Culture
Chairman, Sony Corporation