Early Conditions. 447 



of feudal government, with the daimios (knights or 

 barons) holding their fiefs from the mikado, who was 

 considered the sole owner of the soil, or at least all 

 exercise of ownership rights emanated from him. 

 Private property seems then not to have existed at 

 all, the people having merely rights of user. Coloni- 

 zation of the islands brought under the mikado's 

 dominion progressed rapidly, and with it, not only 

 arable portions but even mountains were de- 

 nuded. 



With the beginning of the Christian era, the need 

 of better protection against floods seems to have been 

 recognized, and, in 270 A.D., we find the first forest 

 official appointed, a son of the royal house, who with 

 assistants was to regulate the use of the forest pro- 

 perty, which, under the rights of user granted by the 

 mikado, was being excessively exploited and devasted. 



In the fifth century, the feudal method of giving 

 fiefs of land and forest to the deserving vassals had 

 come generally into vogue, and later, with the rise 

 of Buddhism, forests were assigned to the temples 

 and priests, who, as in Germany the monks, were 

 assiduous in cultivating and utilizing them. 



Soon the daimios, similarly to the barons in Ger- 

 many, began to assert exclusive property rights, and, 

 notwithstanding various edicts, issued from time to 

 time to secure free use to the people, more and more 

 of the forest area was secured by daimios, and by 

 priests as temple forests. 



In the ninth century, deforestation and excessive 

 exploitation had so far progressed that not only the 

 need of protecting watersheds was recognized by 



