382 Japan. 



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 Budd- 

 hism forests were assigned to the temples and priests, 

 who, as in Germany the monks, were assiduous in culti- 

 vating and utilizing them. 



Soon the daimios, similarly to the barons in Germany, 

 began to assert exclusive property rights, and, notwith- 

 standing various edicts, issued from time to time to se- 

 cure 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 ex- 

 ploitation had so far progressed that not only the need of 

 protecting watersheds was recognized by edicts, but fear 

 of a timber famine led even to planting in the province 

 of Noto. 



A period of internal strife and warfare during the fol- 

 lowing centuries which left forest interest in the back- 

 ground led, in 1192, to the establishment of the rule of 

 the shoguns, the hereditary military representatives of 

 the mikado, who made him a mere figurehead, and exer- 

 cised all the imperial functions themselves, until the 

 revolution of 1868 restored the mikado to his rights. 



The effort at conservative forest use was renewed with 

 increased harshness when, after a period of warfare and 

 devastation, the great shogun family of Tokugawa 

 (1603) assumed the rule of the empire, enforcing the re- 

 strictive edicts with military severity. Even at that 

 early age, the protective influence of forest cover on soil 

 and waterflow was fully recognized, and a distinction of 

 open or supply forest and closed or protection forests 



