AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, 



frame or swinging door has penetrated even into Zungaria, without 

 having been adopted by other peoples. 



As Tpkugawa lyeyasu, the founder of the last Shogun dynasty, 

 emphasizes in the twelfth of his "Eighteen Laws," the introduction 

 of agriculture into Japan is to be ascribed to the sun-goddess 

 Tenshd Daijin (Amaterasu). She was, to the old Japanese, Janus 

 and Ceres in one. Her temple at Yamada, in Ise, was the great 

 national sanctuary, which had to be cared for according to law, and 

 built anew every twenty-one years out of consecrated Hinoki-wood 

 {Chaincccyparis obtusa, S. and Z.), " in order that the land might 

 have peace, and the Gokoku thrive." By Gokoku (five chief cereals) 

 were meant rice, barley and wheat, Italian millet, other kinds 

 of millet, and beans — in fact, the principal Kokiirui, that is, cereals 

 and pulse. The term Go-koku, however, did not mean the same 

 in all ages. Thus we find in Kaempfer, *' Amoen. exot." p. 834, 

 Kome [Oryza], 0-mugi {Hordeiini), Ko-mugi {Triticum)^ Daidsu 

 [Doiichos soja, L.) and Adzuki {P/iaseohis radiatics, L.) mentioned 

 as Gokoku. Later, the idea was extended farther, and included 

 all important food-plants belonging to the group of cereals and 

 pulse. 



In this high estimate of the Go-koku they imitated the Chinese, 

 as, in general, Chinese agriculture has been the starting-point and 

 prototype of the Japanese.^ 



The Emperor Shinnung had introduced and spread the practice 

 of agriculture in China, about the year 2700 B.C. For this he was 

 deified after death, and a temple was dedicated to him in Peking. 

 In the park-like surroundings of this temple, the emperor of China 

 since then, at the time of the spring equinox, annually ploughs a 

 piece of land and sows it with go-koku. 



The Mikado, it is true, was under no such obh'gation at the 

 sanctuary of the mother of his race, in Ise ; but agriculture was 

 none the less regarded in his realm on that account. The Japanese 

 appreciates the fact that it is the first and best foundation of the 

 prosperity of the population and of the State, being the most ne- 

 cessary and the only sound basis ; and he expresses this idea in the 

 saying, "No wa kuni no moto," "Agriculture is the prop of the 

 country." According to the latest census of January i, 1883, it 

 employed 18,160,213 persons, or about the half of a total popula- 

 tion of 37,017,302. And these, moreover, are merely the Hiya- 

 kusho, or actual peasants, to whom are to be added from the group 

 of former Samurai, a portion, estimated at many thousands, who 

 have, in recent times, likewise turned their attention to agriculture. 

 Agriculture pays to the State 58 per cent, of its income ; or, with 

 the addition of the agricultural industries, as Sake- manufacture, 

 etc., and the tax upon them, as much as 80 per cent.^ 



1 See Bretschneider : " On the Study and Value of Chinese Botanical 

 Works ;" and Williams : "The Middle Kingdom," i. 78. 

 ' At the close of the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1884, the total revenue 



