SOME ASPECTS OF RURAL JAPAN 



By Walter Weston 



Author oe "The Geography cf Japan," in the National Geocraphic Magazine 



OF ALL the poetic titles applied by 

 the Japanese in olden times to 

 their land, perhaps the most an- 

 cient was that of Toyo-ashiwara-mizuho- 

 no-kuni, "The fertile, reed-clad country, 

 rich in grain." In this we have the inti- 

 mation that from the earliest ages of the 

 national existence agriculture has been 

 the occupation of the majority of the 

 people and their most fruitful source of 

 livelihood. 



The sudden emergence of modern 

 Japan from the hermit-like seclusion of 

 former days into the rush of busy inter- 

 course and competition with the Western 

 world has tended to blind the eyes of 

 many observers to that which really 

 forms the basis of its national prosperity. 



It is only in rural Japan that we gain 

 an insight into the most characteristic fea- 

 tures of the life of the people. The real 

 strength of national organization and the 

 most attractive aspects of the national 

 character cannot be fully appreciated until 

 one passes from the crowded cities and 

 westernized beaten tracks to the fields and 

 farms of one of the most intelligent and 

 friendly peasantries in the world. 



In spite of the rapid strides made in the 

 manufacturing and mining industries in 

 recent years, agriculture still constitutes 

 the chief source of the wealth and power 

 of the Japanese people. 



The rural population number sixty per 

 cent of the whole, and it is they who sup- 

 ply the empire with most of its food and 

 with the greater part of its raw materials 

 for manufactures. 



PRACTICALLY NO MACHINERY USED IN 

 JAPANESE FARMING 



There are few large landed proprietors, 

 and a feature of agriculture is the tillage 

 of small holdings. This is carried on by 

 the whole of the farmer's household. The 

 land does really belong to him, for the 

 popular idea that both the peasantry and 

 their fields are property of the Emperor 

 is a mere legal fiction, and it is no wonder, 

 therefore, that the man "on the land" 



works as few peasants in the world have 

 ever been known to work. 



Only about twelve per cent of the whole 

 area of Japan is cultivable, and even this 

 is not naturally very fertile. It is only 

 made to yield its utmost by the most 

 minute and careful system of subsoil 

 working, manuring, terracing, and irriga- 

 tion, and these are carried on with a thor- 

 oughness that almost suggests gardening 

 rather than farming. 



There is practically no machinery em- 

 ployed and nearly all the work is done by 

 hand, hoe and spade, helped out at times 

 by the ox or the horse. It is in the task 

 of their subjugation of the land to the 

 service of man that the best characteris- 

 tics of the Japanese people have been de- 

 veloped — their boundless patience and 

 perseverance, their intelligence, ingenuity, 

 and self-control, their tough constitutions 

 and temperate habits. 



PEASANTS MAKE EXCEPTIONAL SOLDIERS 



Some of the finest fighting men in 

 the army are drawn from the peasant 

 classes — hardy, stolid, and entirely un- 

 afflicted with nerves. Most of them come 

 from the hill country, and their surround- 

 ings have left their impress on their char- 

 acter and habits. 



It was remarked by British officers dur- 

 ing the Russo-Japanese War that, in dis- 

 tricts where long marches had to be made 

 over routes chiefly leading along goat- 

 tracks or across pathless gullies and crags, 

 each man having to find his own way and 

 to meet his company again on the other 

 side, it was the native mountaineering 

 habitudes of the lower ranks that led 

 them to take the best possible line of 

 country. 



In mountain warfare the hillmen among 

 the Japanese infantry displayed — as com- 

 pared with other infantry — some of the 

 attributes and mobility of cavalry. More- 

 over, there is something in the open and 

 communistic character of the daily life of 

 the country people (for to them privacy 

 is an unknown condition) that renders 



275 



