The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Pre-Industrial Japan

Bibliographical Essay: Scholarship on Preindustrial Japanese Forestry, 1880—1980

Bibliographical Essay: Scholarship on Preindustrial Japanese Forestry, 1880—1980 This study is the first extended report in English on preindustrial Japanese forestry.1 Because it is a pioneer effort, some of its findings surely will be revised by subsequent scholarship. As perusers of notes will have observed, it relies heavily on the work of Japanese scholars, and this bibliographical essay attempts to summarize that work and facilitate access to it by examining the development of the field during the past century and by identifying titles pertinent to specific topics within it.2 Measures of forest management in Japan date back to the seventh century, but forestry experienced its most noteworthy advances during the early modern (Edo or Tokugawa) period (1600—1868). Not surprisingly, the advances in forest management, forest industry, and silviculture of the early modern period have commanded the most scholarly interest. That interest, which dates from the Meiji government's collection during the i88os of documents on Tokugawa forestry, has been growing for a century now and has given rise to a complex and sophisticated historical subdiscipline .3 By contrast, the study of pre-i6oo woodland affairs dates only from about 1950 and is a field of study still in its infancy. Consequently, the literature on preindustrial forestry pertains overwhelmingly to the early modern period. Studying this literature has its difficulties. There is a problem of boundaries because the topic merges imperceptibly into a host 191 192 Bibliographical Essay of others, including post-1868 history; local, commercial, and industrial history; the history of social structure and change, of mountain-village living conditions, and of transportation; riparian work; agricultural technology; social thought; and science. Moreover , the historiography is difficult to survey because the writings are scattered through a vast array of journals and bulletins and appear in books that sometimes are difficult to locate and quickly go out of print.4 This essay, based on works I have been able to examine, will doubtless fail to cite some items of value.5 Post-1980 scholarship is purposely omitted. Major InterpretiveIssues Preindustrial forest history seems on first glance an unlikely forum for political comment. We soon discover, however, that burning issues are imbedded in it. Even in its genesis the discipline was merely an academic by-product of practical efforts by the new Meiji government to consolidate power and pursue national reform . The decision to establish a centrally controlled national forest system led to the original compilation of documents and preparation of descriptive studies of forest organization and operation. After the new forest system took shape, moreover, stubborn practical problems continued to sustain much of the scholarly interest in earlier forest practices. Other less immediate concerns also have fostered study of preindustrial forestry. Both before and after the Pacific War, some scholars wrote on early modern silviculture, patriotically demonstrating that Japan had an indigenous, still-serviceable tradition of forestry. In contrast, as part of the angry postwar search for explanations of recent state policy, some forest historians produced studies that highlighted the repressive nature of "feudal" forestry and the exploitative nature of "capitalist" forestry, which, they argued, paved the way for Japan's expansionist twentieth-century "absolutism." The issue in forest history that has most richly embodied contemporary concerns has been the state and fate of village common land (iriaichi).6 When the Meiji government rationalized forest administration during the i88os, it precipitated widespread rural hardship and discontent by making sweeping changes in rights to Bibliographical Essay 193 common land. That situation prompted scholars to study contemporary iriai arrangements and their historical background. During the 19305, as parts of rural Japan wallowed in misery, iriai research intensified, still focusing on post-1868 developments. It was redoubled in the changed intellectual climate of the postwar years because rural suffering was seen as central to Japan's recently disastrous political experience. Concurrently, a new burst of land reform generated more disputes over common land, and these stimulated further historical study. Scholars dug deeper into the problem , and the quest for origins and determinitive experiences shifted the focus of inquiry backward to the Edo period. Since then, common-land practices have remained a focal point of research. A broader aspect of Meiji land reform also sparked much scholarship . The creation of Japan's modern national forest system excluded many villagers not only from wooded common land but also from forestland of other types that they previously had utilized. The government's...