The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Pre-Industrial Japan

Notes

Notes Introduction: An Overview of PreindustrialJapanese Forest History 1. This introduction is an extensively revised portion of my essay "Forestry in Early ModernJapan, 1650-1850: A Preliminary Survey." 2. The major English-language study of Japanese geography is Glenn Thomas Trewartha, Japan: A Physical, Cultural, and Regional Geography. Regarding geological foundations, see Takashi Yoshida, ed., An Outline of the Geology of Japan, 3d ed. 3. An authoritative English-language study ofJapanese demography is Irene Taeuber, The Population of Japan. The more recent study by Susan B. Hanley and Kozo Yamamura, Economic and Demographic Change inPreindustrial Japan, 1600-1868, contains an excellent bibliography on the subject. 4. Here I am disregarding the millennia before the last Wisconsin interglacial , circa 40,000-30,000 B.P., although some type of human, perhaps Homo sapiens neanderthalis, was present in Japan at the time. See Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, "Current Issues in Japanese Archeology," for a concise report on nearly current understanding ofJapan's human prehistory. 5. By "Kinai basin" I mean basically the watersheds of the Yodo and Yamato rivers, which encompass the five "home provinces" of Izumi, Kawachi, Yamato, Yamashiro, and Settsu, plus Omi and Iga, and the Oi watershed in Tanba. 6. We can view Japan's age of regenerative forestry in terms of two phases. The first, lasting from the seventeenth until the late nineteenth century, can be called the era of early modern forestry. The second, dating from the formation of national forests late in the nineteenth, runs to the present and can be called the era of modern forestry. It consists of two periods of overcutting followed by years of recovery. Overcutting in early 2'5 a 16 Notes to Pages 4-10 Meiji slowed as national forest regulations came into effect, but from the 19305 war-related logging intensified, even consuming trees in city parks. As cities rebuilt after 1945, public forests were scoured for usable timber and landlords hurriedly clearcut woodlots before losing them to land reform . By 1950 Japan's forests were exhausted and the country entered its current state of arboreal rejuvenation. 7. Of course, many wooded areas lying outside those indicated on the map were cut over by regional power holders. For example, a pollen-count study has shown that the maintenance of frontier forts against Ezo tribesmen in the Sendai area produced substantial change in local woodland composition during the eighth century (Yoshinori Yasuda, "Early Historic Forest Clearance around the Ancient Castle Site of Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture , Japan"). Around the year 1000, forests were cut down in the vicinity of Hiraizumi, about eighty kilometers north of Sendai, when a powerful local family undertook to create a replica of Heian and felled trees enough to build several thousand structures, including scores of temples, shrines, and mansions (Endo Yasutaro, [Sanrinshi jo yori mitaru] Tohoku bunka no kenkyu [ichimei: Tohoku sanrinshi], 43). Prior to the early modern predation, forests in Kyushu and elsewhere also felt the ax to satisfy the egos and ambitions of the regionally powerful and to provide timber for eastern China, where forests were severely reduced. (On the early need for reforestation in Kagoshima, for example, see Shioya Tsutomu, "Hansei jidai no rinsei.") 8. Of course, this statement does not apply to Hokkaido. However, that island was not really integrated into Japanese society until the twentieth century and is therefore disregarded in this study. i. The Ancient Predation, 600-850 1. In its original form this chapter grew out of information in the worksof Tokoro Mitsuo, Yamamoto Hikaru, and Nihon Gakushiin, as cited below. To strengthen the argument, I subsequently read more extensively, in the process profiting particularly from the work of William Wayne Farris. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Cornelius Kiley, friend of years too numerous to count. His bibliographical guidance and helpful criticism led me to useful materials and saved me from embarrassing errors. For those flaws that surely remain, only I am accountable. 2. Yamamoto Hikaru, "Waga kuni kodai no ringyo," 18. Yamamoto reports that when fanned with a bellows, hardwood charcoal could generate temperatures of one thousand degrees Fahrenheit. 3. Nihon Gakushiin, comp., Meijizen Nihon ringyo gijutsu hattatsushi, 465. To identify tree species, see the Glossary of Vegetation. Notes toPages 11-14 21 1 4. lyanaga Teiz5, "Ritsuryosei teki tochi shoyu," 33-78, reports that in regulations of the ritsuryo period the common modern Japanese word for forest, hqyashi (tin), meant an area hand...