Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(52) Lacquer chest—the front of a superb example in the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London.
The authorities exacted their tribute from the craftsmen as from the other classes.
Property-owners in towns paid a form of tax, but the majority of craftsmen rented their
houses. They made their contribution in the form of goods or services, in much the same
way as the farmer and his forced labor, and a money payment was often substituted. In-
ventors of some devices and processes also made a payment in order to acquire something
like patent rights.
Many of the methods used by craftsmen in their various trades were very similar to
those used in the West, once certain differences are allowed for: the Japanese was used to
sitting on the floor, and this brought his feet and hands nearer together than when working
at a bench or sitting on a stool, so that in the West feet could work treadles for lathes or
potter's wheels, while in Japan they could be used for applying pressure to hold something
still while work was done on it. Differences of detail also arose from the fact that the saw
and the plane worked on the pulling rather than the pushing stroke. A line wetted with ink
