A country in isolation - Everyday Life in Traditional Japan - page 1

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A country in isolation
The Land
Being at the eastern end of the Asian continental mass, Japan has a climate in many ways
like that of the Northern Atlantic states of the USA—that is to say, winters are cold (with
winds blowing from Siberia), and summers are hot (with winds from the Pacific). The cold
winds of winter cross the Japan Sea before reaching the mountainous continent-facing coast
of Japan, and as they do so they pick up moisture; much of this is deposited as snowfall,
which is consistently heavy, often coming up to the eaves of the houses ( 3 ) . The Pacific side
of Japan tends to have bright but cold weather in winter. In summer, the continent-facing
side has clear weather, while there is cloud on the Pacific coast, so that, particularly in the
south and east, summers are hot and humid. The Japanese find the heat of their summers
more unpleasant than the winter cold, and build their houses accordingly.
Japan consists of four main islands, with innumerable smaller ones. The northernmost is
Hokkaidō, which was not sufficiently populated during our period to be of importance. To
the south is Honshū, the main island, somewhat larger than Great Britain, with Kyūshū and
Shikoku lying further south still ( 2 ) . An additional complication to the climatic picture is
that, except in Hokkaidō, there is in June a short but often torrential rainy season, the north-
ern edge of the monsoons, while another is that from late July to mid-September, Japan, es-
pecially itssouthernregions,liesinthepathoftyphoonscomingupfromthePacific, sothat
any area is liable to be visited bygreat winds, heavy rainfall, ortidal waves. Asif these pos-
sibilities of calamity were not enough, Japan lies in the earthquake and volcano belt which
runs all round the Pacific basin, and although active volcanoes ( 4 ) are usually distant from
areas of population and damage from eruptions has not been great, earthquakes are part of
everydaylife,withsmallshocksconstantlyremindingtheJapanesethatdisastercouldoccur
at any moment.
Onthefavorablesideofhergeographicalposition,Japanhasalowlatitude,withthesun
higher in the sky and with less variation in length of day than in northern Europe. Winter is
short, and so the growing season is long. Warmth and moisture together with fertile alluvial
soils in most of the agricultural districts help to make Japan rich in food-crops ( 5 ) . Japan is
very mountainous, but on the hills trees grow abundantly ( 6 ), which meant that in our peri-
od building was of wood; houses were made of cedar and other durable timber, needing no