Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
3
The Farmers
The main function of the farmer was to grow rice for the
samurai;
but the growing of rice,
although it was his most important occupation, was not his sole one. Rice, as it is grown
in Japan and in the other great production areas of Asia, requires absolutely flat fields that
can be flooded at the appropriate moment; these fields are surrounded by low embankments
to prevent the water escaping. Plains are not very extensive, but where they exist, such as
behindTokyo,behindNagoya,andaroundNara,fieldscanbefairlylargeandregularinpat-
tern;themorecharacteristicfields,however,occurupthevalleysandhill-sides,wherefields
arecutoutinterraces, andheretheyaremuchmoreirregular thanintheplains because they
have to be adapted to the terrain.
Since all of the three islands of old Japan (i.e. not counting Hokkaiō) were divided into
domains or directly held territories, it was necessary to grow rice throughout the country,
even though there were many marginal districts where climate or terrain made this difficult.
Other characteristic units in a farming village, apart from the flat rice-fields, were the dry
fields on which other crops might be grown—wheat, millet, and other grains, cotton, to-
bacco, hemp, and sweet potato—and also the permanently planted areas where, according
to region, there would be oranges, grapes, mulberry plants, tea, or bamboos. Scattered fruit
trees,suchaspersimmons,plums,andapricotsmightbefound;somecrops,likebeans,were
evengrownontheembankments between thefields. Inmorefavoreddistricts therice-fields
would support an off-season crop (that could be grown and harvested before the land was
needed for the rice), such as rape, grown for the oil extracted from the seed.
