The Farmers - Everyday Life in Traditional Japan - page 50

Lifeinthecountry,especiallyinthenorth,isregulatedbytheseasons,whichareclearly
markedinmostpartsofJapan.NatureandtheseasonsareaconstantthemeinJapanesepo-
etry, for the Japanese are very sensitive to their manifestations. Spring, which is misty and
mild, sees the blooming of the plum, followed by the cherry; with its gentle rain it is the
season of renewal, heralded by the fresh green of new leaves, while a little later the falling
of the cherry blossom adds a touch of melancholy to the scene with the reminder that, just
as the flowers are scattered in the breeze, so also is human life doomed to end. Summer,
although an ideal growing season for rice, is unpoetical, a season to be endured rather than
enjoyed, for it is hot and sultry, and brings heavy rains followed by typhoons. Autumn, on
the contrary, is a most welcome season, with its clear dry weather affording relief after the
heat and heavy rains; in the country it is, of course, the time of harvest, but it is also the
time ofchange and decay,and sopoetically the most characteristically Japanese ofthe sea-
sons, with signs of impermanence everywhere, symbolized by the momentary dew on the
now scarlet maple leaf. Although winter is of short duration and rather dry in the south,
over much of the country Japan is just a snow covered landscape in this season; the Japan-
ese cope valiantly with the cold weather, for their houses do not provide much protection
against it. The farmer in Japan has therefore the advantage of weather that, whatever its
other faults, is reasonably predictable, so that agricultural operations seldom have to wait
upon it. This does not mean that there are not occasional droughts, while the occurrence
andprecisecourseoftyphoonsinlatesummercannotbeforeseen.Thefirstactinthecycle
ofrice-production wastopreparethenurserybedinMay.Forvariousreasons,ricewasnot
sown directly in the place where it was to grow, but plants were reared in a nursery bed for
later transplanting. This method, economical of seed, concentrates the seedlings in a small
areawheretheycanbeeasilysupervised,andallowsanysecondarycropsinthemainfields
a longer time to mature. The preparation of the bed involved plowing up the area ( 29 ) if
beasts were available—horses being more common in eastern Japan and oxen in the west
ordiggingbyhand,addingmanureandproducingasmootharea.Waterforthefieldseither
camebygravity-fedchannels,ledintoandfromthefieldsbyarrangementsofwatergatesor
bamboo tubes, or, in flat areas, it was raised by mechanical means, waterwheels if the flow
wasfastenough,tread-wheelsorotherdeviceswhereitwasnot( 33 ) . Theseed,savedfrom
last year's crop, was often sprouted before sowing ( 30 ) , being soaked, in the straw bales in
whichitwasstored,bysuspensioninapond,thenspreadinthesun.Itwasscatteredonthe
bed from the banks and sank to the surface of the soil ( 31 ) . Forty days was required for it
to grow to sufficient size for planting out—something like 12 inches overall.