Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
it was poured into very small cups. Its manufacture was limited to the winter season, and
provided a very convenient off-season employment for men from the northern parts. Sake
brewing for home consumption was also a winter occupation on larger farms, and well-to-
do town families would also employ specialists to come and make sake on the premises,
from rice that they had bought for the purpose.
(48) Two sword-smiths forge a blade. They wear ceremonial dress, and an un-trimmed
straw-rope with paper streamers, as used to bound sacred enclosures, testifies to the semi-
religious atmosphere.
The other category of wandering craftsmen did the same sort of things as their town
counterparts, but traveled from village to village. Farming communities were, of course,
capable of doing many things for themselves: they could certainly build simple houses and
doordinarycarpentry,whileroof-renewalwastheoccasionforacommunaleffortfollowed
by some merrymaking. But more decorative or elegant work would have to wait until a
skilled man came round or was summoned. In the early part of the period, such a man,
apart from being respected for his skill, was welcome as a bringer of news from the out-
side world, and sometimes he would settle down to a pampered spell of idleness, fed by
the villagers for the entertainment he gave them, and having, it is reported, the pick of the
village girls. Later on, with the improvements in communications and the development of
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