Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (2.1972/1975)

128

REVIEWS

ALFRED JANATA, ERICH PAUER and JOSEF
KREINER: Zur Geschichte des Pfluges (Kara-
suki): Bodenbaugerdte Japans 11, in: Archiv fur
Volkerkunde 24, 1970.
In my opinion this is the best of all the studies on
the history of the Japanese plough written in Ger-
man or any other foreign language. In Japan, there
are the hoe, the spade and the plough as imple-
ments for tilling, but the hoe is the most important
of all. Although Japanese farmers began to use
the plough as early as the 5th century, it was at the
end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th
century that its use became common. Through this
study we can learn very well the history of the
Japanese plough from the 5th century to the 20th
century, since it is based on archaeological data,
documents and literature, and contains many illu-
strations. In particular, it illuminates the history
of the plough since the 16th century, because agri-
cultural books began to appear in the 16th century
in Japan, as in Western Europe.
The author's point out that there had been two
kinds of Japanese ploughs since the 16th century,
that is, the long sole plough and the soleless plough,
and that the use of the former had been more
dominant than the use of the latter in the Edo
period (16th-19th century). The explain that the
depth of tillage by the former is stable and shallow,
while the depth of tillage by the latter is more un-
stable and deeper owing to the lack of a sole.
Therefore, after the Meiji Restoration (1868), the
use of the latter spread rapidly all over Japan,
since deep-tillage was required in accordance with
the increase of manure. At the beginning of the
20th century, the short-sole plough was invented,
and after that its use spread in place of the soleless
plough. This was because the depth of tillage by
the short-sole plough is more stable than that by
the soleless plough and moreover is very deep as
in the case of the soleless plough. At the end of
this study, the authors classify the types of the
Japanese plough and explains them very well,
giving many illustrations.
There are, however, some uncertain points about
this study.
(1) As reasons why Japanese farmers had not

used the plough generally until the end of the 19th
century or the beginning of the 20th century, the
authors suggest that the feeding of cattle had not
yet been developed in Japan in this period, that
Japanese farms were very small (even today the
average area is one hectare), that their ground of-
ten consisted of many small scattered parts, and
that the rice-fields especially were often too muddy
to take cattle (p. 212). In my view more basic rea-
sons must be looked for. In Western Europe the
farmers used the hoe only in the garden, but in
Japan they used it not only in the garden but also
in the field. It is very hot and humid in summer in
Japan, so the yield becomes very poor if the
farmers do not pull out the weeds between the
crops, using the hoe in the field as well as in the
garden. In Western Europe also, the farmers began
to hoe in the field in the 18th century, but only for
root-crops and not for wheat, barley and grass.
The second reason why the use of the hoe was
dominant in Japan is that farmers could not till
the soil deeply with the long-sole plough which had
been the dominant plough in Japan, but could do
so with the hoe. The authors also note this in their
study (for example, p. 229), but does not explain
why it is impossible to till deeply with the long-
sole plough.
(2) I think the long-sole plough originated in
North China about 2000 years ago. North China
is a dry zone (annual rainfall is 400-500 mm), so
the long-sole plough had been used there to save
water in the soil. Shallow-tillage is suitable for this
purpose, but deep-tillage is harmful for it. The
long-sole plough seems to have been introduced to
Japan from North China through Korea in the 5th
century, and Japanese farmers have used it since
then .
(3) The authors do not explain the difference
between the long-sole plough, the soleless plough
and the short-sole plough. The long-sole plough
has two points of contact with the soil, but the
soleless plough has only one point of contact and
the short-sole plough, like the long-sole plough,
has two points of contact, but its sole is shorter
than that of the long-sole plough.
Jiro linuma.