The Foundations of Japan Part 26

Four villages in this county have among them eight fish nurseries, the area of salt water enclosed being roughly 120 acres. I looked into several cottages where paper making was going on.[180]

I also went into two cotton mills. In both there were girls who were not more than eleven or twelve. "They are exempted from school by national regulation because of the poverty of their parents,"[181] I was told.

As we pa.s.sed the open shop fronts of the village barbers I saw that as often as not a woman was shaving the customer or using the patent clippers on him.

We looked at a big dam which an enterprising landowner was constructing. Three hundred women were consolidating the earthwork by means of round, flat blocks of granite about twice the size of a curling stone. Round each block was a groove in which was a leather belt with a number of rings threaded on it. To each ring a rope was attached. When these ropes were extended the granite block became the hub of a wheel of which the ropes were the spokes. A number of women and girls took ropes apiece and jerked them simultaneously, whereupon the granite block rose in the air to the level of the rope pullers'

heads. It was then allowed to fall with a thud. After each thud the pullers moved along a foot so that the block should drop on a fresh spot. The gangs hauling at the rammers worked to the tune of a plaintive ditty which went slowly so as to give them plenty of breathing time. It was something like this:

Weep not, Do not lament, This world is as the wheel of a car.

If we live long, We may meet again on the road.

None of the st.u.r.dy earth thumpers seemed to be overworked in the bracing air of the dam top, and they certainly looked picturesque with their white and blue towels round their heads. Indeed, with all the singing and movement, not to speak of the refreshment stalls, the scene was not unlike a fair. When we got back to the road again we pa.s.sed through a well-watered rice district which was equal to the production of heavy crops. Only three years before it had been covered by a thick forest in which it was not uncommon for robbers to lurk.

The transformation had been brought about by the construction of a dam in the hills somewhat similar to the one we had just visited.

I could not but notice in this district the considerable areas given up to grave-plots. No crematoria seemed to be in use. There had been a newspaper proposal that in areas where the population was very large in proportion to the land available for cultivation the dead should be taken out to sea. Where land is scarce one sees various expedients practised so that every square foot shall be cropped. I repeatedly found stacks of straw or sticks standing not on the land but on a rough bridge thrown for the purpose over a drainage ditch. In this district land had been recovered from the sea.

FOOTNOTES:

[178] For an account of a vegetable wax factory, see Appendix XLVIII.

[179] For further particulars of Eta in j.a.pan and America, see Appendix XLIX.

[180] See Appendix L.

[181] In 1918 net profits of 33 million yen were made by cotton factories. The factories are antic.i.p.ating sharp compet.i.tion from China.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE STORY OF THE BLIND HEADMAN

(EHIME)

The thing to do is to rise humorously above one's body which is the veritable rebel, not one's mind.--MEREDITH

It is delightful to find so many things made of copper. Copper, not iron, is in j.a.pan the most valuable mineral product after coal.[182]

But there are drawbacks to a successful copper industry. Several times as I came along by the coast I heard how the farmers' crops had been damaged by the fumes of a copper refinery. "There are four copper refineries in j.a.pan, who fighted very much with the farmers," it was explained. The Department of Agriculture is also the Department of Commerce and "it was embarra.s.sed by those battles." The upshot was that one refinery moved to an island, another rebuilt its chimney and the two others agreed to pay compensation because it was cheaper than to install a new system. The refinery which had removed to an island seven miles off the coast I had been traversing had had to pay compensation as well as remove. I saw an apparatus that it had put up among rice fields to aid it in determining how often the wind was carrying its fumes there. The compensation which this refinery was paying yearly amounted to as much as 75,000 yen. It had also been compelled to buy up 500 _cho_ of the complaining farmers' land. When we ascended by _basha_ into the mountains we looked down on a copper mine in a ravine through which the river tumbled. The man who had opened the original road over the pa.s.s had had the beautiful idea of planting cherry trees along it so that the traveller might enjoy the beauty of their blossoms in spring and their foliage and outlines the rest of the year. The trees had attained n.o.ble proportions when the refinery started work and very soon killed most of them. They looked as if they had been struck by lightning.

Some miles farther on, wherever on the mountain-side a little tract could be held up by walling, the chance of getting land for cultivation had been eagerly seized. It would be difficult to give an impression of the patient endeavour and skilful culture represented by the farming on these isolated terraces held up by Galloway d.y.k.es.

Elsewhere the heights were tree-clad. In places, where the trees had been destroyed by forest fires or had been cleared, amazingly large areas had been closely cut over for forage. One great eminence was a wonderful sight with its whole side smoothed by the sickles of indomitable forage collectors. In some spots "fire farming" had been or was still being practised. Here and there the cultivation of the shrubs grown for the production of paper-making bark had displaced "fire farming." I saw patches of millet and sweet potato which from the road seemed almost inaccessible.

On the admirable main road we pa.s.sed many pack ponies carrying immense pieces of timber. Speaking of timber, the economical method of preserving wood by charring is widely practised in j.a.pan. The palisades around houses and gardens and even the boards of which the walls or the lower part of the walls of dwellings are constructed are often charred. The effect is not cheerful. What does have a cheerful and trim effect is a thing constantly under one's notice, the habit of keeping carefully swept the unpaved earth enclosed by a house and buildings as well as the path or roadway to them. This careful sweeping is usually regarded as the special work of old people. Even old ladies in families of rank in Tokyo take pleasure in their daily task of sweeping.

When we had crossed the pa.s.s and descended on the other side and taken _kuruma_ we soon came to a wide but absolutely dry river bed. The high embankments on either side and the width of the river bed, which, walking behind our _kuruma_, it took us exactly four minutes to cross, afforded yet another object lesson in the severity of the floods that afflict the country. The rock-and rubble-choked condition of the rivers inclines the traveller to severe judgments on the State and the prefectures for not getting on faster with the work of afforestation; but it is only fair to note that in many places hillsides were pointed out to me which, bare a generation ago, are now covered with trees. Within a distance of twenty-five miles hill plantations were producing fruit to a yearly value of half a million yen. As for the cultivation on either side of the roadway, along which our _kurumaya_ were trotting us, I could not see a weed anywhere.

A favourite rural recreation in Ehime, as in s.h.i.+mane on the mainland, is bull fighting. It is not, however, fighting with bulls but between bulls: the sport has the redeeming feature that the animals are not turned loose on one another but are held all the time by their owners by means of the rope attached to the nose ring. The rope is gripped quite close to the bull's head. The result of this measure of control is, it was averred, that a contest resolves itself into a struggle to decide not which bull can fight better but which animal can push harder with his head. That the bulls are occasionally injured there can be no doubt. The contests are said to last from fifteen to twenty minutes and are decided by one of the combatants turning tail. There is a good deal of gambling on the issue. In another prefecture of s.h.i.+koku the rustics enjoy struggles between muzzled dogs. A taste for this sport is also cultivated in Akita. A certain amount of dog and c.o.c.k fighting goes on in Tokyo.

At an inn there was an evident desire to do us honour by providing a special dinner. One bowl contained transparent fish soup. Lying at the bottom was a gla.s.sy eye staring up balefully at me. (The head, especially the eye, of a fish is reckoned the daintiest morsel.) There was a relish consisting of grapes in mustard. A third dish presented an entire squid. I pa.s.sed honourable dishes numbers two and three and drank the fish soup through clenched teeth and with averted gaze.

I interrogated several chief constables on the absence of a.s.saults on women from the lists of crimes in the rural statistics I had collected. Various explanations were offered to me: if there were cases of a.s.sault they were kept secret for the credit of the woman's family; no prosecution could be inst.i.tuted except at the instance of the woman, or, if married, the woman's husband; women did not go out much alone; the number of cases was not in fact as large as might be imagined, because the people were well behaved. An official who had had police experience in the north of j.a.pan declared that the south was more "moral and more civilised and had higher tastes." In Ehime, for example, there was very little illegitimacy and fewer children still-born than in any other prefecture. Nevertheless four offences against women had occurred in villages in Ehime within the preceding twelve months.

One of the most interesting stories of rural regeneration I heard was told me by a blind man who had become headman of his village at the time of the war with Russia. His life had been indecorous and he had gradually lost his sight, and he took the headmans.h.i.+p with the wish to make some atonement for his careless years. This is his story:

"Although I thought it important to advance the economic condition of the village it was still more important to promote friends.h.i.+p. As the interests of landowners and tenants was the same it was necessary to bring about an understanding. I began by asking landowners to contribute a proportion of the crops to make a fund. I was blamed by only fourteen out of two hundred. But the landowners who did blame me blamed me severely, so much so that my family[183] were uneasy. I went from door to door with a bag collecting rice as the priests do. My eccentric behaviour was reported in the papers. The anxiety of my household and relatives grew. My children were told at the school that their father was a beggar. During the first harvest in which I collected I gathered about 40 _koku_ (about 200 bushels). In the fourth year a hundred tenants came in a deputation to me. They said: 'This gathering of rice is for our benefit. But you gather from the landowners only. So please let us contribute every year. Some of us will collect among ourselves and bring the rice to you, so giving you no trouble.' I was very pleased with that. But I did not express my pleasure. I scolded them. I said: 'Your plan is good but you think only of yourselves. You do not give the landowners their due. When you bring your rent to them you choose inferior rice. It is a bad custom.'

I advised them to treat their landowners with justice and achieve independence in the relation of tenant and landowner. They were moved by my earnestness.

"In the next year the tenants exerted themselves and the landowners were pleased with them. Thus the relation of landlord and tenant became better. The landowners in their turn became desirous of showing a friendly feeling toward the tenants. Some landlords came to me and said, 'If you wish for any money in order to be of service to the tenants we will lend it to you without interest.' I received some money. I lent money to tenants to buy manure and cattle, to attack insect pests, to provide protection against wind and flood and to help to build new dwellings nearer their work. By these means the tenants were encouraged and their welfare was promoted. The landlords were also happier, for the rice was better and the land improved. The landlords found that their happiness came from the tenants. There was good feeling between them. The landlords began to help the tenants directly and indirectly. Roads and bridges and many aids to cultivation were furnished by the landlords. A body of landlords was const.i.tuted for these purposes and it collected money. My idea was realised that the way of teaching the villages is to let landlords and tenants realise that their interests agree and they will become more friendly."

The co-operative credit society which the blind headman established not only buys and sells for its members in the ordinary way but hires land for division among the humbler cultivators. One of the departments of the society's work is the collection of villagers'

savings. They are gathered every Sunday by school-children. One lad, I found from his book, had collected on a particular Sunday 5 sen each--5 sen is a penny--from two houses and 10 sen each from another two dwellings. The next Sunday he had received 5 sen from one house, 10 sen from two houses, 30 sen and 50 sen from others and a whole yen from the last house on his list. The subscriber gets no receipt but sees the lad enter in his book the amount handed over to him, and the next Sunday he sees the stamp of the bank against the sum. Some 390 householders out of the 497 in the village hand over savings to the boy and girl collectors, whose energy is stimulated with 1 per cent.

on the sums they gather. In five years the Sunday collections have ama.s.sed 60,000 yen. The previous year had been marked by a bad harvest and large sums had been drawn out of the bank, but there was still a sum of 14,000 yen in hand.

In this village there had been issued one of the economic and moral diaries mentioned in an earlier chapter. The diary of this village has two s.p.a.ces for every day--that is, the economic s.p.a.ce and the moral s.p.a.ce. The owner of this book had to do two good deeds daily, one economic and the other moral, and he had to enter them up. Further, he had to hand in the book at the end of the year to the earnest village agricultural and moral expert who devised the diary and carefully tabulates the results of twelve months' economic and moral endeavour.

One might think that the scheme would break down at the handing in of the diary stage, but I was a.s.sured that there were good reasons for believing that a considerable proportion of the 440 persons who had taken out diaries would return them.

There is an old custom by which Buddhist believers, in companies of a dozen or so, meet to eat and drink together. As a good deal is eaten and drunk the gatherings are costly. Our blind headman met the difficulty of expense in his village by getting the companies of believers to cultivate together in their spare time about three acres of land. His object was to a.s.sociate religion and agriculture and so to dignify farming in the eyes of young men. He also wished to provide an object lesson in the results of good cultivation. The profits proved to be, as he antic.i.p.ated, so considerable as to leave a balance after defraying the cost of the social gathering. The headman prevailed on the cultivators to keep accurate accounts and they made plain some unexpected truths: as for example, that a _tan_ of paddy did not need the labour of a man for more than twenty-three days of ten hours, and that the net income from such an area was a little more than 16 yen, and that thus the return for a day's labour was 73 sen.

It was demonstrated, therefore, that labour was recompensed very well, and that instead of farming being "the most unprofitable of industries"--for in j.a.pan as in the West there are sinners against the light who say this--it was reasonably profitable.

But if rice called for only twenty-three days' labour per _tan_--nearly all the farmers' land was paddy--and the whole holding numbered only a few _tan_, it was also plain that there were many days in the year when the farmer was not fully employed. From this it was easy to proceed to the conviction that the available time should be utilised either in secondary employments, or in, say, draining, which would reduce the quant.i.ty of manure needed on the land. So the farmers began to think about drainage and the means of economising labour.

They began to realise how time was wasted owing to most farmers working not only scattered, but irregularly shaped pieces of land. So the rice lands were adjusted, and everybody was found to have a trifle more land than he held before, and the fields were better watered and more easily cultivated. Only from sixteen to seventeen days' labour instead of twenty-three were now needed per _tan_[184] and the crops were increased. There is now no exodus from this progressive village.

Concerning his blindness the headman said that it was more profitable for him to hear than to see, for by sight "energy might be diverted."

He had recited in every prefecture his personal experience of rural reform. He a.s.serted that while conditions varied in every prefecture, there was, generally speaking, labour on the land for no more than 200 days in the year. He deplored the disappearance of some home employments. He did not approve of the condition of things in the north where women worked as much in the fields as their husbands and brothers. Women were "so backward and conservative." The biggest obstacles to agricultural progress were old women. To introduce a secondary industry was to take women from the fields.

I spoke with an agricultural expert, one of whose dicta was that "students at normal schools who come from town families are not so clever as students from farmers' families." He told me that 10,000 young men in his county had sworn "to act in the way most fitting to youths of a military state [sic], to buy and use national products as far as possible and so to promote national industry."

What was wrong with some farming, according to an official of a county agricultural a.s.sociation whom I met later, was that the farmers cultivated too intensively. They used too much "artificial." A prefectural official, speaking of the possibility of extending the cultivated area in j.a.pan, said that in Ehime there were 6,000 _cho_ which might be made into paddies if money were available. As to afforestation, 100,000 yen a year, exclusive of salaries, was spent in the prefecture. As a final piece of statistics he mentioned that whereas ten years before pears were grown only in a certain island of the prefecture, the production of a single county was now valued at half a million yen yearly.

I spent a night at a hot spring. It is said that the volume of water is decreasing. What a situation for a town which lives on a hot spring if the hot-water supply should suddenly stop! I heard of another hot-spring resort at which the water is gradually cooling: it is warmed up by secret piping.

I have not troubled my readers with many stories of the jostling of past and present, but I noticed in an electric street car at Matsuyama a peasant trying to light his pipe with flint and tinder. As he did not succeed a fellow-pa.s.senger offered him a match. He was so inexpert with it that he still failed to get a light and he had to be handed a cigarette stump.

In riding down to the port in the street car I borrowed for a few moments a schoolboy's English reader. It seemed rather mawkish. A book of j.a.panese history which I was also allowed to look at was full of reproductions of autographs of distinguished men. "They make the impression very strong," I was told.

FOOTNOTES:

[182] See Appendix x.x.xVIII.

[183] That is, not only his household but his relatives.

[184] Adding to the 17 days' labour for the rice crop, 13 days' labour for the succeeding barley crop, the total was 30 days' labour per _tan_ against the general j.a.pan average of 39 days per _tan_.