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(★)(´FL-0111´es mismo libro con tapa dura)(In the course of its long history, Japanese agriculture has in some respects changed remarkably little. Farming is scarcely less a family enterprise now than it was a thousand years ago ; holdings are still tiny and fragmented, tools simple, and rice the main crop. Although a Heian peasant would no doubt be perplexed by many things about contemporary farming --above all about its human relations-- the main operations of planting, tilling, and harvesting he would understand. This is an impressive fact which has given rise to imposing theories of Japanese society and history.／ But the resistance of Japanese agriculture to change, though notable, is sometimes exaggerated. The impression is even given that nothing essential about it has changed. Although this view cannot be supported, it has many adherents and quietly presides over much earnest discussion of cultural issues seemingly remote from it. One reason for its currency is that in some countries of the West there have been dramatic changes in particular aspects of farming that in Japan have changed scarcely at all, so that it is tempting to dismiss as unimportant such changes as in fact have taken place.／ These changes, however, were of great importance for Japanese history, perhaps justifying comparison with the agricultural revolution in Europe. As one might expect, they occurred at widely different times in different regions and were far too complex to capture in a word or phrase ; but taking the country as a whole they fell mainly in the Tokugawa period, and their central feature was a shift from cooperative to individual farming. At the beginning of the period, farming was generally carried on through the cooperation of families organized into actual or putative kinship groups, who to some extent shared land, labor, animals, tools, and even food and housing. By the end of the period, however, such cooperation had largely disappeared. Although it lingered on for a generation or more in isolated places, in the end the individual family nearly everywhere clearly emerged as the center of production organization and economic interest.／ This mighty change is easier to describe than explain, but if one of its cause may be singled out as especially important, it must be the growth of the market, with all that implies about changes in men´s ways and ideas. More than any other influence the market lifted economic life in the village out of the context of traditional social groupings. Economic change, which had been merely an aspect of social relations, a necessary concomitant of kinship, became increasingly independent of social organization and created values of its own. Thereafter what goods and services men gave and received, on what occasions and in what amounts, was less a matter of obligation than whether the price was right.／ This was a disruptive tendency in a society based even among the peasants on a hierarchy of birth. Economic life in the village had been organized around lineages, which provided a distributive as well as a productive system ; now it ignored or worked against them. As family gain became the chief end of economic activity, new productive energies were released and income was more and more distributed without regard to status. Old wealthy families laden with prestige came on hard times ; new cadet lines added field to field, moving into the landlord class. Thus the power of status, traditionally defined, was greatly reduced, and new routes were opened to social position and political power. The results were far-reaching. Peasant society took on an unprecedented mobility of which the effects were felt far beyond the boundaries of the peasant class ; agriculture became competitive, productivity increased, commercial and industrial activity in the countryside flourished ; there were even profound shifts of political power in many villages.／ This book attempts to sketch these changes in bare outline and to suggest their significance for modern Japan. But first I wish to make a disclaimer lest readers without a knowledge of Japanese be left with the false impression that this book is based mainly on original materials. Parts of it are (especially Chapter 12) and I have tried to check sources everywhere, but I have been unable to do this consistently since many of the most important materials are still unpublished. As a result, I have had to depend heavily on the researches of Japanese scholars, who since the war have devoted themselves with awesome energy to collecting and studying the Tokugawa manuscript materials that are scattered in profusion about the countryside. I hope my notes provide an adequate acknowledgement of indebtedness.／[from ´INTRODUCTION´] ▼CONTENTS／ ●PART I : THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGE／1.The Land System／2.Agricultural Servants／3.Labor Services／4.Small Holdings／5.The Organization of Political Power／ ●PART II : THE VILLAGE IN TRANSITION／6.The Growth of the Market／7.Agricultural Technology／8.The Transformation of Labor／9.The Transformation of ´Nago´／10.The Decline of the Cooperative Group／11.New Class Relations／12.Political Conflict in the Village／13.Agrarian Change and Modern Japan／) |
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