Page 132 - Changing Living Spaces

Taro Takemoto

how these affected the living space of Yamanashi Prefecture’s mountain
villages in the early twentieth century.
The units used in this chapter for area, weight, length, volume, and
currency are described as follows:

cho measure of area (0.99 ha; 2.45 acres)
tan measure of area (0.1 cho; 0.099 ha; 0.245 acres)
se measure of area (0.1 tan; 0.0099 ha; 0.0245 acres)
tsubo measure of area (0.033 se)
shaku measure of length (0.3 m)
shakujime measure of volume used for wood (1 × 1 × 12 shaku; 0.324 m3)
kan measure of weight used for fodder and green manure (3.75 kg)
soku measure of volume used for twigs (converted to 5 kan; 18.75 kg)
da measure of volume used for karishiki (converted to 6 soku, 30 kan; 18.75 kg)
tana measure of volume used for firewood (6 × 6 × 3 shaku × 2/3 = 6 shakujime; 1.944 m3;
converted to 500 kan; 1,875 kg)
yen currency: one yen in the middle of the Meiji period was roughly equivalent to 4,500
times its present value, measured in terms of the price of rice
sen currency (0.01 yen)

Establishment of the Forestry Division in Yamanashi Prefecture
At that time, Yamanashi Prefecture and the Prefectural Assembly were
concerned about the annual flood damage. The first major step toward
solving this problem was the ‘Petition for the Protection of Forests’,
which was published under the joint names of the members of the Diet
in March 1897 (Meiji 30), shortly before the passage of the Forest Act.
One copy of the petition was sent to the Speaker of the House of Peers
and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the other copy was
sent to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and the Minister of
the Imperial Household. The national government, however, was slow to
respond. In December 1900, the chairman of the Prefectural Assembly
submitted to the governor ‘An opinion requesting the establishment of
a division specifically for the purpose of demarcating forests and en-
couraging afforestation’. This opinion was discussed in the Prefectural
Assembly and approved by a large majority (Yamanashi Prefecture 1903b;
1973, 779).
Among the reasons for the establishment of a specialized division by
the prefecture were: (1) the allocation of some imperial forests to the own-
ership of iriai organizations and the prefecture and the correction of their
allocation, (2) the clear distinction between conservation forests and com-
mon-use forests, and (3) the taking of measures to promote afforestation

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