Page 152 - Changing Living Spaces

Miyuki Takahashi

Figure 5
Horse-shaped Haniwa Clay Figure
(Sixth Century) (ColBase)

Figure 4
KCHM, Ninbetsu-aratame-chō
of Shimomoriya (1833)

(presumably a household unit) the head of household and its members, as
well as their age and relationship to the head. Although records are miss-
ing for some individual years, the records used for Shimomoriya cover the
years 1708–1869, for Komaya 1692–1855, and for Hidenoyama 1697–1870.
In the figure, the page begins with the amount produced on owned rice
paddies and crop fields (mochidaka) and the amount produced on cultivat-
ed land (sakudaka). The writing marked with a box refers to horses.
This paper examines a document (petition) from Katsushika County
sent to the authorities by the village of Hananoi in 1724.

Brief History of Horses in Japan
It is believed that cattle were first domesticated in Japan in the third cen-
tury and horses in the fourth century (Ichikawa 1981). From the fifth to
the sixth century, horse breeding became a widespread practice, as evi-
denced by the excavation of horse-shaped haniwa clay figurines (figure
5). In the seventh century, military use of horses became important, and
horses were managed by the Hyōbu-shō, the Ministry of War. According to
the Nihonshoki, many pastures were established in 668. The Shokunihongi

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