Page 161 - Changing Living Spaces

Horses in Early Modern Japan

Figure 13
KC, Sashiage mōsu issatsu
no koto (Petition)

The Tokugawa shogunate also showed interest in horse breeding in the
Nihnomatsu Domain. A record from 1719 describes that 20 pack horses
were sent from the domain to the Koganemaki ranch (Nukazawa 2010).
The next section discusses the relationship between horses and local life
in Koganemaki.

Peasants and Horses (II): The Case of Katsushika County
In some farming villages in Katsushika County, Shimousa Province,
goyōuma (shogunate horses) damaged crops.
In Shimousa Province, horses had been raised on government-run
ranches since the tenth century. In the Edo period, there were two gov-
ernment-run ranches in Shimousa Province, namely Koganemaki and
Sakuramaki, where the Shogun’s horses were raised. Koganemaki con-
sisted of five pastures: Takadadai, Kamino, Nakano, Shimono, and Inzai.
The horses grazed freely in the pastures. Embankments or ditches
about 3 metres high or deep were made between the pastures and the crop
and rice fields to prevent the horses from running away from the pas-
tures. However, the horses sometimes went into the fields and destroyed
the crops.
One document refers to an incident in which horses broke out of the
embankment into the village (figure 13). In the area marked in red, it
states, ‘The Shogun’s horses came into the fields from the bank’. Each vil-

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