Page 202 - Changing Living Spaces

Masanori Takashima

sulted in the development of only small-scale or low-yielding paddy fields
(Kinda 1987). In other words, in the early phase of arable land develop-
ment in the Japanese archipelago, development efforts focused on con-
verting forests and uncultivated land into arable land. This development
resulted in the creation of non-paddy fields as a preliminary stage, rather
than the direct conversion of wilderness to cultivated land (Kimura 1992).
This is consistent with the fact that the acreage of non-paddy fields was
increasing at a higher rate than that of paddy fields. This is also support-
ed by the fact that the growth rate of non-paddy fields was high from the
eighth to the tenth century, when various laws and regulations on land
development were issued by the government. This growth rate declined
after the tenth century.
Although data on paddy fields by region are available for only two ref-
erence years (950 and 1150 in the latter half of the ancient period), these
data show the area of paddy fields in eastern and western Japan. While
the area of paddy fields in eastern Japan did not increase, the area of
paddy fields in western Japan, including the middle region, showed an
increasing trend. The difference in the development of paddy fields be-
tween eastern and western Japan is attributed to the following factors.
First, it is attributed to the ruling system of the Ritsuryō regime in the ar-
chipelago. The Ritsuryō regime was originally based in the Kinai region
(the five capital provinces around the ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto).
Therefore, the economic base of this regime was in western Japan. Albeit
the ruling system of the Ritsuryō regime was instituted in the eighth cen-
tury, after the mid-ninth century the rule was effectively established
in eastern Japan, particularly in the Tōhoku region (the northeastern
Japan farthest from Kinai). Although the Ritsuryō regime was able to
control the archipelago institutionally, its rule was replaced by the aris-
tocrats, temples and shrines, and an emerging samurai power in the sec-
ond half of the ancient period (after the tenth century). This limited the
political influence of the Ritsuryō regime to the Kinai region and its en-
virons. Responsibility for developing the arable land shifted from the
Ritsuryō regime to these new ruling forces. It seems obvious that pad-
dy field development was driven under the latter regime as the power of
temples and shrines in Kyoto, which owned the shōen throughout Japan,
increased.
Second, the difference can be attributed to the geographical conditions
of the archipelago. While there are many plains (e.g. alluvial land) suita-
ble for rice cultivation in western Japan, there are mountainous areas and

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