Population Disease & Land in Early Japan 645 900

From tax and household registers, law codes, and other primary sources, as well as recent Japanese sources, William Wayne Farris has developed the first systematic, scientific analysis of early Japanese population, including the role of disease in economic development. This work provides a comprehensive study of land clearance, agricultural technology, and rural settlement. The function and nature of ritsuryō institutions are reinterpreted within the revised demographic and economic setting.

Farris's text is illustrated with maps, population pyramids for five localities, and photographs and translations of portions of tax and household registers, which throw further light on the demography and economy of Japan in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries.

This [book] is based on an impressively wide and careful study of the official histories, extant administrative and fiscal documents, and extensive modern Japanese scholarship in such fields as economic history and archaeology. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

W. Wayne Farris has developed the first systematic analysis of early Japanese population, the role of disease in economic development, and the impact of agricultural technology and practices. In doing so, he reinterprets the nature of ritsuryō institutions.

William Wayne Farris is Professor of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Chronological List of Translated Court Orders

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Population and Agriculture before 645

Establishment of the Ritsuryō State

1. Fertility, Mortality, and Life Expectancy in the Early Eighth Century

Population Registration in East Asian History

Census-Taking in the Law Codes

Selection of the Population Data

Appraising the Quality of the Data

Adjusting the Data

Application of Stable Population Analysis

Fertility, Mortality, and Life Expectancy in Early Japan

2. Population Trends and Epidemic Disease

The Nature of the Evidence

The Arrival and Initial Ravages of the Disease

The Epidemic at Its Height

Government Medical Policy and Identification of the Disease

Mortality in the Great Epidemic

Other Epidemics in the Ritsuryō Period

3. Land Clearance

Land Clearance in the Law Codes

Subsequent Legislation

Early Examples of Land Clearance

Early Shōen

Land Clearance in the Early and Middle Heian Period

4. Land Use and Agricultural Technology

Artificially Irrigated Rice Farming

Naturally Irrigated Rice Farming

Dry Fields

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture

The Early Landscape

Land Use and Land Tenure

5. Rural Settlement

Migration in the Law Codes

Government Attempts to Enforce the Codes

Migrants and Their Motives

Rural Settlement Patterns

Settlement Patterns and Local Government

Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

Index