The Foundations of Japan

The Foundations of Japan

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Title: The Foundations of Japan Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000
Miles In The Rural Districts As A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of
The Japanese People
Author: J.W. Robertson Scott
Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14613]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: BATH IN AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL]
[Illustration: JUJITSU (AND RIFLES) AT THE SAME SCHOOL. p.
50]
YOUNG JAPAN
[Frontispiece

THE FOUNDATIONS OF JAPAN
BY THE SAME AUTHOR

FAR EASTERN
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA JAPAN, GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
WORLD. (Nippon Eikoku oyobi Sekai.) THE IGNOBLE WARRIOR.
(Koredemo Bushika.) THE NEW EAST. (Tokyo.) Vols. I, II & III.
(Edited.)
AGRICULTURAL
A FREE FARMER IN A FREE STATE. (Holland.) WAR TIME AND
PEACE IN HOLLAND. (With an Introduction by the late LORD
REAY.) THE LAND PROBLEM: AN IMPARTIAL SURVEY
SUGAR BEET: SOME FACTS AND SOME CONCLUSIONS. A
Study in Rural Therapeutics. THE TOWNSMAN'S FARM THE
SMALL FARM POULTRY FARMING: SOME FACTS AND SOME
ILLUSIONS THE CASE FOR THE GOAT. (With Introductions by the
DUCHESS OF HAMILTON and SIR H. RIDER HAGGARD.)
COUNTRY COTTAGES THE STORY OF THE DUNMOW FLITCH
IN SEARCH OF AN £150 COTTAGE. (Edited.) THE JOURNAL OF
A JOURNEYMAN FARMER. (Edited.)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE FOUNDATIONS OF JAPAN
NOTES MADE DURING JOURNEYS OF 6,000 MILES IN THE
RURAL DISTRICTS AS A BASIS FOR A SOUNDER
KNOWLEDGE OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
BY J.W. ROBERTSON SCOTT
("HOME COUNTIES")
WITH 85 ILLUSTRATIONS
"In good sooth, my masters, this is no door, yet it is a little window"
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1922

TO
SCOTT SAN NO OKUSAN
FOR WHOLESOME CRITICISM

A concern arose to spend some time with them that I might feel and

understand their life and the spirit they live in, if haply I might receive
some instruction from them, or they might be in any degree helped
forward by my following the leadings of truth among them when the
troubles of War were increasing and when travelling was more difficult
than usual. I looked upon it as a more favourable opportunity to season
my mind and to bring me into a nearer sympathy with them.--_Journal
of John Woolman_, 1762.
I determined to commence my researches at some distance from the
capital, being well aware of the erroneous ideas I must form should I
judge from what I heard in a city so much subjected to foreign
intercourse.--BORROW.

INTRODUCTION
The hope with which these pages are written is that their readers may
be enabled to see a little deeper into that problem of the relation of the
West with Asia which the historian of the future will unquestionably
regard as the greatest of our time.
I lived for four and a half years in Japan. This book is a record of many
of the things I saw and experienced and some of the things I was told
chiefly during rural journeys--more than half the population is
rural--extending to twice the distance across the United States or nearly
eight times the distance between the English Channel and John o'
Groats.
These pages deal with a field of investigation in Japan which no other
volume has explored. Because they fall short of what was planned, and
in happier conditions might have been accomplished, a word or two
may be pardoned on the beginnings of the book--one of the many
literary victims of the War.
The first book I ever bought was about the Far East. The first leading
article of my journalistic apprenticeship in London was about Korea.
When I left daily journalism, at the time of the siege of the Peking
Legations, the first thing I published was a book pleading for a better
understanding of the Chinese.
After that, as a cottager in Essex, I wrote--above a nom de guerre
which is better known than I am--a dozen volumes on rural subjects.
During a visit to the late David Lubin in Rome I noticed in the big
library of his International Institute of Agriculture that there was no

took in English dealing with the agriculture of Japan.[1] Just before the
War the thoughts of forward-looking students of our home affairs ran
strongly on the relation of intelligently managed small holdings to
skilled capitalist farming.[2] During the early "business as usual"
period of the War, when no tasks