The Foundations of Japan | Page 5

has seen nothing of the volume but
the cover.
I greatly regret that the present conditions of book production make it
impossible to reproduce more than one in thirty of my photographs.
It is in no spirit of ingratitude to my hosts and many other kind people
in Japan that I have taken the decision resolutely to strike out of the text

all those names of places and persons which give such a forbidding air
to a traveller's page. I have pleasure in acknowledging here the
particular obligations I am under to Kunio Yanaghita, formerly
Secretary of the Japanese House of Peers and a distinguished and
disinterested student of rural conditions, Dr. Nitobe, assistant secretary
of the League of Nations, and his wife, Professor Nasu, Imperial
University, Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. M. Yanagi, Mr. Kanzo Uchimura, Mr.
Bernard Leach, Mr. M. Tajima, Mr. Ono and two young officials in
Hokkaido, who each in turn found time to join me on my journeys and
showed me innumerable kindnesses. It was a piece of good fortune that
while these pages were in preparation Mr. Yanaghita, Professor Nasu
and other fellow-travellers were in Europe and available for
consultation. Professor Nasu unweariedly furnished painstaking
answers to many questions, and was kind enough to read all of the book
in proof; but he has no responsibility, of course, for the views which I
express. I am also specially indebted to Dr. Kozai, President of the
Imperial University, to Mr. Ito and other officials of the Ministry of
Agriculture, to Mr. Tsurimi, one of the most understanding of travelled
Japanese, to Mr. Iwanaga, formerly of the Imperial Railway Board, to
Dr. Sato, President of Hokkaido University, and his obliging colleagues,
to the Imperial Agricultural Society, to Professors Yahagi and Yokoi,
and to Viscount Kano, Dr. Kuwada, Mr. I. Yoshida, Mr. K. Ohta, Mr.
H. Saito, Mr. S. Hoshijima, and many provincial agricultural and
sociological experts.
Portions of drafts for this book have appeared in the _Daily Telegraph,
World's Work, Manchester Guardian, New East, Asia, Japan
Chronicle_ and Christian World. I am indebted to the _World's Work_
and Asia for some additional illustrations from blocks made from my
photographs, and to the New East for some sketches by Miss Elizabeth
Keith.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] There is a small book by an able American soil specialist, the late
Professor King, which describes through rose-tinted glasses the
farming of Japan, and of China and Korea as well, on the basis of a
flying trip to countries the population of which is thrice that of Great
Britain and the United States together. The author of another book,
published last year, delivers himself of this astonishing opinion: "The

Japanese is no better fitted to direct his own agriculture than I am to
steer a rudderless ship across the Atlantic."
[2] Vide Sir Daniel Hall's Pilgrimage of English Farming and articles
of mine in the Nineteenth Century and _Times_, and my Land
Problem.
[3] The Japanese have only lately, however, made some
acknowledgment of their debt to Hearn, and in an eight-page
bibliography of the best books about Japan in the Japan Year Book
Murdoch's as yet unrivalled History is not even mentioned.
[4] Ohyakusho must not be confused with _Oo-hyakusho_ or
_Oo-byakusho_, which means a large farmer. O is a polite prefix; Oo
or O means large.
[5] Horizontal wall writings.
[6] About 35,000 copies of my two bilingual books were circulated.
[7] With the backing of a London Committee composed of Lord
Burnham, Sir G.W. Prothero, Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey and Mr. C.V.
Sale.
[8] Tenison, 1684.

CONTENTS
STUDIES IN A SINGLE PREFECTURE (AICHI)

CHAPTER
I. THE MERCY OF BUDDHA
II. "GOOD PEOPLE ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PRECAUTIOUS"
III. EARLY-RISING SOCIETIES AND OTHER INGENUOUS
ACTIVITIES
IV. "THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH"
V. COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE
VI. BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-KAMI

VII. OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGI
THE MOST EXACTING CROP IN THE WORLD
VIII. THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD
IX. THE RICE BOWL, THE GODS AND THE NATION

BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES: THE APOSTLE AND THE ARTIST
X. A TROUBLER OF ISRAEL
XI. THE IDEA OF A GAP
ACROSS JAPAN (TOKYO TO NIIGATA AND BACK)
XII. TO THE HILLS (TOKYO, SAITAMA, TOCHIGI AND
FUKUSHIMA)
XIII. THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS (FUKUSHIMA)
XIV. SHRINES AND POETRY (NIIGATA AND TOYAMA)
XV. THE NUN'S CELL (NAGANO)
IN AND OUT OF THE SILK PREFECTURE
XVI. PROBLEMS BEHIND THE PICTURESQUE (SAITAMA,
GUMMA, NAGANO AND YAMANASHI)
XVII. THE BIRTH, BRIDAL AND DEATH OF THE SILK-WORM
(NAGANO)
XVIII. "GIRL COLLECTORS" AND FACTORIES (NAGANO AND
YAMANASHI)
XIX. "FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S" GRIM TALE
FROM TOKYO TO THE NORTH BY THE WEST COAST
XX. "THE GARDEN WHERE VIRTUES ARE CULTIVATED"
(FUKUSHIMA AND YAMAGATA)
XXI. THE "TANOMOSHI" (YAMAGATA)
BACK AGAIN BY THE EAST COAST
XXII. "BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST (YAMAGATA,
AKITA, AOMORI, IWATE, MIYAGI,