Abstract
It is said that the ecological systems of big wild mammals are closely connected in many points with the Oecumene of mankind. For this reason, the author expected to get some clues to the structure of the Oecumene through the examinations of variations in ecological characteristics of those systems. As the population is a better indicator of geographical conditions of the area, so the numbers of wild mammals will be a good indicator of their ecological systems. Then he has investigated some data of the numbers of wild mammals from various materials. Some of the materials are located in the Documents of Ikeda Library at Okayama University. These documents consist of the official diary of the Okayama Clan, a large feudal domain from the 17th to the 19th Century, and other official or private papers of the lords. The diary contains the numbers of wild mammals and birds which were hunted by the lords of this clan.
In this report, the author investigated mainly the ups and downs of the hunted numbers of wild-boar and deer in three hunting zones on the hills at the north and north-east outskirts of Okayama City, and other areas. The names of the hills are Handa-yama, Tatsunokuchi-yama and Takakura-yama from west to north-east in turn. The hills must have been designated as hunting zones, since they were located along a big river, Asahi-gawa, through which they were easily accessible by boat. Because the huntings of the lord used to require thousands of corvée peoples who were obliged to surround the hill and drive mammals into a corner of a valley, where the lord stood waiting and shot them. These huntings would be a great training for battle operations at that age as well as a festival.
The author observed vegetations, rocks, sizes and other conditions of ground surfaces of the hills, which have many relations to the mammal life. With the results of his observation, he examined other data in the Okayma domain at different poriods from the 17th to the 19th Century.
The conclusions are as follows; in the former period of the Edo Era, the Okayama Clan did not yet obtain the exclusive possession of certain hunting zones, only making a temporary hunting area on occassion. In the area of Okayama at that time, there presumably existed a great number of wild mammals, since the lord caught 40 to 60 deer or more in every hunting by using bows and arrows only. But as the forest protective policy of the clan was carried into effect, dense forests and bushes in the domain turned into good habitats for wild-boar, and, on the contrary, deer which liked open grasslands diminished in number.
For instance, in the Kojima Peninsula, where manufactures and fishery were prosperous, the type of agricultural management turned into intensive one on the small fields and the grassland for cattle turned gradually into forests or bushes. Then deer disappeared all over the peninsula, whereas wild-boad and hare increased in number.
At the last stage of this period, the clan began to obtain some exclusive possession of hunting zones confined to certain aeras such as the three hills mentioned above, so there came the concentration of many wild mammals in the area. The reason for this concentration would be that the reclamation and clearing of lands had been encouraged since that time. These prohibited hunting zones became a great annoyance for the inhabitants in the neighborhood. Many suit papers against it are found in the Library. According to other records at the time, however, there is an undeniable evidence that the population density of wild big mammals rather decreased in every part of the domain.
In the latter period of the Edo Era, formal hunting of the clan was held only in the above mentioned zones, among which the number of hunted deer increased especially at Takakura-yama, whereas the numbers of wild-boar and hare diminished. But no such distinct fluctuations were recognized in the other two zones.
