Relationship between Climatic Change and Human Exploitation of Wild Plants during the Time from 13th to 19th Century in Japan

Abstract

It is suggested that the human in the medieval and modem times in the Japanese history had become to exploit lots of wild plant species as food resources, based on the evidence of literatures and plant remains. The human-plant relationship characterized by a exploitation of not only cultivated plants but also wild plants as food resources during the time from 13th to 19th -century has relations with a climatic deterioration in "Little Ice Age". This thesis propose the necessity of study on the wild plant remains in the historic times.