Japanese Journal of Human Geography
Online ISSN : 1883-4086
Print ISSN : 0018-7216
ISSN-L : 0018-7216
Volume 4, Issue 5
Displaying 1-9 of 9 articles from this issue
  • A Traveling Fishing Village in Korea
    KEIICHI YOSHIDA
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 379-391,462
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The business of catching guchi along the west coast of Korea has developed peculiar fishing methods because of the habit of guchi and the particular circumstances of the guchi fishing grounds. Along Korea's west coast the sea is shallow to a great distance from the shore so that the tide ebbs far away from the shore, and consequently various kinds of fishing methods making use of the tide have developed. Due to the fact that during the fishing season the fishing ground moves from the south to the north, and that fish consumers live far away from the fishing ground, there have appeared cargo boats exclusively used for carrying fish.
    Since guchi are caught in plenty, although the business of catching them is temporary and managed individually, during the season all fishing boats of the country gather in the fishing ground while the inevitable cargo boats sppear there to buy fish directly from fishermen.
    At a base of fishing activities established near the fishing ground of guchi there usually appears shead of the fishing season a big pleasure resort that caters to those fishing and cargo boats. In Korea such a pleasure-providing fishing base is called Pa-si-pheong, and the wave of prosperity there a Pa-si boom. Originally, however, Pa-si-pheong means a market on the sea, i.e., a fishing ground where fish are traded.
    The Pa-si boom travels with the fishing ground from the south to the north, i.e., about 400km. from the southern end of Korea's west coast up to the Hai-ju Peninsula in the middle part of the coast. The Pa-si boom is brought about by fishermen, forwarding agents, merchants and prostitutes, all of whom have come from various parts of the country, and not by the inhabitants of the Pa-si-pheong village, few of whom engage in fishing or booming trade during the fishing season of guchi. Therefore, with the end of the season, their village becomes again a poor hamlet that it was before the boom.
    The history of Pa-si-pheong is very old. Taxes on fish along with taxes on salt were a chief source of national revenue. It so happened however that revenue from taxes was robbed by men of power and government offices in successive generations so that the nation's finance was thrown into confusion and fishermen became an object of exploitation. Nevertheless, the business of catching guchi has developed since old times as Korea's big fishery comparable to the fishing of mentai along the east coast, because, apart from the fact that the fish are plentiful, the fishing methods and the handling of fish caught are very rational. Another fact that guchi together with mentai are most liked by Koreans and consequently always in great demand constitutes a factor that has helped the business to grox.
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  • KATSUTOSHI YAMADA
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 392-410,463
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Because Japan is a small and mountainous country, about one third of her arable land, namely, 500, 000 cho (1, 225, 000 acres) in round numbers, has angles of inclination of more than 15 degrees. Especially in the southern part of Ehime Prefecture (the southwest of Shikoku), the slopes along the coast have an sverage angle of inclination of 40 degrees, where the land under cultivation is formed into terraces and potatoes and rye are grown. The farmers working in the sloping and overpeopled land, howevsr, suffer from continuous hard labor, too small a size of agricultural management and resultant inferior production. The cultivation of such a peculiar land originated from the necessity of self-supply of food among the fishermen living in the coastal areas. At the beginning a forest was turned into cultivated fields. Under the feudalistic system with its rough and primitive way of agricultural management the land did not yield much. When at the beginning of the Yedo epoch fishery was promoted by the Uwajima clan, the fishing population began to increase, which fact necessitated in turn the development of areas at the foot of the hills close behind the fishing villages. Nevertheless the fishing business declined in the course of time and the villages of fishermen showed a tendency of converting themselves into the villages of farmers, and with the advent of the Meiji era terraced fields rapidly appeared on those slopes from the hillside to the hilltop. Arable land was extended in this way chiefly because: (1) the people had to earn bread by means of farming due to the rapid increase of population and extremely unprofitable coastal fishery, (2) besides sweet potatoes and rye that made people self-sufficing, there had been no known crop until sericulture came to be widely known which was lucrative enough, and (3) overflowing population in the region where communication was difficult could not be absorbed by modern industry that was atill in a atate of underdevelopment. With the development of lucrative silkworm culture in the Taisho era, the management of a mulberry plantation became a main concern of the people, the terraced potato fields becoming less in number, while the improvement of arable land was continuously carried on. Sever food shortage during and after the last war caused the reconversion to a large extent of mulberry fields into potato fields.
    For the prosperity of this region the modern improvement of its surrounding conditions and the rationalization of agricultural management are indispensable. In order to stabilize people's life in this area, the development of fishery and communication facilities, and the establishment of industrial plants are necessary along with the promotion of agriculture.
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  • Characteristics as an Agricultural Industry of the Production of Green Tea in Japan
    TSUNEYOSHI UKITA
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 410-426,465
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The tea producing areas in Shiga Prefecture (see Fig. 1) concentrate in the southern mountainous country. Roughly they can be divided into A, B, and C area. High-grade tea is raised in A and C, while in B tea of average quality. Each area lies along a river in the mountainous country so the fog gathers there frequently. Fog helps enrich the aroma and taste of a tea plant. For growing tea plants an area should be well drained, and for that reason a diluvial terrace is most suitable for raising tea. High-grade tea, however, is grown on the Paleozoic. A and C are of the Paleozoic.
    Tea leaves are picked twice a year, that is, in May and July. A tea-picker uses scissors, but formerly she used the hands in picking tea. Tea picked by hand is of better quality than tea picked with scissors. Tea-pickers started to use scissors 30 years ago in B and only 10 years ago in A. In C they still pick tea leaves by using the hands.
    Once picked, tea leaves are liable to ferment. They are quickly sent to tea-manufacturing plants where they are first steamed, then crumpled with simple crumpling machinery, and finally dried. Formerly tea leaves were crumpled by hand. Tea of better quality is produced by crumpling tea leaves by hand than with machinery; therefore, the machines were not widely used until recently in the areas producing highgrade tea. E.g., the use of machines started in 1910 in B, in 1925 in A, and in 1933 in C. Since tea is a luxury at the same time that it is a necessary of life, its cultivation differs in many respects from the cultivation of other crops.
    Tea plants are being grown by farmers in agricultural districts, and therefore the production of tea is not industrialized on a large scale. Like other agricultural industries in Japan, tea industry is managed on a small scale. Tea industry is managed in the following four ways: (1) a tea-manufacturer grows tea plants and dries and prepares tea leaves in his own tea-manufacturing plant, (2) a tea-manufacturer, purchasing unprepared tea leaves, dries and prepares them, (3) those who sell unprepared tea leaves, and (4) a tea-manufacturer carries on the business in combination with the others. In B where tea of average quality is produced, the industry is organized in all four forms, but in A and C the production of tea is mainly carried on in form (1).
    In Shiga Prefecture, like in other parts of Japan, tea industry had developed rapidly since 1859 when foreign trade was started, tea becoming an important export of Japan. Later, however, the industry met tradal depression, with the result that in the areas with inferior production conditions tea industry was replaced by other and more advantageous agricultural industries. Only the areas with superior prodution conditions survived the depression, and tea is being raised mainly in those areas today.
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  • Kinjiro Oshita
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 427-437
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 438-440
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 440-441
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 441-447
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 447-448
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Keiji Iwata
    1952 Volume 4 Issue 5 Pages 449-458
    Published: December 30, 1952
    Released on J-STAGE: April 28, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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