In recent years scholars have begun paying more attention to the fields of social history and the history of everyday life, resulting in great strides throughout many research areas. The aspect of eating habits is no exception and is now beginning to recieve the interest it deserves. However, studies which attempt to deal directly and exclusively with the history of food, victual preparation and table manners are almost non-existent ; and so the actualities of this everyday event are still not very clear. Moreover, the place where meals were partaken of and its significance have hardly been touched upon. In this essay, the author takes up the problem of the relation between feasting (kyoshoku 共食) and political control ; that is, the problem of the relationship of feasting to the communal consciousness of the dining participants and their status at the site of the banquet. Also to be investigated is the burden of providing foodstuffs, on such occasions as the serving of food and drink to corvee labor and banquets held when surveying land and collecting the annual land tax. Feasts, which were held on the occasion of independent community gatherings in cities and villages, would call for drawing from the stream of the sacred water of comradship (ichimi jinzui 一味神水), an act which functioned to strenghten communal consciousness and signified a group pledge for unity. On the occasion of the acceptance of a petition for merciful government and debt remission (tokusei 徳政), or the rendering of decisions in disputes, food and drink were partaken of ; and in public places where legal statutes were acclaimed, banqueting would follow. When groups such as ad hoc bands (ikki 一揆) whose members were considered of equal status were formed, a common thing was eaten by all present. However, when there were status differences within the group, what was eaten and where it was eaten differed accordingly. For example, an investigation of a menu (kondate 献立) listing the order of food and drink to be served on the occasion of a visit (onari 御成) from the Muromachi Shogun in 1561 (Eiroku 永禄 4) reflects a stratified status order and assures that this status order will be maintained among the various participants at this banquet, which lasted from evening till morning. Whenever unscheduled, special corvee levies were exacted, as in the case of irrigation facilities construction and repair, food and drink were always served to laborers. While there is the view which puts such eating and drinking in a stage of history which predates hired labor paid in cash, and the view which holds that behind such food service lay the attempt to capitalize on the community's customs, during both the medieval and ancient periods the burden for the provision of food and drink, which was required in certain labor-related specifications, was for a long time the responsibility of the ruling class. Within the realm of the ruling classes, as well, food and drink were communally enjoyed at the time of land survey and tax collection. When cadastres were carried out by the surveyors sent from the proprietor, feasting, known as mikkakuriya 三日厨 and hirakuriya 平厨, was enjoyed ; and the burden for foodstuffs reverted to local peasants. Food for banquets during tax collection, however, was provided by land proprietors. Eating habits related to feasting and political control in Japan's medieval period and those in the early modern period differ remarkably. In the latter era, feasting lost much of its former meaning, the banquet all but disappeared from the scenes of corvee labor and tax collection, and on the occasion of land surveys, only a minimal amount of foodstuffs were mustered under the state land tax system. By an investigation into the area of medieval eating habits showing the relationship between feasting and political control, the author has been able to give a fresh insight into the nature of the social consciousness of medieval people and the structure o

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Flowering Cherries have been appreciated in Japan from the very ancient times, and their records might;be traced back as early as to 402 A.D. Since the Capital was fixed in “Kyoto” in later years, the interest of the Japanese in the flowering cherries has deepened and grown stronger. They have been adopted as the favorite theme of the “Waka”, the only poetic form purely Japanese in those days, and at last the term “Hana” or flowers has come to imply the “cherry flowers”.
The horticultural varieties of the flowering cherries, especially the so-called “Sato-zakura” (Horticultural Varieties), with its great many varieties, were mestly produced chiefly in “Yedo”, now Tokyo, in the glory of the Yedo culture, together with other horticultural flowering plants. It was in this age, too, that there were produced many masterpieces of literature which compared the thick and simultaneous fall of cherry flowers to the pure spirit of feudal knights who were ready to lay down their lives for the cause of loyalty on the battlefield.
Since the introduction of the modern Western botanical science together with other branches of the Western culture, into this country after the Restoration of “Meiji”, several species of wild Japanese flowering cherries have been recorded and announced as new species according to its standards.
The flowering cherries have been originally produced and developed in the islands of Japan. Fond of the warm and damp climate, they have most prospered in the main island(“Honshu”). As they are suited to the soil where drainage is good and subterranean water lies deep, their superior species are produced near Tokyo, which consists of volcanic ash soil. The above-mentioned character is especially marked in the horticultural varieties and the species valuable in appreciation. The flowering cherries have what are called the Winter Flowering. Varieties, which bear their flowers on their branches for Over two months in autumn and winter, besides blooming in spring like the common varieties. Morphologically, they may be roughly classed into two types, but neither of them bears flowers worthy of much admiration. There is a tendency of using them as material for improving the prospect, for the winter season is very scarce in flowers, and they have been attracting much attention of the experts of late.
The “Shiro Yama-zakura” is a flowering tree most renowned in Japan since the old days. The young leaves of each of these trees have the colours of either green, yellow, brown, or russet. Its flowers and leaves unfold themselves at the same time, brilliantly reflecting the spring sun, and presenting a specially beautiful sight.

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Japanese historical and geographical literatures, the Kojiki, the Nihongi, the Fudoki etc., were edited in the 8th century. Studies of minerals, rocks and fossils at that time were done on the basis of the Honzo (Pen-Tsao), Chinese ancient pharmacy. Since the 17th century studies of the Honzo were settled in Japan and progressed independently. With the development of the Japanese industry in the end of the 18th century, the Meibutsu-gaku, or the Bussan-gaku, learning on natural material or product, originated from the Honzo. On the other hand, since the end of the 17th century, Western natural sciences were transmitted to Japan through Dutch Commercial Office in Nagasaki. The eastern sciences such as the Honzo and the Bussan-gaku resulted in the establishment of the modern geology in Japan together with the western sciences.

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