The Complete Book of Agriculture (Nogyo Zensho)
Overview
A farming manual of ten books plus a supplement. The opening "General Discussion of Farming" sets out the basics: judging soil, plowing, sowing, fertilizer and water management. The books that follow describe one by one how to grow more than 150 crops: the five grains, vegetables, industrial crops such as cotton and indigo, trees such as tea and mulberry, fruit trees and medicinal herbs. The supplement was written by Kaibara Rakken.
Background
In the seventeenth century, land reclamation greatly expanded farmland, and commercial crops such as cotton, rapeseed and indigo were widely grown. Farming techniques had been handed down by word of mouth village by village, but as publishing grew, efforts began to gather them into books and spread them. Miyazaki Yasusada, a Fukuoka domain samurai, gave up his post and devoted himself to farming in Mebaru village in Chikuzen; he traveled widely, listened to old farmers, consulted Ming Chinese farming manuals, and wrote this book. It was published in Kyoto with a preface by Kaibara Ekiken.
Highlights
- Farming is the foundation of the stateThe idea that farming is the root of the realm, and the principle of reading the soil and knowing the season. The general discussion still makes good sense today.Read “General Discussion of Farming” →
- Growing riceFrom seedbed to transplanting, weeding and harvest. It sets out the advanced techniques of the Kinai concretely, step by step.Read “The Five Grains” →
- CottonHow to grow cotton, which greatly changed what people wore. Read it against the prosperity of cotton-growing areas such as Kawachi.Read “The Three Plants” →