WATER MANAGEMENT IN JAPAN IN THE 8TH CENTURY AD

Since its very beginning, Japanese history has been marked by rice cultivation and the related water management. Although Japan had rich water resources thanks to its dense fluvial network and abundant annual rainfall (today 1800 mm), the waters were "not at the right place". The water had to be drawn to the agricultural lands which represented only 10 to 20% of the country’s total acreage, the other part being occupied by mountains and arduous slopes. Terraced fields have been practiced in Japan only since the modern period. Rice was therefore the main impetus for the hydraulic management for more than a millennium. Japan’s irrigation systems are known to us through written and iconographic sources, as well as archaeological findings. In my paper I will try to draft an inventory of the istorical hydraulic appliances. In rice farming, regulation of the water level in the field is of capital importance during the crop’s growing period and both water supply and drainage have to be managed. In ancient Japan water management was a priority of the government since the foundation of the first central state on the Japanese archipelago in the 7th century AD. From this period until the 19th century, rice was the official crop of the Japanese farming system and was imposed throughout the country by the public administration. The imperial court was then located in Asuka and later in the city of Nara (from 710 to 784 AD) near Kyoto. It instituted a fiscal system that was based on rice deliveries. Rice therefore became the main means of payment (more than coin money) and served as the basic device in the public economy throughout the centuries.

کلیدواژه ها:

Japan ، Medieval period ، Rice Cultivation ، Irrigation ، Mechanical Devices