The history of Japan dates back to 660 B.C., when the empire was founded
on the island of Kiushiu by the warrior king Jimmuteno. He established a
kind of feudal government, with the daimios (knights or barons) holding
their fiefs from the mikado, who was considered the sole owner of the
soil, or at least all exercise of ownership rights emanated from him.
Private property seems then not to have existed at all, the people
having merely rights of user. Colonization of the islands brought under
the mikado’s dominion progressed rapidly, and with it, not only arable
portions but even mountains were denuded.
With the beginning of the Christian era, the need of better protection
against floods seems to have been recognized, and, in 270 A.D., we find
the first forest official appointed, a son of the royal house, who with
assistants was to regulate the use of the forest property, which, under
the rights of user granted by the mikado, was being excessively
exploited and devastated.
In the fifth century, the feudal method of giving fiefs of land and
forest to the deserving vassals had come generally into vogue, and
later, with the rise of Buddhism, forests were assigned to the temples
and priests, who, as in Germany the monks, were assiduous in cultivating
and utilizing them.
Soon the daimios, similarly to the barons in Germany, began to assert
exclusive property rights, and, notwithstanding various edicts, issued
from time to time to secure free use to the people, more and more of the
forest area was secured by daimios, and by priests as temple forests.
In the ninth century, deforestation and excessive exploitation had so
far progressed that not only the need of protecting watersheds was
recognized by edicts, but fear of a timber famine led even to planting
in the provinces of Noto.
A period of internal strife and warfare during the following centuries
which left forest interest in the background, led, in 1192, to the
establishment of the rule of the shoguns, the hereditary military
representatives of the mikado, who made him a mere figurehead, and
exercised all the imperial functions themselves, until the revolution of
1868 restored the mikado to his rights.
The effort at conservative forest use was renewed with increased
harshness when, after a period of warfare and devastation, the great
shogun family of Tokugawa (1603) assumed the rule of the empire,
enforcing the restrictive edicts with military severity. Even at that
early age, the protective influence of forest cover on soil and
waterflow was fully recognized, and a distinction of open or supply
forest and closed or protection forests seems to have been made, the
latter being placed under the ban of the emperor or shogun, and
withdrawn from utilization. The extensive forests of the province of
Kiso, the best remaining, owe their preservation to these efforts. The
daimios, 260 in number, each in his district, enforced the edicts in
their own way, giving rise thereby to great differences in forest
administration; yet in the absence of technical knowledge, deterioration
continued. The severity of punishments for depredations etc., reminds us
of those of the German Markgenossen, a hand or finger being the penalty
for theft, death by fire that for incendiaries.
The idea of protecting or reserving certain species of trees, which was
practiced in India by the rajahs, we find here again in the beginning of
the 18th century, the number of such protected species varying from one
to seven and even fifteen in different districts. Another unique and
peculiar way of encouraging forest culture was to permit peasants who
made forest plantations in the State forests, to bear a family name, a
right which was otherwise reserved to the knights or samurli, or to wear
a double-edged sword like the latter. Arbor days were also instituted,
memorial days and festivities, as at the birth of children, being marked
by the planting of trees.
While in Germany the love of hunting had led to the exclusion of the
people from the forests, in Japan it was a question of conserving wood
supplies that dictated these policies.
It is claimed that to these early efforts is due the preservation of the
remaining forests. But, while this may be true in some instances, as in
the province of Kiso, more probably their distance from centers of
consumption and their general inaccessibility preserved those of
Hokkaido and of the northern mountains. Certainly the brush forests
south of Tokyo do not testify to great care.
The detested shogunate was abolished in 1867 by a revolution which
brought the mikado to his rights again and crushed the power of the
daimios, whose fiefs were surrendered, and their acquisitions of forest
property, as well as (a few years later) those of the priests, were
declared State property, with the exception of some which were
recognized as communal properties.
Similar to the experiences of France, the disturbances in property
conditions, which implied instantaneous loss by the people of all rights
of user in the State property as well as removal of all restrictions
from private and communal properties, led to wholesale depredations from
the State domain, and to widespread deforestation and devastation, an
area of a million acres of burnt waste near Kofu, west of Tokyo,
testifying to the recklessness of these times.
Without any force to guard property rights, stealing on an extensive
scale, similar to past experiences in the United States, with the
accompanying wastefulness, became the order of the day, and is even now
not uncommon.
A first provisional administration of State forests was inaugurated, and
a forest reconnaissance ordered in 1875 in order to secure insight into
the mixed-up property relations, and restore to their rightful owners
such portions as had been wrongly taken by the State.
In 1878, the State forests were placed under a special bureau organized
by Matsuno, who had studied forestry in Germany (Eberswalde) for five
years. But it was not academic knowledge that was needed in the
situation; it was necessary first to mould public opinion in order to
secure means for administrative measures.
This he set himself to do through public addresses and pamphlets, and by
organizing a society of friends of forest culture, and finally, in 1882,
by establishing an experiment station at Nishigahara, and, a year later,
a dendrological school, which four years later was combined with the
agricultural school at Komaba; five years later both were joined to the
University of Tokyo.
With the transfer of the forestry bureau to the Department of
Agriculture and Commerce in 1881, and a reorganization in 1886, a new
era seemed to be promised, yet a substantial progress in organized
forest management of the State property does not seem to have been made
for another decade at least, the slow progress being largely due to lack
of personnel and the continuance of mixed property conditions, which
involved not only uncertainty of boundaries, but also mixed ownerships.
Although this last trouble, namely of mixed ownership by State and
private individuals, had been recognized as inimical to good management,
it was deliberately increased by the law of 1878 in a curious way,
reviving an old custom, namely by permitting private individuals to
plant up clearings in the State forests; in this way, these individuals
secured a certain percentage, usually 20 per cent., of the eventual
profits arising from the results. Some 200,000 acres were planted under
this arrangement.
To remove the boundary difficulty, a survey of the boundaries of State
property and adjustment of property rights, as well as segregation of
the State lands to be disposed of, namely small lots and others not
needed, was ordered in 1890.
It was then also that the first provisional working plan for the
fellings on State lands was elaborated, and gradually with the progress
of the survey, more permanent plans were adopted for district after
district.
By 1899, the adjustment had progressed far enough to begin the
restoration of properties, which the State had improperly claimed, to
their proper owners. It was then also that the Imperial forests,
intended for the support of the Imperial household, were increased to
about 5 million acres.
Meanwhile, the personnel had increased in numbers and improved in
character. In 1904, the organization of the forestry bureau under the
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, arranged somewhat after German
models, consisted of one director and four forest commissioners with ten
clerks, forming the head office; the sixteen districts into which the
State forests were divided were presided over by 32 conservators and 80
inspectors, while 325 district officers with 880 assistants and 626
guards, altogether over 1,800 employes, formed the field force. In 1910,
the number had increased to 2500, mainly by additional rangers. This
organization applies to the State forests under control of the
Department of Agriculture. Strangely enough, those in Saghalien,
Hokkaido and Formosa are not under that department, but under the
supervision of the Minister of Home Affairs, and are merely exploited,
while the Imperial forests are under the Household Department. In 1907,
only 7 per cent. of the State forests were under working plans.
The need of supervision of the ill-managed private and communal forests,
mostly located near the settled portions, early attracted the attention
of the new regime, mainly on account of their protective value. Annual
losses through floods to the amount of four million dollars, and
similar losses due to unchecked forest fires gave the incentive to the
passage of a law, in 1882, simply forbidding all forest use in
protection forest, which simple prescription evidently did not work
until a further revision was made in 1897. This latter does not confine
itself to legislation for protection forests alone, but also authorizes
the supervision of supply forests, under the special control of the
local governors. Under this law, which also extended the assistance of
local authorities to would-be planters, aided by reforms in the
corporation system, remarkable activity in planting waste lands ensued,
so that in the next two years not less than one million acres of
communal property was set out with trees, numbering over 800 million,
while in the State forests, some 400,000 acres of vacant land had been
planted by 1970. Some sand dune planting and reboisement works are also
the result of this legislation. Further legislation more closely
defining State control was had in 1907.
In connection with this planting, it may be of interest to record the
attitude of Japanese foresters toward natural regeneration: “This is no
longer popular in these days when the knowledge of forest management
possessed by foresters has become highly developed, for if that method
is the easiest and least troublesome, nevertheless it is not advisable,
in view of the necessity of effecting a thorough improvement in our
silvicultural conditions. Only on steep slopes and for protection
forests is it applicable.”
In 1897, also, some eight experiment stations were organized, in
addition to the earlier one at Nishigahara organized, in 1882, by
Matsuno.
Education in forestry has lately run riot in Japan as it has in the
United States. Since the first school, organized in 1882, not less than
62 institutions had seen the need of offering the opportunity to become
acquainted with that subject. By 1910, these had been reduced to 47.
Here, however, different grades are frankly acknowledged. There are
three collegiate institutions whose diploma admits to the higher
service, four are of secondary grade, nineteen give special courses, and
the rest treat the subject merely as a subsidiary of a practical
education including agriculture, stock-farming and fishery. A ranger
school, which was instituted under Matsuno’s guidance, controlled by the
forestry bureau, came to an end during the Russian war for lack of
funds, but has probably been revived again.
A forestry association now with 4000 members carries on propaganda and
publishes a magazine, and co-operative associations among small owners
to facilitate better management are being formed under the law of 1907.
In conclusion, we may say that Japan has done wonders in reorganizing
its forestry system in a short time, but, according to one competent
observer, while all the Japanese care for detail and love for
orderliness is apparent in the office, not all that is found on paper is
to be found as yet in the woods, and that, for similar reasons as have
been indicated for Russia; many things happen in the woods that are not
known in the office.