population, books of account and a system of the receipt and re-granting of distribution-land.[1]
(XXV. 17.) Let every fifty houses be reckoned a township, and in every township let there be one alderman who shall be charged with the superintendence of the population,[2] the direction of the sowing of crops and the cultivation of mulberry trees, the prevention and examination of offences, and the enforcement of the payment of taxes and of forced labour.
For rice-land, thirty paces in length by twelve paces in breadth shall be reckoned a tan.[3] Ten tan make one chō. For each tan the tax is two sheaves and two bundles (such as (XXV. 18.) can be grasped in the hand) of rice; for each chō the tax is twenty-two sheaves of rice. On mountains or in valleys where the land is precipitous, or in remote places where the population is scanty, such arrangements are to be made as may be convenient.[4]
IV. The old taxes and forced labour are abolished, and a system of commuted taxes instituted. These shall consist of fine silks, coarse silks, raw silk, and floss silk,[5] all in accordance with what is produced in the locality. For each chō of rice-land the rate is one rod[6] of fine silk, or for four chō one piece forty feet in length by two and a half feet in width. For coarse silk the rate is two rods (per chō), or one piece for every two (XXV. 19.) chō of the same length and width as the fine silk. For cloth
- ↑ The Denryō (Land Regulations) says, "In granting Kō-bun-den (land shared in proportion to population) men shall have two tan, women a third less, and children under five years of age none. Lands are granted for a term of six years." This seems to point to a general redistribution of lands once in six years, something after the manner still practised in Russia.
- ↑ i.e. of the registers of population.
- ↑ Allowing five feet to the pace, this would make the tan 9000 square feet. The Japanese foot is not very different from our own. The present tan is 10,800 square feet. The interlinear gloss of 段 is kida; but I am strongly inclined to think that the Chinese word tan is here intended.
- ↑ The "Shūkai" editor brings in this last sentence at the end of the previous paragraph. It would then apply to the appointment of rural aldermen. The old reading is better.
- ↑ The "Shūkai" adds 布, or cloth, by which is meant fabrics of hemp or of the fibre of the inner bark of the paper mulberry. Textiles served the purpose of currency in this period, so that this commutation was in the nature of a substitution of payment in money for payment in rice.
- ↑ Ten feet.
