Population, Disease and Land in Early Japan, 645-900
William Wayne Farris
From tax and household registers, law codes, and other primary sources, as well as recent Japanese sources, William Wayne Farris has developed the first systematic, scientific analysis of early Japanese population, including the role of disease in economic development. This work provides a comprehensive study of land clearance, agricultural technology, and rural settlement. The function and nature of ritsuryō institutions are reinterpreted within the revised demographic and economic setting.
Farris’s text is illustrated with maps, population pyramids for five localities, and photographs and translations of portions of tax and household registers, which throw further light on the demography and economy of Japan in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries.
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About William Wayne Farris
Reviews for Population, Disease and Land in Early Japan, 645-900
American Historical Review
The time span of the book is the two and a half centuries when Japan came under the influence of Chinese civilization; peasant life evolved from subsistence patterns to settled farming, primitive forms of political organization developed, there was a dramatic population increase, and the Japanese rulers adopted the Chinese model of census-taking. [Farris] has applied modern demographic techniques to these abundant, if fragmentary, tax and household data, giving a fascinating account of preindustrial society.
Biometrics
This [book] is based on an impressively wide and careful study of the official histories, extant administrative and fiscal documents, and extensive modern Japanese scholarship in such fields as economic history and archaeology.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society