10 AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU RICE PLANTING The first step in rice production involved plowing, hoeing and fertilizing the fields, most often using composted plants, industrial byproducts like sardine or rapeseedmeal, and, importantly, manure. Due to the relative lack of livestock, this manure was mostly human, collected locally and from cities, then carefully processed. This collection actually contributed to the higher level of sanitation and lower incidence of diseases like cholera in Japan, compared to Europe or the Americas at the time. Next, the fields were flooded, either by knocking a break in the earthen berm to let in water, or, as seen in two of these prints, by using a small adjustable wooden dam called a weir (堰 seki ). While the field was being prepared and flooded, bound bales of seed rice were soaked in a pond to allow sprouting. After about 20 days of soaking, the bales were ready to be opened and the seedlings carefully removed for planting by hand in the fields. Above: Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Japanese, 1790–1848) TheKarasuRiver at Kuragano, no. 13 fromthe series ASet of Pictures of Kisokaidō, 1835 Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper MaryA. AinsworthBequest, 1950.861A Signs of spring are everywhere in this playful print. At the center, a young boy balances precariously on the top of a wooden weir (堰 seki ), whose center section can be raised or lowered in the frame to allowwater to flood or replenish the fields as needed. Here, though, the water may be filling a pond to sprout rice seedlings. The yellowish bundles just beyond the weir are probably seed-rice bales. Three other boys are equally enjoying the moment; one laughs as he watches the other two in the water, one holding a turtle, and one netting frogs or minnows. Awoman, the bright colors of her kimono suggesting her youth, watches over them, peacefully sipping her tea. Another woman below her, whose more somber dress indicates her maturity, uses a stiff bamboo brush to clean off a charcoal space heater, preparing to put it away for the season. A blossoming tree on the right further marks the season.
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