일본의 도작농경연구 - 미생시대수전을 중심으로 = Study on rice agriculture in Japan - focused on the Yayoi rice fields -

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper reviews the studies on rice fields in Japan. It deals with the basic structure of rice fields, characters of typical rice field sites, and management systems of rice fields including their structure and size. Studies on rice fields in Japanese archaeology were developed from the excavation of Toro site, Shizuoka prefecture, in 1940`s, where the farming settlement including rice fields and many wooden tools were preserved in damp conditions, and its excavation produced a detailed picture of an early farming village in Japan. Since then, Yayoi rice fields has been found throughout Japan except Hokkaido. Rice fields system are divided into wet fields, dry fields and half-wet, half-dry fields according to the position of undergroud water. Early rice fields were wet field system constructed near the swampy lowlands, but gradually changed into dry or half-dry fields system Operation of rice fields are closely related with the water control system such as inflow, filling, and outflow of water. Advanced structure of water control system including drainage canals and irrigation were already found from early rice fields. It means that rice agriculture was introduced in Japan with technologically highly developed form. Rice fields usually located in an alluvial plain where the soil fertility is relatively high and the water control is easy. Rice fields are divided into two types of large and small partition based on their size. Both types were already appeared from the early stage of rice agriculture. However small rice fields were more common since small paddies reduced the amount of earthwork required to keep water at an even depth. Earliest rice fields in Korea are also the small partition type.