Rice planting

Japanese: 田植 - たうえ

Transplanting rice seedlings into paddy fields used to be called souou (transplanting). Rice cultivation in Japan started with direct seeding, but transplanting cultivation by rice transplanting began in the Nara period and became common in the Heian period, and has continued to this day. Direct seeding is still used overseas in parts of tropical Asia, such as the United States, Australia, Italy, and the former Soviet Union, but rice transplanting is used in over 90% of the world's rice cultivation area.

Rice seedlings for transplanting are grown in nurseries, and although their size varies depending on the region and transplanting method, they usually have 3 to 7 leaves. In the traditional method of hand-planting, seedlings with 6 or 7 leaves were used 40 to 50 days after sowing, but now that transplanting is done with rice transplanters, young seedlings with about 3 leaves about 20 days after sowing, or medium-sized seedlings with 4 to 5 leaves that have been grown for 30 to 40 days, are used. Rice is planted as early as possible, usually from late April to mid- to late May, in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, where the rice-growing season is short, in the Hokuriku region, where bad weather in the fall means that the rice must be harvested early, and in areas along the Tone River to avoid autumn floods. On the other hand, in warmer regions, where autumn is long and double cropping is practiced, rice is generally planted late, in mid- to late June. Until the 1950s, when early cultivation was not as common as it is today, the rice planting season was one month later than it is now in both cool and warm regions.

In the past, the seedlings were first taken from the nursery bed, tied into small bundles, and the mud on the roots was washed before being carried to the rice paddy, so they were called "root-washed seedlings." The rice paddy was plowed, compost and fertilizer were spread, water was poured in, the soil was plowed, and the ridges were leveled, and shallow water was poured in, and a day or two was left for the topsoil to settle and the water to become clear. There were several methods for planting the seedlings, including the "katatsuke" method, in which a rice planting ruler was rolled to mark the planting marks on the topsoil before planting, and the "nawaue" method, in which a rope with markings was stretched and the seedlings were planted along this. There were also methods of planting by moving forward and planting by moving backward, the latter of which was mainly used when the soil was soft, but this was also a local custom. The seedlings were often planted in rows, with square planting when the row spacing and plant spacing were the same, rectangular planting when the plant spacing was shorter than the row spacing, and planting in rows that were shorter than half the row spacing was called "namiki planting." Currently, rice transplanters are used for row planting. The number of seedlings planted per stalk is 3 or 4 in warm regions, but as the region moves to colder or higher altitudes, the number increases to 7 or 8. The number of leaves per seedling is also somewhat larger, with 5 or 6 leaves in cold regions and 6 or 7 leaves in warmer regions. Single-planting cultivation, where one seedling is planted per stalk, has also been practiced as a high-yield technique. In Southeast Asia and China, smaller seedlings are sometimes planted than in Japan, and larger seedlings are also planted with the tips of their leaves cut off.

Hand transplanting, along with harvesting, is the most labor-intensive part of rice cultivation (about 30 hours per 10 ares), and because the rice must be planted in a short period of time, it is hard work that must be done from early morning until night, even in rainy weather. For this reason, rice planting has traditionally been done as a joint effort by many people.

From the end of the 1950s, it became increasingly difficult to gather a large number of workers for rice planting in rural areas, and labor costs soared. After the failure of mechanized direct seeding, which was advocated for, rice transplanters were introduced. Mechanization of rice planting had been desired since the labor shortage in rural areas during World War II. Machines developed in Japan for string seedlings or mat seedlings with soil attached to them demonstrated more than five times the efficiency of manual planting, and rice transplanters quickly spread throughout the country. By 1975, they were being used in almost all paddy fields across the country, except for very wet paddy fields and terraced fields on sloping land where machines could not enter. This significantly reduced the labor hours for rice planting (1 to 2 hours per 10 ares), and rice transplanters also made it possible to plant earlier and densely, and the yield per 10 ares increased compared to the days of manual planting, thereby improving productivity.

[Hoshikawa Kiyochika]

Folklore

Also called Satsuki or Shitsuke, this is one of the most important and labor-intensive tasks in the rice cultivation process. Technically, methods were adopted according to the natural conditions and rice paddy conditions in each region, and rice planting had its own characteristics in each area. For example, in the Tohoku and Chubu regions, barnyard millet was planted at the water inlet to prevent the rice seedlings from coming into direct contact with cold water, and in the Tohoku region, rice was not planted in seedling bed fields, so they were left as open beds. Also, when planting rice in very wet fields, special preparations were made for the field or tools such as boats were used. There were various responses from area to area. However, these characteristics were gradually standardized through improvements in rice paddies and varieties and techniques from the mid-Meiji period onwards, and methods have become more efficient. In terms of transplanting methods, in the past there were various methods in different regions, such as line planting, rolling planting, round planting, and cart planting, and generally the planting methods were messy. However, from the 1890s onwards, regular row planting became widespread, and more recently, with the spread of powered rice transplanters, rice planting methods are becoming more consistent across the country.

While rice planting tends to be technically as described above, there are other noteworthy points, such as the fact that the work involves complex labor organizations, a set division of labor between men and women, and a strong element of festivals to the rice field god, as seen in the rice planting ritual, and that it is accompanied by various taboos. Before the appearance of various types of machinery, rice planting and harvesting required a lot of labor, and since the family alone was not enough, labor was sought from outside the family, and a kind of labor organization was formed. Rice planting in particular was traditionally concentrated in a short period of time due to irrigation and other factors, and there was a traditional spirit of finishing the work in one day, and mechanization was slow, so planting was done by hand until recent years, so this work well conveys the form of labor organization that has existed in Japan since ancient times.

This labor organization is deeply related to the socio-economic situation of each era and has become complicated, but it can be roughly divided into two forms. One is a form seen in Otaue, where branch families and subordinates participate in rice planting by the head family and master farmers as a form of labor. The other is a form seen in Moyai and Yui, where neighboring households plant rice together in a cooperative, mutually-helpful relationship. The form of Otaue and the term Yui both exist from the Heian period, and it is not that one is older than the other, but rather that they have been determined by the way rice paddy management is carried out on the land and the relationships between households. In some places, rice planting is done by hiring people from nearby areas or migrant workers from other regions, but this has rapidly increased since the late Edo period, and the appearance of such wage laborers has made the form of rice planting even more complicated.

Rice planting is generally divided into two parts, with women collecting seedlings and transplanting them, and men plowing and transporting the seedlings. It is common to see women who plant rice being called "Saotome" in particular. This traditional division of labor has collapsed with the spread of rice transplanters, but the original meaning of Saotome was a specific woman who plays a central role in the rice field god festival, and the division of labor during rice planting is not simply a division of labor, but indicates the nature of the festival as a rice field god, along with the rice planting rituals and rice planting taboos.

[Naoyuki Ogawa]

"Rice Cultivation Customs" (included in "The Complete Works of Kotaro Hayakawa, Volume 7," Miraisha, 1973) "Village Life - Village Living Organization" ("The Collected Works of Kizaemon Ariga, Volume 5," Miraisha, 1968) "Agriculture and Folklore" by Ichiro Kurata (1969, Iwasaki Bijutsusha)

[Reference] | Rice planting machine | Rice planting ritual | Rice planting ritual

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

イネの苗を本田に移植することで、昔は挿秧(そうおう)ともいった。日本の稲作は初めは直播(じかま)き法であったが、奈良時代から田植による移植栽培が始まり、平安時代に入って一般化して以来、現在まで続いている。外国でもアメリカ、オーストラリア、イタリア、旧ソ連地域などとアジアの熱帯の一部では直播きであるが、それ以外の全世界の水稲作付面積の90％以上の所では田植を行っている。

　田植用の苗は苗代で育てられ、大きさは地域や移植の方法により異なるが、葉数で3～7枚のものである。昔からの手植えの場合には播種(はしゅ)後40～50日で葉数6、7枚の苗を用いたが、移植が田植機で行われるようになった現在では播種後約20日で葉数約3枚の稚苗(ちびょう)、または30～40日育てた葉数4～5枚の中苗(ちゅうびょう)が用いられる。田植の時期は、稲作期間の短い北海道・東北地方や、秋の天候が悪くて早く収穫しなければならない北陸地方、および秋の洪水回避を目的とする利根(とね)川沿いの地帯などではできるだけ早期とし、普通4月下旬から5月中・下旬である。一方暖地では秋が長く、二毛作などを行っている都合で一般に晩(おそ)植えで6月中・下旬になる。現在のように早期栽培が一般化しなかった昭和30年代までは、田植期は寒地・暖地それぞれ現行より1か月遅かった。

　従前の手植えは、まず苗代で苗取りし、小束にして根の泥を洗い、本田に運んだので根洗い苗とよぶ。本田は耕起し、堆肥(たいひ)や肥料をまき、水を入れて代掻(しろか)き、あぜ塗りなどを行って整地し、浅く水を張って、表土が落ち着き、水が澄むまで1、2日待つ。苗の植え付けには田植定規を転がして植え付け目盛りを表土につけてから植える型付(かたつけ)法や、目盛りのついた縄を張ってこれに沿って植える縄植(なわうえ)法などがあった。また前進して植える方法と後退しつつ植える方法があって、後者は土壌が軟らかい場合におもに用いられたが、これは地域の慣習でもあった。植え付けの配列は条に植えてゆくことが多く、条間と株間が同じ植え方を正方形植え、株間が条間より短いものを長方形植え、とくに半分より短いものを並木植えとよんだ。現在の田植機移植は並木植えである。1株に植え付ける苗数は暖地では3、4本、寒冷地や高冷地にゆくほど多く7、8本とした。また苗の葉数は寒冷地では5、6枚、暖地では6、7枚とやや大きい苗が用いられた。なお、多収穫技術として1株に1本の苗を植える一本植え栽培も行われた。東南アジアや中国では日本の場合より小さい苗を植え付けることもあり、また、より大きい苗を葉先を切って植え付ける方法も行われている。

　手植えによる移植は、稲作作業のなかで、稲刈りと並んでもっとも多くの労働時間（10アール当り約30時間）を要し、しかも短期間に植え付けなければならないために、早朝から夜まで雨天でも休めない重労働であった。このため昔から田植は大ぜいの共同作業として行われた。

　昭和30年代末ごろから農村では、田植のために一時に多くの労働力を集めることがしだいにむずかしくなり、労賃も高騰した。そこで唱道された機械化直播きが失敗に終わったあと、田植機が登場した。田植の機械化は第二次世界大戦中の農村の労働力不足のころから切望されていた。日本で開発された紐苗(ひもなえ)あるいはマット苗の土(つち)付き稚苗方式の機械が、手植えの5倍以上の能率を発揮したところから、田植機が急速に全国に普及することになった。1975年（昭和50）までには、機械の入ることができない強湿田や傾斜地の棚田などを除いて、ほぼ全国の水田のすべてに用いられるようになった。これにより田植の労働時間は大幅に短縮され（10アール当り1～2時間）、また田植機移植によって早期の植え付けと密植も可能になり、10アール当り収量も手植え時代より増加し、生産性の向上も果たしている。

［星川清親］

民俗

サツキ、シツケなどともいい、稲作の過程でもっとも重要かつ労力を必要とする作業の一つである。技術的にはそれぞれの土地で自然条件や水田状況に応じた方法がとられ、各地の田植には特色があった。たとえば東北、中部地方では水口(みなぐち)にヒエを植えて稲苗に直接冷水が当たらないようにしたり、やはり東北地方では苗代田へは田植をしない通(とおし)苗代であったし、また強湿田での田植には田に特別のしつらえをしたり、舟などの用具を使うなど、各地にさまざまな対応がみられる。しかしこうした特色は、明治中期以降の水田改良や品種・技術改良によってしだいに平準化される方向をたどり、能率的な方法になってきている。移植法をみると、古くは一文字植え、ころび植え、廻(まわ)り植え、車(くるま)田植えなど各地にいろいろな方法があり、総じて乱雑な植え方であったが、明治30年代以降には正条植えが普及され、さらに近年は動力田植機が普及し、田植法は全国的に大差がなくなりつつある。

　田植は技術的には前記のような傾向にあるが、一方ではこの作業には複雑な労働組織があったり、男女による作業分担が決まっていたり、また田植儀礼にみられるように田の神祭りの要素が強く、さまざまな禁忌を伴っているという注目すべき点がある。稲作では各種機械が出現するまで田植と収穫には多くの労力を要し、家族だけでは足りず、家族外からも労力を求めたため、そこに一種の労働組織ができていた。とくに田植は、水利などの関係から短期間に集中し、そのうえ1日で作業を終えるという心意が伝統的にあり、しかも機械化が遅く、近年まで手植えであったので、わが国の古くからの労働組織の形態をよく伝えていたのである。

　この労働組織は各時代の社会経済相と深くかかわり、複雑化しているが、おおむね二つの形態に分けられる。一つは大田植などにみられるような本家、親方百姓の田植に分家や子方が賦役的に参加する形態であり、もう一つはモヤイ、ユイのように近隣の家々が共同、互助的な関係で田植をする形態である。大田植の形態やユイの語はともに平安時代からあり、両者は一方が古型というのではなく、土地の水田経営や家々の関係のあり方によって決まってきたと考えられる。田植には近在の者を雇ったり、他地方からの出稼ぎ者を雇って行うことも各地にあるが、これは江戸時代後期以降急増したことであり、こうした賃労働者の出現によって田植の労働形態はいっそう複雑になっている。

　田植は女性が苗取りと移植、男性が代掻(しろか)きと苗の運搬という分業体制をとるのが一般的である。このうち田植を行う女性をとくに早乙女(さおとめ)とよぶのは広くみられる。田植機の普及によってこの伝統的分業は崩れているが、早乙女の原義は田の神祭りの中心となる特定の女性のことで、田植時の作業分担は単なる労働分担ではなく、田植儀礼や田植禁忌とともに田の神祭りとしての性格を示している。

［小川直之］

『『稲作の習俗』（『早川孝太郎全集　七』所収・1973・未来社）』▽『『村落生活――村の生活組織』（『有賀喜左衞門著作集　五』1968・未来社）』▽『倉田一郎著『農と民俗学』（1969・岩崎美術社）』

[参照項目] | 田植機 | 田植儀礼 | 田植神事

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