Sohei Masuda

Japanese: 益田素平 - ますだ・そへい

Year of death: 1903 (6th year of the Meiji era)
Year of birth: July 28, 1843 (August 23, 1843)
A rural leader in the late Edo and Meiji periods. He was the village headman of Futakawa Village, Yame County, Chikugo Province (Fukuoka Prefecture), and made a great contribution to the eradication of rice pests, the rice borer, which caused particularly severe damage in the Chikugo River basin. In 1877 (Meiji 10), he discovered that rice borer hibernates in rice stumps, and he invented a special tool to remove the stumps, which he tried to popularize. However, ordinary farmers disliked the increased labor that this caused, and suspected that Sohei was trying to sell the tool to line his pockets, leading to a riot in which they attacked the homes of the Masuda family and their collaborators (the Chikugo Rice Stump Riot). Sohei did not give in to this and continued his research, writing "Records of Inamushi Experiments" (1895). He also worked hard to encourage sericulture and chicken farming, and after the riot he gained the trust of the villagers, becoming village mayor and prefectural assembly member. <Works> Complete Collection of Agricultural Books of the Meiji Era, Vol. 12 <References> Takeo Ono, Rural History, Yoshio Terayama and Ken Yamaji, Agricultural History of 100 Years

(Tsukuba Tsuneharu)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治36.6(1903)
生年：天保14.7.28(1843.8.23)
幕末明治期の農村指導者。筑後国(福岡県)八女郡二川村の庄屋で,筑後川の流域で特に被害のひどいイネの害虫メイチュウの駆除に功績を残す。明治10(1877)年メイチュウがイネの切り株のなかで越冬する事実をつきとめ,切り株を除去する特製用具を考案し広めようとした。ところが一般農民はそれによる労働強化をきらい,素平が用具を売って私腹をこやすと邪推し,益田家と協力者の家を襲撃する暴動事件(筑後稲株騒動)となった。素平はこれに屈せず研究を続け,『稲虫実験録』(1895)を著した。養蚕や養鶏の奨励にも尽くし,騒動後はかえって村人の信望も厚く,村長,県会議員になった。<著作>『明治農書全集』12巻<参考文献>小野武夫『農村史』,寺山義雄・山路健『農業百年かわら版』

(筑波常治)

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