Penelope Francks challenges traditional scholarship on the development of rural Japan as dismissing too quickly the active contributions of farmers to Japan's modernization. Her new book is divided into three parts. Each of these parts represents a key period in Japan's rural history. What is remarkable is that the critical junctures in the development of the modern rural village are situated at the time of the industrial “takeoff” in 1890 and the rice riots of 1918.
The first part of this book looks at the establishment of specific rural economical patterns since 1720. The relocation of manufacturing from the cities to the urban villages provided new opportunities for farmers, who could increase their income through nonagricultural output. The typical “proto-industrial” Japanese rural household combined agricultural and nonagricultural activities. Moreover, the producing elite in the villages played a crucial role in channeling the surplus that was generated into new investments. Tokugawa...