A cycle ride through Ryugasaki and Edosaki on Sunday helped me structure a set of observations that had been puzzling me.
Old Ryugasaki and Edosaki are towns located on edges of rice paddy plains. Edosaki was the transhipment point for rice being transported between the Onogawa River valley to Edo. The rice moved from there onto Kasumigaseki, up the New Tone River (built 1661-1666, not to be confused with the current Tone River), then down Edo River to its destination. Ryugasaki similarly controls the north bank of the Tone River near the mouth of Kokai River. Above both towns is the Tsukuba plateau with its science city, expressways, railways, "new towns" and shopping centers.
Last year, I road a local tour van around Mt. Tsukuba and along the ridge road. During the ride, the tour guide, an older local farmer, made a crack about the new Tsukuba Express commuter line. "Why would people come look at farms?"
Between Tsukuba and Tsuchiura runs a 4-lane road. At one point along the way, a country road lies parallel not 50 meters away. The setting is open; standing on the 4-lane, one sees the same buildings, farms and fields. But moving from the 4-lane to the country road is like changing worlds. On the 4-lane, one sees the SUV dealership, litter and assorted shops. On the country road, one sees a pristine lane with farm houses.
The observation is that, in each case, I am observing layers of the society, much like the art board layers in printing. They are together, but separated. The farmer-cum-tour guide exists in one layer; Tsukuba's institute and labs are in a different layer unrelated and essentially invisible to him. Edosaki and Central Ryugasaki towns are in one layer; the new towns are in another layer.
A historical example is when the Takeuchi's took over Tosa after Sekigahara. They did not exterminate their foes and did not demote them to farmers. They created a new caste, a new layer of samurai. One hypothesis of the origin of Japanese samurai classes is that they were Korean warriors on the losing side of a war, escaped to Japan and eventually became Japanese bushi caste.
A more current example is the urbanization (or suburbanization) of North Kanto. Factories, housing developments, rail lines and new roads are a new layer. (There are some new roads in Tsukuba that locals ignore in favor of their long-used narrow, winding lanes, even though the new road would be quicker.)
Where this has practical effect is in strategy for development. The phrase "restructuring the future, not rebuilding the past" misframes development strategy and makes advancement difficult, if not impossible. Japan advances in layers. A new layer does not push out another. It inserts itself. If successful, the new layer develops and may eventual absorb the old layer - but may not and the old layer continues in some form.
Destroy and restructure strategies do not fit Japan, even when nature is the destroyer.
Perhaps the Tone River watershed near me is unusual. Because of topography, regional development is advancing literally 20 meters higher than the rice paddies and farm communities along the rivers. Residential tracts, industrial parks and roads are build on the plateaus. Tsukuba City recently reinforced this separation by banning further residential development of agricultural land.
But this development seems to be socially layered as well. I hesitate to use the word "caste" because of its upper/lower, ruling/ruled connotations. Nonetheless, positing some form of social layering helps me sort out some observations.
Even though Japan's caste system ended with the Bakufu, one need not be surprised if remnants survive. Recent research in Europe, for example, found that regions that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire retain more positive attitudes to local government than regions outside. Similarly, modern U.S. politics remains heavily influenced by pre-Civil War slave society to the extent that one cannot understand modern politics without studying the American Civil War.
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