According to what I was told in various quarters, some landowners in Chiba did a certain amount of public work but most devoted themselves to indoor trivialities.  The fact that two banks had recently broken at the next town, one for a quarter of a million yen, and that a landowner had lost a total of 30,000 yen in these smashes, seemed to show that there was a certain amount of money somewhere in the district.  No one appeared to “waste time on politics.”  In ten years “there had been one or two politicians,” but “one member of Parliament set a wholesome example by losing a great deal of money in politics.”  As to local politics, election to the prefectural assembly seemed to cost about 500 yen.  Membership of the village assembly might mean “a cup of sake apiece to the electors.”

I was assured that this hamlet was above the economic level of the county.  The belief was expressed that it could maintain that position for three or four years.  “I do not feel so much anxiety about the present condition of the people,” my host said; “they are passive enough:  but as to the future it is a difficult and almost insoluble question.”

“The condition of our rural life is the most difficult question in Japan,” said a fellow guest.

In one of the farmers’ houses a girl, with the assistance of a younger brother, was weaving rough matting for baling up artificial manure.  Near them two Minorcas were laying in open boxes.  In this family there were seven children, “three or four of whom can work.”  The hired land was 8 tan of paddy and 2-1/2 of dry.  There was nothing to the good at the end of the year.  Indeed rice had had to be borrowed from the landlord.  The family was therefore working merely to keep itself alive.  But it looked cheerful enough.  Looking cheerful is, however, a Japanese habit.  The conditions of life here were what many Westerners would consider intolerable.  But it was not Westerners but Orientals who were concerned, and what one had to try to guess was how far the conditions were satisfactory to Eastern imaginations and requirements.  The people at every house I visited—­as it happened to be a holiday the mending of clothing and implements seemed to be in order—­were plainly getting enjoyment from the warm sunshine.  Undoubtedly the long spells of sunshine in the comparatively idle period of the year make hard conditions of life more endurable.

In a very small house which was little more than a shelter, the father and mother of a tenant were living.  It is not uncommon for old peasants to build a dwelling for themselves when they get nearly past work, or sometimes after the eldest son marries.

I found a 1-cho peasant proprietor playing go and rather the worse for sake, though it was early in the morning.  A 3-cho proprietor was living in a good-sized house which had a courtyard and an imposing gateway.