Description: W. Wayne Farris has developed the first systematic analysis of early Japanese population, the role of disease in economic development, and the impact of agricultural technology and practices. In doing so, he reinterprets the nature of ritsuryō institutions.
Brief description: William Wayne Farris is Professor of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Review Quotes: The time span of the book is the two and a half centuries when Japan came under the influence of Chinese civilization; peasant life evolved from subsistence patterns to settled farming, primitive forms of political organization developed, there was a dramatic population increase, and the Japanese rulers adopted the Chinese model of census-taking. [Farris] has applied modern demographic techniques to these abundant, if fragmentary, tax and household data, giving a fascinating account of preindustrial society.-- "Biometrics"