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New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture pp 93–111Cite as

Whale Oil Pesticide: Natural History, Animal Resources, and Agriculture in Early Modern Japan

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Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 40))

Abstract

Ōkura Nagatsune, a prolific agricultural writer in nineteenth-century Japan, devoted an entire treatise to the promotion of whale oil as an insecticide for rice crops. This treatise is an example of how agricultural improvement efforts in early modern Japan depended on the practical understanding of animals and plants developed by scholars of Japanese natural history (honzōgaku). In the Tokugawa period, what are today seen as distinct disciplines and types of scholarship were highly interconnected. Furthermore, the push to optimize agricultural production was closely linked to the expansion of the resource base into new areas, including Japanese coastal waters. Ōkura’s text is an instructional manual intended to promote rationalized agriculture, but by including natural history descriptions of the whales from which the insecticidal oil was extracted, it also demonstrates some of the ways that the less apparently practical areas of natural history were a necessary part of agricultural improvement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All names in the main text are provided in the Japanese order, family name first, but the reference list uses English-language name order. For a good description of Ōkura’s work and his role in nineteenth-century agricultural improvement, see Smith (1998, Chap. 8, pp. 173−198).

  2. 2.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, pp. 33–38).

  3. 3.

    Okuta et al. (2012), researched the prediction of migrations of planthoppers because these are related to the kinds of outbreaks in Japan that tended to cause famines before the modern era.

  4. 4.

    Rubinger (2007, pp. 88–91).

  5. 5.

    Robertson (1984).

  6. 6.

    For more on Takano and how different types of knowledge were brought together by people looking for practical solutions to famines and crop failures, see Nakamura (2005), including her translation of Kyūkō nibutsukō (Treatise on Two Things for the Relief of Famine) in Appendix A, pp. 183–198.

  7. 7.

    For example, Robertson (1984, pp. 246–248) notes that Ōkura’s publication Saishuhō (The Method of Double-Cropping Rice) dismissed categorization of seed quality based on assigned gender even though he had written earlier texts relying on this categorization.

  8. 8.

    Rubinger (2007, p. 91).

  9. 9.

    Smith (1998, pp. 174–176).

  10. 10.

    Ōkura ([1844]/1977, p. 62). (The entire 1844 version of Jokōroku is on pp. 57–118.)

  11. 11.

    Some examples of work discussing the commercialization of agriculture and cash crops in the period include Smith (1969); Saito (1986); Howell (1989); and Hauser (1974).

  12. 12.

    Howell (1989, p. 351) in particular. See also Totman (1995); Saito (1986) and Howell (1995).

  13. 13.

    Totman (1995, pp. 273–274).

  14. 14.

    Referenced in Nakazono and Yasunaga (2009, pp. 145–146).

  15. 15.

    Nakazono and Yasunaga (2009, p. 146), from the Honchō shokkan which commented that whale oil was better than fish oil but was not used when people could get flaxseed oil instead.

  16. 16.

    Nakazono and Yasunaga (2009, p. 148).

  17. 17.

    Matsubara (1984, pp. 23–24). Although he notes that petroleum was first used against planthoppers in 1869, whale oil’s effectiveness was still being considered in 1872 in Aichi prefecture.

  18. 18.

    Yamase ([1760]/1944).

  19. 19.

    For a comprehensive view of the history of traditional Chinese medicine, see Unschuld (1985).

  20. 20.

    For a discussion of Bencao gangmu, its contents and its place in the development of natural history in early modern China, see Nappi (2009).

  21. 21.

    Nappi (2009, especially pp. 71 and 113–114).

  22. 22.

    Nappi (2009, p. 57).

  23. 23.

    Kaibara ([1709]/1911).

  24. 24.

    See Chap. 2, especially p. 79 in Marcon (2007).

  25. 25.

    For example, Kasaya (2001) looks at Yoshimune’s “rediscovery” of Dodonaeus’ botanical text in the form of currency reforms, rationalization and promotion of domestic products, and most especially expensive imported medicines. He notes that there was a very trial-and-error experimental production of live ginseng in Japan.

  26. 26.

    Marcon (2013, p. 191). See also Marcon (2007, Chap. 4, pp. 210–306).

  27. 27.

    As Ōkura notes in his justification for writing, Jokōroku, 1826 ([1826]/1977, p. 12).

  28. 28.

    Totman (1995, p. 234).

  29. 29.

    Kalland and Pedersen (1984, p. 40). Both the Japanese name unka and the English name planthopper cover a wide variety of species of insect in the order Hemiptera which feed on the phloem of rice plants, killing them. Walker (2010), in his discussion of the Kyōhō famine identifies these planthoppers as from three different species: the brown planthopper Sogatella furcifera, the white-backed planthopper Nilaparvata lugens, and the six-spotted leafhopper Cicadula sexnotata.

  30. 30.

    Henceforth, referred to by his given name, Yoshimune, to avoid confusion.

  31. 31.

    These surveys have been collected and reproduced in 21 volumes in Yasuda (1996–2005). For a description of the pivotal influence these surveys had on the development of natural history in Japan, see Marcon (2013), pp. 189–206.

  32. 32.

    Morita (1994), discusses the links between honzō and whales/whaling in Chap. 4.7 “Honzōgaku to kujira,” pp. 210–216.

  33. 33.

    Kaibara ([1709]/1911, p. 333). This entry is in the 13th maki (volume or scroll) of Yamato honzō, devoted to ocean fish.

  34. 34.

    Terajima ([1712]/1985, vol. 7, pp. 198–203). This entry is in the start of maki (volume) 51, on bay and ocean fish without scales.

  35. 35.

    Marcon (2013, p. 198).

  36. 36.

    Marcon (2013, p. 199).

  37. 37.

    Yasuda (1996–2005, vol. 12).

  38. 38.

    Both the author and date of this set of scrolls are unknown but the scroll was reprinted in 2008. See Anonymous ([n.d.]/2008).

  39. 39.

    Harima (2008, p. 630).

  40. 40.

    Ueno (1987, p. 247).

  41. 41.

    For details of this project, see Marcon (2013) and also Chap. 3 of Marcon (2007).

  42. 42.

    For an example of how the prosperity of domains and the shogunate was also linked to non-medicinal cash crop development, see Kō (2010).

  43. 43.

    Ueno (1987, pp. 246–247).

  44. 44.

    Isono (1994, p. 27).

  45. 45.

    De Bary et al. (2005, vol. 2, pp. 601–602).

  46. 46.

    Satō ([1840]/1977, p. 308 and 314, respectively).

  47. 47.

    Satō ([1840]/1977, p. 308).

  48. 48.

    Satō ([1840]/1977, p. 317).

  49. 49.

    Satō ([1840]/1977, p. 317). Balancing this vital force or qi was a particular concern in traditional Chinese medicine. See Nappi (2009, pp. 62–63). Satōs reference here to the earth becoming ill shows how the concern for balancing essential forces and qualities was both central to medical theory and applied to more than just human health.

  50. 50.

    Matsubara (1984, p. 23).

  51. 51.

    Fukuoka domain's “Gaichū kujo hakkensha chō [Investigation of harmful insect extermination discovers]” as cited in Nakazono and Yasunaga (2009, p. 147). These incidents are also listed with less detail in Matsubara (1984, p. 23).

  52. 52.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, p. 13).

  53. 53.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, p. 15).

  54. 54.

    Ōkura notes that farmers using rapeseed oil instead of whale oil should use twice as much to get the same effect ([1826]/1977, p. 47).

  55. 55.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, p. 31).

  56. 56.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, p. 32).

  57. 57.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, pp. 33–35).

  58. 58.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, pp. 26–30).

  59. 59.

    Ōkura ([1826]/1977, p. 31).

  60. 60.

    Itō (2001).

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  1. Whitman College, Maxey Hall, 345 Boyer Ave., 99362, Walla Walla, WA, USA

    Jakobina Arch

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  1. Department of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Denise Phillips

  2. History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Sharon Kingsland

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Arch, J. (2015). Whale Oil Pesticide: Natural History, Animal Resources, and Agriculture in Early Modern Japan. In: Phillips, D., Kingsland, S. (eds) New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture. Archimedes, vol 40. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12185-7_6

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