The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

touch of bad weather during the summer will be reflected in the fall's harvest. Even a poor harvest will be taxed. And from what remains, a certain proportion must be set aside for next year's planting. Eat your seed corn and next year you will starve for sure. Even when the storehouses are full, in some kingdoms, goods cannot be easily transported during the winter. In some kingdoms, even if you are starving, the ground will be frozen too hard to dig for roots."
    "I understand."
    "Talk it through and you'll figure it out. You only have to work at it."
    Youko glanced at Enho's profile. "Were you perhaps testing me?"
    "No. I don't set out to test people. I just try to determine where the problems are. You're a stranger in a strange land. The gulf between here and there is vast. There's no way that I'm going to be able to comprehend where you've come from."
    Right, said Youko, with a nod.
    Enho gazed at the garden for several minutes. Then he said, "It is a universal truth that the foundations of the kingdom are in the land."
    Caught a bit off guard, Youko came to attention.
    "All citizens receive a plot of land when they reach their majority. A single allotment is equal to one hundred are, or one hundred paces squared [one hectare]. Nine allotments form a well brigade. A well brigade, or one square ri (900 are ) [nine hectares], is owned by eight families."
    "Wait a minute. The units of measurement . . . . "
    Rokuta, the kirin of En, often crossed the Kyokai to Yamato, and was well-versed in things Japanese. He managed to bring back with him some books and a few tools. According to what he'd taught her, one pace was equal to 135 centimeters.
    "If one pace is 135 centimeters, and one ri is 300 paces, then . . . . "
    Watching her run through the calculations, Enho laughed. "You're thinking about it too hard. One pace is equal to two strides. This is a stride--" Enho took a single step forward. "The width of a step is one stride. Two strides, left, right, is equal to one pace."
    "Oh. That makes sense."
    "So two steps, or strides, makes one pace. When referring to area, one pace squared is also called a pace. And a shaku is as follows."
    Enho put his hands together as if praying, and then opened his hands, spreading out the palms. "The width of my hands is one shaku. One shaku is ten sun, so each sun is approximately the width of a finger."
    "Got it."
    "One jou is harder to describe, but it is generally the height of a man. One shou can be thought of as the amount of liquid scooped up with two hands." He added with a smile, "But because a large man has a longer stride, a ri he measures will be bigger than an actual ri. Similarly, a small man's shou isn't going to add up to an actual shou. Keep this in mind and things should average out right."
    "I see," Youko said, with a small laugh.
    "To sum up, one allotment is equal to one hundred paces squared, a plot of land four hundred paces in circumference. As farmland, it's quite spacious. Nine allotments make up a well brigade. This land is divided up amongst eight families. The well brigade is the smallest division of jurisdictional discipline that the kingdom exerts over the citizenry itself."
    "Eight families on nine allotments?"
    Enho gave her an approving smile. "One allotment serves as the commons. Eight families farm the eight allotments, and the ninth is held in trust by the kingdom. Eighty percent of the commons, called the kouden, is yielded to the government as tax. The remaining twenty percent, called the roke, is reserved for houses and gardens."
    Ah, that's how it works, Youko thought, recalling the scenes of hamlets dotting the countryside. The hamlets consisted of the same general number of buildings. Not enough buildings to be called a village, but assembled together in a kind of proto-village.
    "The kouden is eighty are and the roke is twenty are. And twenty are is?"
    "Um . . . two thousand square paces."
    "That's right. A single family's share is two hundred square paces for the garden, fifty square paces for the house. Do you know how big a garden of two hundred square paces is?"
    "Um, no."
    "Fruits trees and mulberry bushes are planted around the periphery. The land left over is devoted to the garden. The garden should be sufficient to provide for one house and two people. A house of fifty paces is small. Two rooms, living room and kitchen. I believe in Japan it is called a two eru-dee-kee. "
    Youko grinned. "A 2LDK."
    Enho smiled as well. "A house is