Horse Raising in Tohoku before the Middle Ages

Abstract

In ancient times excellent horses known to the gentle men of the old capital were raised in important members in Tohoku. Certain of the natives of the region had reared horses since very early days. It appears that these horses were seen on open ranges. Whoever kept horses let them graze freely about the fields and mountains and this being the custom people enclosed their houses and garden plots with fences. This practice was allowable in that land of broad hills and occasional fields. Where vestiges of these ways linger they reflect that this was the general pattern before the middle ages. However, the fenced-in pastures brought into being in more recent times are not the corals to which horses from the ranges were once herded.When hearing the word “open range” it would be hasty to assume that in ancient Tohoku horses were pastured, for the word does imply that they were free ranged in the fields and montains.Even in the Nine Pastures of Nanbu in the early middle ages there were no enclosures and horses were grazed in the open. Of course as lands ever developed limits were imposed on this practice.From the early Heian period horse breeding throve and by the end of the era Mutsu had become the leading horse producing region. The famous horses of these ranges were favoured tribute at the capital and in Kamakura times this region was patronized by the Kamakura-bushi (the soldier of Kamakura). In the same age Dewa, too, fournished fine horses but in the territory lying between Nambu and Date of Shirakawa, Mutsu had becone the more celebrated. This may be concluded from the numbers of horses given in tribute by the great families the whole country over. It is worth noting also that the horses from this region commanded high prices.