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the Meiji government – he acquired three years of elementary education
and at the age of 20 was drafted into the army.
Along with the policies of ‘civilization and enlightenment’, which
aimed to bolster Japan’s image in the eyes of Westerners, the ambitions of
the new government were conveyed by the slogan fukoku kyōhei (‘rich
country, strong army’), with the ‘strong army’ component increasingly
taking precedence. The chief objectives of the Meiji leadership were to
establish modern armed forces of the strength equal to those of the
Western powers and to put in place the infrastructure of a capitalist industrial
economy comparable to the ones found in Europe and the United
States. In order to support the two projects, the Japanese people had to
be moulded into loyal subject-citizens, and this goal was to be achieved
through mass compulsory education and universal conscription. In 1872
the legal basis for the system of elementary schooling for all children was
created, and the following year the conscription law that obliged all males
of 20 years of age and older (except those eligible for exemption) to give
three years of active service was stipulated. 9
A year before being conscripted, Ichitarō got married and moved to
the nearby village. He married well, into a family more prosperous than
his own. Since his wife was an only child, following the established practice
Ichitarō was adopted into her family, and after the death of her father
was to become the head of the Kanie household. His father-in-law was
an enterprising farmer who grew mulberry as a cash crop. In view of the
growing export of silk, mulberry, which was used to feed silk worms,
constituted an important supplementary income for many farmers in nineteenth-century
Japan. 10
In 1895 Ichitarō was drafted to the 6th foot regiment of the 3rd
Nagoya division of the Imperial Japanese Army, and his encounter with
First Lieutenant Nishiyama during the third year of service inspired him
to take up the market gardening of Western vegetables. Nishiyama tried to
convince young farmers in his regiment that growing rice and barley was
the thing of the past and that modern times called for an entrepreneurial
spirit in the Japanese peasants. Propelled by the rising popularity of dining
Western style, the demand for Western vegetables was constantly growing,
but their production was still limited.
Since the mulberry fields of the Kanie family had been troubled by
diseases for a few years in a row, upon his return in 1898 Ichitarō managed
to persuade his father-in-law to devote part of the mulberry land to growing
Western vegetables. Cabbage, lettuce, parsley, carrots and onions sold
well during the following years, but tomatoes proved less saleable. With
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