was a Japanese professor of agriculture who lived in

Yatsushiro 270px, Yatsushiro City Hall 270px, ruins of Yatsushiro Castle is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 120,389 in 57,953 households, and a population density of 300 persons per km2. The total are ...

Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...

, during the Taishō and

Shōwa period Shōwa most commonly refers to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa ** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989 * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...

s. Over 48 years, he taught farming techniques to 3,600 students at Matsuda Farm, his private school, and forty thousand people attended his lectures during that time.

Early life

Kiichi Matsuda was born in Matsubase, now known as

Uki, Kumamoto file:Misumi West Port 08.jpg, 290px, Misumi West Port file:Street of Matsuai 02.jpg, 290px, Street in Matsuae is a Cities of Japan, city in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 56,491 in 25302 households, and a pop ...

. After graduation from Kumamoto Farming School in 1905, he worked at the National Farming Experimental Station. He served as a volunteer soldier from 1907 to 1908. In 1911, he worked at Kumamoto Prefectural Farming Experimental Station, where he devised the Matsuda style of wheat culture, which was used in

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...

Nihon Nōyūkai

In 1918, Matsuda organized ''Nihon Nōyūkai'' (Japan Farmers' Association). Seven thousand people attended its inaugural meeting in Kumamoto. In the same year, he started a journal, ''Nō Yū'' (Friends of Farming). He left the Experimental Station in 1920 to start a farm in Kuroishibaru, now in Koshi, Kumamoto, but this area eventually proved poorly suited to farming. In 1925, he agreed to build a

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

at the request of the governor of Kumamoto Prefecture. The following year, it was completed and named Showa Village.

Matsuda Farm

The life of students at Matsuda Farm was extremely regimented, with morning ceremonies held at 5:00 AM. ''

Kimigayo is the national anthem of Japan. The lyrics are from a ' poem written by an unnamed author in the Heian period (794–1185), and the current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed by John William Fenton in 1869. W ...

'' was sung, and the

Flag of Japan The national flag of Japan is a rectangular white banner with a red circle at its center. The flag is officially called the but is more commonly known in Japan as the . It embodies the country's sobriquet: the Land of the Rising Sun. The ...

raised every day. During the workday, the practice of agriculture continued even as meals, decried for a lack of taste and luxury, were served. Matsuda himself worked for 20 or more hours every day, and was a prolific writer who wrote fifty books.Kumamoto Nichi Nichi 999:17/ref> In the spring and autumn months, Matsuda made a series of lectures spanning three days, which were attended by thousands of individuals, at one point reaching 6,500 attendees.

Later life

In 1928, he moved his farm in Kuroishibaru to the polder area of Yatsushiro. He was dispatched to

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

in 1932 to investigate its farming. In 1938, a new village was opened in Manchuria. In 1944, he was given the Blue Ribbon Medal for his devotion to agriculture. Emperor

Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...

visited his farm in June 1949, and Matsuda explained farming and products to him. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Matsuda was investigated by American authorities, since he belonged to the

Taisei Yokusankai The , or Imperial Aid Association, was the Empire of Japan's ruling political organization during much of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 12 October 1940, to promote the goals ...

in 1940, but he was not

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d, because he presented food to the Christian women's high school, Yatsushiro Shirayuri Gakuen. On July 30, 1968, Matsuda suddenly died during a lecture at age 80.

Selected bibliography

* ''Ideal Farming'' (1928) * ''Profitable Vegetables'' (1931) * ''Lectures on the Soil and Fertilizers'' (1937) * ''The Spirit and Techniques of Farming'' (1946) * ''Increased Production of Rice and Wheat'' (1948) * ''Epoch-Making Production of Wheat'' (1949,1950) * ''Revolutionary Production of Sweet Potatoes'' (1953) * ''Revolutionary Production of Rice'' (1956) * ''Introduction to Breeding of Pigs'' (1958) * ''Consciousness of Farmers in an Industrial Country'' (1968)

Notes

References

* * * * {{Authority control Heads of schools in Japan 1887 births 1968 deaths People from Yatsushiro, Kumamoto People from Uki, Kumamoto