e various trees, as pine and hinoki (ground-cypress) for house
building, maki (podocarpus Chinensis) for coffin making, and
camphor-wood for constructing boats. He also planted various kinds of
fruit-trees. Thenceforth successive sovereigns encouraged
agriculture, so that the face of the country was materially changed.

*The Sun goddess, Amaterasu, and the goddess of Food (Ukemochi no
Kami) are the two deities now worshipped at the great shrine of Ise.

In the matter of farming implements, however, neither archaeology nor
history indicates anything more than iron spades, wooden hoes shod
with bronze or iron, hand-ploughs, and axes. As to manufacturing
industries, there were spinners and weavers of cotton and silk,
makers of kitchen utensils, polishers of gems, workers in gold,
silver, copper, and iron, forgers of arms and armour, potters of
ornamental vessels, and dressers of leather. In later eras the
persons skilled in these various enterprises formed themselves into
guilds (be), each of which carried on its own industry from
generation to generation.

The fact that there must have been an exchange of goods between these
various groups is almost the only indication furnished by the annals
as to trade or commerce. In the name of a daughter of Susa (Princess
Kamu-o-ichi) we find a suggestion that markets (ichi) existed, and
according to the Wei Records (A.D. 211-265) there were, at that time,
"in each province of Japan markets where the people exchanged their
superfluous produce for articles of which they were in need." But
Japanese history is silent on this subject.

About the be, however, a great deal is heard. It may be described as
a corporated association having for purpose the securing of
efficiency by specialization. Its members seem to have been at the
outset men who independently pursued some branch of industry. These
being ultimately formed into a guild, carried on the same pursuit
from generation to generation under a chief officially appointed.
"Potters, makers of stone coffins, of shields, of arrows, of swords,
of mirrors, saddlers, painters, weavers, seamstresses, local
recorders, scribes, farmers, fleshers, horse-keepers, bird-feeders,
the mibu who provided wet-nurses for Imperial princes, palace
attendants, and reciters (katari) were organized into be under
special chiefs who were probably responsible for their efficient
services. It would appear, however, that 'chief of be' was sometimes
a title be