Charcoal kilns that remain within the forests of The University of Tokyo Chiba Forest
2019
Toyama, K. (The University of Tokyo (Japan). Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo Chiba Forest) | Kanai, T. | Mitsugi, M. | Eguchi, S.
We investigated the spatial distribution, shape, and composition of charcoal kilns that remain within the forest of The University of Tokyo Chiba Forest on the southern Boso Peninsula, eastern Japan. Although the 66 charcoal kilns investigated in this study have various characteristics, the most common are "round shape", constructed from "dirt", located on the "bottom", and "between a flat area and slope" in terms of their small-scale topographies. The results of this study correspond to the previous findings that charcoal kilns are mainly located where water could be easily obtained and where the small-scale topography is moderate, in places where people would have easily been able to make charcoal. Some kilns are also located near ridges, in locations that might have been chosen deliberately because of their suitability for transferal and transport. Kilns of both white (hard) and black (soft) charcoal are thought to have existed. We show that the sets of characteristics "mountainside, flat area between slopes, gingko shape, stone" and "ridge, elliptical shape, dirt" can all be distinguished. In stands where the remaining kilns are located, the estimated forest type before the last tree-harvesting was probably either planted or natural forest.
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