The critical role played by agriculture in the modernisation of Japan, well-highlighted in the literature, is held to be a model worthy of emulation by latecomers. What this meant for the poor or the tenant farmer is something that does not get much attention. This article looks at the writings of a poor owner-tenant farmer, Teisuke Shibuya, who maintained a diary in the years 1925–6 in which he had graphically recorded the conditions in agriculture and the kind of life the peasant led. We also utilise a book Shibuya published 60 years after he started maintaining the notes which led to the publication of the diary. Shibuya, who actively struggled to raise peasant consciousness, was articulate and extremely well read, and could hold his own in debate with urban intellectuals. His writings are valuable as they convey the actual life of the peasantry during Japan’s modernisation drive. In Shibuya’s jottings, the emotions and feelings of the peasant who was exploited by the authoritarian state and the landlord system come through, presenting us with a picture that is vastly different from the standard academic writings on the subject, thus cautioning us when we uncritically attempt to learn lessons from the Japanese modernisation experience.

中文翻译：

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并非没有鲜血、汗水和眼泪

农业在日本现代化进程中发挥的关键作用，在文献中得到了充分的强调，被认为是值得后来者效仿的模式。这对穷人或佃农意味着什么并没有引起太多关注。本文着眼于一位贫穷的自住农民，涩谷泰介的著作，他在 1925-6 年间写了一本日记，用图形记录了农业状况和农民的生活方式。我们还利用了涩谷在他开始维护导致日记出版的笔记后 60 年出版的一本书。涩谷积极努力提高农民意识，口齿伶俐，博览群书，能在与城市知识分子的辩论中坚持自己的观点。他的著作很有价值，因为它们传达了日本近代化进程中农民的真实生活。在涩谷的笔录中，流露出被专制国家和地主制度剥削的农民的情绪和感受，向我们展示了与标准学术著作截然不同的画面，从而在我们不加批判地尝试时告诫我们汲取日本现代化经验的教训。