Kokudaka

Kokudaka (石高, kokudaka) refers to a system for determining land value for tribute purposes in Edo period Japan and expressing this value in koku of rice. This tribute was no longer a percentage of the actual quantity of rice harvested, but was assessed based on the quality and size of the land. The system was used to value the incomes of daimyo, or feudal rulers, as well as to value the homes and fields of landowners.

This meant that a survey had to be made of all land-ownership and titles drawn up, creating a new class of landowners. Land was no longer held in the control of the daimyoo. Above, the nation was a public domain under the emperor, and now the legal owners of the land were the villagers. Moreover, the samurai no longer had a right to a portion of the crop. Now tax had to be paid in cash and was not tied to the harvest but to the land valuation, so the state could plan its budget with greater certainty. While the taxes no longer went to unproductive samurai but for development, the poorer peasants often lost their land because they had to pay in cash, with no allowance for poor harvests or for the effects of deflation and falling prices for their produce. Thus in the Meiji period, tenancy increased from 30% to 45% of cultivated land. Tax was levied on the individual landowner, not on the village as in the Tokugawa period. The kokudaka system allowed wealthy peasants with ambition to expand and invest in other enterprises.

The system lasted until land taxes were reformed during the Meiji period.