Routledge handbook of premodern japanese history
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Routledge Handbook of
Premodern Japanese History
Scholarship on premodern Japan has grown spectacularly over the past four decades, in terms of
both sophistication and volume. A new approach has developed, marked by a higher reliance on
primary documents, a shift away from the history of elites to broader explorations of social structures, and a re-examination of many key assumptions. As a result, the picture of the early Japanese past now taught by specialists differs radically from the one that was current in the
mid-twentieth century.
This handbook offers a comprehensive historiographical review of Japanese history up until
the 1500s. Featuring chapters by leading historians and covering the early Jōmon, Yayoi, Kofun,
Nara, and Heian eras, as well as the later medieval periods, each section provides a foundational
grasp of the major themes in premodern Japan. The sections will include:
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The Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History is an essential reference work for students
and scholars of Japanese, Asian, and World History.
Karl F. FridayJT1SPGFTTPSJOUIF(SBEVBUF4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFTBOE4PDJBM4DJFODFTBU4BJUBNB
6OJWFSTJUZBOE1SPGFTTPS&NFSJUVTBUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG(FPSHJB
64"
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Routledge Handbook of
Premodern Japanese
History
Edited by Karl F. Friday
First published 2017
by Routledge
1BSL4RVBSF
.JMUPO1BSL
"CJOHEPO
0YPO093/
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Karl F. Friday; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Karl. F. Friday to be identified as the author of the editorial matter, and of
the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
BOEPGUIF$PQZSJHIU
%FTJHOTBOE1BUFOUT"DU
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice1SPEVDUPSDPSQPSBUFOBNFTNBZCFUSBEFNBSLTPSSFHJTUFSFE
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Friday, Karl F., editor.
Title: Routledge handbook of premodern Japanese history/edited by Karl F. Friday.
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bibliographical references and index.
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Typeset in Bembo
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
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Contents
Notes on contributors
*OUSPEVDUJPO
Karl F. Friday
viii
PART I
Geography and the environment
11
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Fujita Hirotsugu, translated by David Eason
$MJNBUFBOEFOWJSPONFOUJOIJTUPSZ
Bruce L. Batten
$MBTTJDBM+BQBOBOEUIFDPOUJOFOU
Douglas S. Fuqua
PART II
Political events and institutions
53
+ƞNPOBOE:BZPJQSFNPEFSOUPIZQFSNPEFSO
Simon Kaner
5IF,PGVOFSBBOEFBSMZTUBUFGPSNBUJPO
Ken’ichi Sasaki
5IFritsuryō state
Sakaue Yasutoshi, with Kristopher L. Reeves
82
7 From classical to medieval? Ōchō kokka, kenmon taisei
BOEUIF)FJBODPVSU
Mikael S. Adolphson
v
Contents
8 The court and its provinces: producing and distributing wealth in classical
TPDJFUZ
o
Detlev Taranczewski
$PVSUBOEDPVOUSZTJEFoUIFBSUJDVMBUJPOPGMPDBMBVUPOPNZ
Peter D. Shapinsky
10 The imperial court in medieval Japan
Lee Butler
157
11 The sixteenth century: identifying a new group of “unifiers” and
reevaluating the myth of “reunification”
Jeff Kurashige
171
PART III
Society and culture
185
12 Religion in archaic Japan
William E. Deal
187
(FOEFSBOEGBNJMZJOUIFBSDIBJDBOEDMBTTJDBMBHFT
Ijūin Yōko, with Sachiko Kawai
)FJBOLZƞGSPNSPZBMDFOUFSUPNFUSPQPMF
Joan R. Piggott
3FMJHJPOJO/BSBBOE)FJBO+BQBO
Mikaël Bauer
5IFIJTUPSJDBMEFNPHSBQIZPG+BQBOUP
William Wayne Farris
7JMMBHFBOESVSBMMJGFJONFEJFWBM+BQBO
Pierre F. Souyri
18 Family, women, and gender in medieval society
Hitomi Tonomura
275
0VUDBTUTBOENBSHJOBMTJONFEJFWBM+BQBO
Janet R. Goodwin
.FEJFWBMXBSSJPSTBOEXBSGBSF
Kawai Yasushi, with Karl F. Friday
vi
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Contents
3FMJHJPOJONFEJFWBM+BQBO
Brian Ruppert
PART IV
Economy and technology
351
$PJOTBOEDPNNFSDFJODMBTTJDBM+BQBO
Mikami Yoshitaka, with Joshua Batts
,OPXMFEHFPGOBUVSFBOEDSBGUSFTFBSDIJOHUIFIJTUPSZPGTDJFODF
NBUIFNBUJDT
BOEUFDIOPMPHZJO+BQBOCFGPSF
Kristina Buhrman
"HSJDVMUVSFBOEGPPEQSPEVDUJPO
Charlotte von Verschuer
$PNNFSDFBOEUPXOTJONFEJFWBM+BQBO
Suzanne Gay
Index
402
vii
Contributors
Mikael S. Adolphson SFDFJWFE IJT 1I% GSPN 4UBOGPSE 6OJWFSTJUZ BOE JT DVSSFOUMZ UIF
,FJEBOSFO1SPGFTTPSPG+BQBOFTF4UVEJFTBUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG$BNCSJEHF)FJTUIFBVUIPSPG
The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers and Warriors in Premodern Japan 6OJWFSTJUZ PG )BXBJAJ
1SFTT
BOEThe Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History
6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
)FJTBMTPUIFDPFEJUPSPGHeian Japan, Centers and Peripheries6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
XJUI&EXBSE,BNFOTBOE4UBDJF.BUTVNPUPBOEPG
Lovable Losers: The Heike in Action and Memory6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
XJUI"OOF
Commons.
Bruce L. Batten 1I%
4UBOGPSE 6OJWFSTJUZ
JT %FBO PG UIF $PMMFHF PG (MPCBM
$PNNVOJDBUJPO BU +' 0CFSMJO 6OJWFSTJUZ JO 5PLZP BOE 3FTJEFOU %JSFDUPS PG UIF *OUFS
University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama. He is a specialist on ancient and
medieval Japan and is the author of To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and
Interactions6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
BOEGateway to Japan: Hakata in War and Peace,
500–13006OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
BTXFMMBTUIFDPFEJUPSXJUI1IJMJQ$#SPXO
PG
Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands: From Prehistory to the Present0SFHPO4UBUF6OJWFSTJUZ
1SFTT
)JTDVSSFOUSFTFBSDIJOUFSFTUJTDMJNBUFDIBOHFJO+BQBOFTFIJTUPSZ
Joshua BattsJTBEPDUPSBMDBOEJEBUFBOE.FMMPO*OUFSEJTDJQMJOBSZ'FMMPXBU$PMVNCJB6OJWFSTJUZ
XIFSF IF JT DPNQMFUJOH B EJTTFSUBUJPO JO 1SFNPEFSO +BQBOFTF )JTUPSZ )JT EJTTFSUBUJPO
project examines the development and decline of relations between the Tokugawa shogunate
o
BOE)BCTCVSH4QBJOo
JOUIFFBSMZTFWFOUFFOUIDFOUVSZ)JTXPSLJOUFHSBUFT+BQBOFTFBOEXPSMEIJTUPSZ
BTXFMMBTUIFDPNNFSDJBMBOEEJQMPNBUJDIJTUPSZPG&BTU"TJB
BOEUIF1BDJmD8PSME
Mikaël Bauer JT DVSSFOUMZ "TTJTUBOU 1SPGFTTPS PG +BQBOFTF 3FMJHJPOT JO UIF %FQBSUNFOU PG
3FMJHJPVT4UVEJFTBU.D(JMM6OJWFSTJUZ)FTUVEJFE#VEEIJTNBU0TBLB(BJEBJBOEŝUBOJ6OJWFSTJUZCFUXFFOBOEBOEHSBEVBUFEGSPN)BSWBSE6OJWFSTJUZT%FQBSUNFOUPG&BTU
"TJBO4UVEJFTJO)FUPPLVQIJTQPTJUJPOBU.D(JMMJOBGUFSIBWJOHCFFO-FDUVSFSJO
Japanese Studies at the University of Leeds for five years. He focuses on the relation between
Buddhism and institutional developments from the Nara to the Heian period. He has published on the history of Kōfukuji and its main ritual, the Yuima-e, in the Japanese Journal of
Religious Studies and on the conflation of imperial and monastic lineages in Monumenta Nipponica.
Currently he is working on a monograph on the institutional and doctrinal history of Kōfukuji,
in addition to a study on the life and work of the eighth-century courtier Fujiwara no
Nakamaro.
viii
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Contributors
Kristina Buhrman SFDFJWFE IFS 1I% GSPN UIF %FQBSUNFOU PG )JTUPSZ BU UIF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG
4PVUIFSO$BMJGPSOJB4JODF
TIFIBTCFFOBO"TTJTUBOU1SPGFTTPSJOUIF%FQBSUNFOUPG3FMJgion at Florida State University, teaching Japanese religions. Her research focus is the social
history of knowledge in Heian and Kamakura Japan, centering on the intersection of religion and
science.
Lee Butler is an independent scholar of late medieval and early modern Japan. His early work centered on the place of Japan’s imperial court during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, and
resulted in the monograph Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, 1467–1680: Resilience and Renewal
)BSWBSE6OJWFSTJUZ"TJB$FOUFS
BNPOHPUIFSTUVEJFT)FIBTBMTPQVCMJTIFEPOMBUFNFEJFWBMMJOHVJTUJDTi-BOHVBHF$IBOHFBOEA1SPQFS5SBOTMJUFSBUJPOTJO1SFNPEFSO+BQBOFTFw
BOE&EP
QFSJPENBUFSJBMDVMUVSFi1BUSPOBHFBOEUIF#VJMEJOH"SUTJO5PLVHBXB+BQBOw
"UQSFTFOU
IJT
SFTFBSDIJTGPDVTFEPOUIFMPDBMIJTUPSZPG+BQBOT*[VNJ1SPWJODFEVSJOHUIFPQFOJOHZFBSTPGUIF
TJYUFFOUIDFOUVSZ
ESBXJOHVQPO,VKƞ.BTBNPUPTEJBSZPGoBTIJTNBJOTPVSDF
William E. Deal holds a joint appointment in Cognitive Science and Religious Studies at Case
8FTUFSO3FTFSWF6OJWFSTJUZ)FJT4FWFSBODF1SPGFTTPSPGUIF)JTUPSZPG3FMJHJPOJOUIF%FQBSUNFOUPG3FMJHJPVT4UVEJFTBOE1SPGFTTPSPG$PHOJUJWF4DJFODF
BOE$IBJS
PGUIF%FQBSUNFOUPG
Cognitive Science. Deal teaches courses that focus on theory and interpretation in the academic
study of religion, the cognitive science of religion and ethics, comparative religious ethics, and
&BTU"TJBOSFMJHJPVTBOEFUIJDBMUSBEJUJPOT)JTTDIPMBSTIJQJODMVEFTOVNFSPVTBSUJDMFT
DIBQUFST
and book reviews on methodology in the academic study of religion, religion and ethics, and
Japanese Buddhism. He is co-author of Theory for Religious Studies3PVUMFEHF
BOEA Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism8JMFZ#MBDLXFMM
BOEBVUIPSPGHandbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan0YGPSE6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
David EasonJT"TTPDJBUF1SPGFTTPSJOUIF$PMMFHFPG'PSFJHO4UVEJFTBU,BOTBJ(BJEBJ6OJWFSsity. His main area of research concerns late medieval and early modern legal and cultural history
with a focus on conflict and dispute resolution. He received his Doctorate in History from the
6OJWFSTJUZPG$BMJGPSOJB
-PT"OHFMFTJO)FIBTCFFOBSFHVMBSQBSUJDJQBOUJOBTFSJFTPG
SFDFOU XPSLTIPQT BOE DPOGFSFODFT PSHBOJ[FE BSPVOE UIF UIFNF PG i+BQBOT -POH 4JYUFFOUI
Century” and is currently at work on a larger study that examines the interplay between legal
codes, violence, and emotional rhetoric in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Japan.
William Wayne FarrisJT1SPGFTTPS&NFSJUVTGSPNUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJJBU.BOPB
XIFSFIF
IFMEUIF4FO4ÖTIJUTV97%JTUJOHVJTIFE$IBJSJOUIF)JTUPSZBOE$VMUVSFPG5SBEJUJPOBM+BQBO
for twelve years. His research has focused primarily on the social and economic history of Japan
CFGPSF BOE JODMVEFT TJY CPPLT
OPUBCMZ Japan’s Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and
Warfare in a Transformative Age6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
B$IPJDF0VUTUBOEJOH"DBdemic Title. His current research traces the history of Japanese tea from its origins in the late 700s
until the present, examining how the cultivar was farmed, exchanged, and received into Japanese
society. He currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa.
Karl F. Friday1I%
4UBOGPSE6OJWFSTJUZ
JT1SPGFTTPSJOUIF(SBEVBUF4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFT BOE 4PDJBM 4DJFODFT BU 4BJUBNB 6OJWFSTJUZ BOE 1SPGFTTPS &NFSJUVT BU UIF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG
(FPSHJB"TQFDJBMJTUJOUIF)FJBOBOE,BNBLVSBQFSJPET
IJTQVCMJDBUJPOTJODMVEFHired Swords:
The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan4UBOGPSE6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
Legacies of the
Sword: The Kashima Shinryu & Samurai Martial Culture 6OJWFSTJUZ PG )BXBJAJ 1SFTT
ix
Contributors
Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan3PVUMFEHF
The First Samurai: The
Life & Legend of the Warrior Rebel Taira Masakado8JMFZ
Japan Emerging: Premodern History
to 18508FTUWJFX
BOEOVNFSPVTTIPSUFSXPSLT
Fujita HirotsuguDPNQMFUFEUIFEPDUPSBMQSPHSBNBU,ZPUP6OJWFSTJUZJO"TQFDJBMJTUJO
(FPHSBQIZ BOE (FPHSBQIJDBM &EVDBUJPO
IF JT DVSSFOUMZ 1SPGFTTPS JO UIF (SBEVBUF 4DIPPM PG
)VNBOJUJFT BOE 'BDVMUZ PG -FUUFST BU ,PCF 6OJWFSTJUZ
BOE UIF 1SJODJQBM PG ,PCF 6OJWFSTJUZ
Secondary School. His major publications include Sōen ezu ga gataru kodai chūsei :BNBLBXB
i)JTUPSJDBM(FPHSBQIZJO+BQBOTJODFwJapanese Journal of Human Geography
BOEi$IJSJHBLVLBSBNJUBUƞTIJUFLJOBCBLBJHBTIJSZƞOJAUƞTIJLFJLBOPTBHVSVwTōshiteki na ba:
chūsei toshi kenkyū
Douglas S. FuquaJTBOJOEFQFOEFOUTDIPMBSTQFDJBMJ[JOHJOQSFNPEFSO+BQBOBOEDVSSFOUMZDPOEVDUJOHSFTFBSDIJO(FSNBOZ)FSFDFJWFEIJT."JO"SDIBFPMPHZGSPN.FJKJ6OJWFSTJUZXIFSFIFTUVEJFE
:BZPJBOE,PGVODVMUVSFTVOEFS0UTVLB)BUTVTIJHF
BOEIJT1I%JO)JTUPSZGSPNUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG
)BXBJAJBU.BOPB
XIFSFIFTUVEJFEVOEFS)1BVM7BSMFZ)JTEPDUPSBMEJTTFSUBUJPOXBTi5IF
+BQBOFTF.JTTJPOTUP5BOH$IJOBBOE.BSJUJNF&YDIBOHFJO&BTU"TJB
UIoUI$FOUVSJFTw
Suzanne GayJT1SPGFTTPS&NFSJUBPG&BTU"TJBO4UVEJFTBOE)JTUPSZBU0CFSMJO$PMMFHF)FS
works include The Moneylenders of Late Medieval Kyoto and several articles on medieval commercial groups and individuals in the Kyoto area. She is also the co-author of A Brief History of Japanese
CivilizationXJUI$POSBE4DIJSPLBVFSBOE%BWJE-VSJF8BETXPSUI
Janet R. GoodwinJTBSFTFBSDIBTTPDJBUFBôMJBUFEXJUIUIF$FOUFSGPS&BTU"TJBO4UVEJFTBUUIF
6OJWFSTJUZPG4PVUIFSO$BMJGPSOJB4IFXBTBGPVOEJOHGBDVMUZNFNCFSPGUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG"J[V
JO"J[V8BLBNBUTV
+BQBO)FSQVCMJDBUJPOTJODMVEFAlms and Vagabonds: Buddhist Temples and
Popular Patronage in Medieval Japan6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
BOESelling Songs and Smiles:
The Sex Trade in Heian and Kamakura Japan6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
4IFJTUIFFEJUPS
UPHFUIFSXJUI+PBO31JHHPUU
PGLand, Power, and the Sacred: The Estate System in Medieval Japan,
GPSUIDPNJOHGSPN6OJWFSTJUZPG)BXBJAJ1SFTT
Ijūin Yōko1I%
4FOTIƬ6OJWFSTJUZ
JT"EKVODU-FDUVSFSBU4FOTIƬ6OJWFSTJUZ"TQFDJBMist in the history of women and gender, her publications include Kodai no josei kanryō:PTIJLBXB
LƞCVOLBO
BOENihon kodai jokan no kenkyū:PTIJLBXBLƞCVOLBO
Simon Kaner."$BOUBC
1I%
JT%JSFDUPSPGUIF$FOUSFGPS+BQBOFTF4UVEJFTBUUIF
6OJWFSTJUZPG&BTU"OHMJBBOE)FBEPGUIF$FOUSFGPS"SDIBFPMPHZBOE)FSJUBHFBUUIF4BJOTCVSZ
*OTUJUVUFGPSUIF4UVEZPG+BQBOFTF"SUTBOE$VMUVSFT)FJTBOBSDIBFPMPHJTUTQFDJBMJ[JOHJOUIF
QSFIJTUPSZPG+BQBO"'FMMPXPGUIF4PDJFUZPG"OUJRVBSJFTPG-POEPO
IFIBTUBVHIUBOEQVCMJTIFEPONBOZBTQFDUTPG&BTU"TJBOBOE&VSPQFBOBSDIBFPMPHZ)FIBTVOEFSUBLFOBSDIBFPMPHJcal research in Japan, the UK, and elsewhere and worked for several years in archaeological
heritage management in the UK. His major publications include An Illustrated Companion to Japanese ArchaeoloHZXJUI8FSOFS4UFJOIBVT
"SDIBFPQSFTT
BOEThe Power of Dogu: Ceramic
Figures from Ancient Japan
XIJDIBDDPNQBOJFEBNBKPSFYIJCJUJPOBUUIF#SJUJTI.VTFVN
0UIFSXPSLTJODMVEFJomon Reflections: Forager Life and Culture in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago
CZ5BUTVP,PCBZBTIJ
XIJDIIFBEBQUFEBOEFEJUFEXJUI0LJ/BLBNVSB)FJTDPFEJUPS
of the Japanese Journal of ArchaeologyXXXKKBSDIBFPMPHZKQ
BOE3FTFBSDI'FMMPXJOUIF+BQBOFTF
4FDUJPOPGUIF#SJUJTI.VTFVN
x
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Contributors
Sachiko Kawai1I%
6OJWFSTJUZPG4PVUIFSO$BMJGPSOJB
TQFDJBMJ[FTJOQSFNPEFSO+BQanese history, focusing on women, their landholdings, and gender power relations in the mediFWBMQFSJPEco
4IFBUUFOEFEUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG4PVUIFSO$BMJGPSOJB64$
XIFSFTIF
FBSOFEBO."JO&BTU"TJBO-BOHVBHFTBOE$VMUVSFT
BOEDPOEVDUFEEJTTFSUBUJPOSFTFBSDIBUUIF
)JTUPSJPHSBQIJDBM*OTUJUVUFPGUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG5PLZPXJUIUIFTVQQPSUPGB+BQBO'PVOEBUJPO
'FMMPXTIJQ"GUFSSFDFJWJOHIFS1I%JO)JTUPSZBOEB(SBEVBUF$FSUJmDBUFJO(FOEFS4UVEJFTBU
64$
TIFUBVHIUHSBEVBUFBOEVOEFSHSBEVBUFDPVSTFTJOUIF&BTU"TJBO-BOHVBHFTBOE$JWJMJ[BUJPOT%FQBSUNFOUBU)BSWBSE6OJWFSTJUZBTBQPTUEPDUPSBMGFMMPX4IFJTDVSSFOUMZB1PTUEPDUPSBM
'FMMPXBU)BSWBSET3FJTDIBVFS*OTUJUVUF
XIFSFTIFJTDPNQMFUJOHIFSCPPLNBOVTDSJQU
Uncertain Powers: Female Royals as Landlords in Early Medieval Japan, 1100–1300.
Kawai YasushiSFDFJWFEIJT1I%GSPN,PCF6OJWFSTJUZJO"TQFDJBMJTUJONFEJFWBM+BQBOFTFIJTUPSZ
IFJTDVSSFOUMZ1SPGFTTPSJOUIF(SBEVBUF4DIPPMBU0TBLB6OJWFSTJUZ)JTQVCMJDBtions include Genpei kassen no kyozō o hagu,ƞEBOTIB
Kamakura bakufu seiritsushi no kenkyū
"[FLVSBTIPCƞ
BOEGenpei no nairan to kōbu seiken:PTIJLBXBLƞCVOLBO
Jeffrey Yoshio Kurashige1I%
)BSWBSE6OJWFSTJUZ
JT"TTJTUBOU1SPGFTTPSJOUIF'BDVMUZ
PG#VTJOFTTBOE$PNNFSDFBU,FJP6OJWFSTJUZ1SJPSUPBTTVNJOHUIJTQFSNBOFOUQPTU
IFUBVHIU
BU,ZVTIV6OJWFSTJUZJOUIFJS(SBEVBUF4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFT)JTSFTFBSDIGPDVTFTPOUIFFDPnomic and social history of the sixteenth century, but his interests span into the field of modern
finance due to his prior career as an investment banker. He is currently developing his dissertation into a book-length study entitled Serving Your Master: The Kashindan Retainer Corps and the
Socio-Economic Transformation of Warring States Japan.
Mikami Yoshitaka DPNQMFUFE IJT EPDUPSBUF JO BU UIF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG 5PLZP (SBEVBUF
4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFTBOE4PDJPMPHZ$VSSFOUMZTFSWJOHBT"TTPDJBUF1SPGFTTPSBUUIF/BUJPOBM
.VTFVN PG +BQBOFTF )JTUPSZ
IF IBT BMTP CFFO B -FDUVSFS BU :BNBHBUB 1SFGFDUVSBM :POF[BXB
8PNFOT+VOJPS$PMMFHF
BOE"TTPDJBUF1SPGFTTPSJOUIF'BDVMUZPG-JUFSBUVSFBOE4PDJBM4DJFODFT
at Yamagata University. His publications include Nihon kodai no kahei to shakai :PTIJLBXB
LƞCVOLBO
Jr. Nihon no rekishi 2: miyako to chihō no kurashi, Nara jidai kara Heian jidai
DPBVUIPSFE
XJUI'VKJNPSJ,FOUBSƞ
4IƞHBLLBO
Nihon kodai no bungaku to chihō shakai
:PTIJLBXBLƞCVOLBO
BOERakugaki ni rekishi o yomu:PTIJLBXBLƞCVOLBO
Joan R. PiggottJT(PSEPO-.BD%POBME1SPGFTTPSPG)JTUPSZBOE%JSFDUPSPGUIF1SPKFDUGPS
1SFNPEFSO+BQBO4UVEJFT
BHSBEVBUFQSPHSBNBUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG4PVUIFSO$BMJGPSOJB4IFJT
the author of The Emergence of Japanese Kingship4UBOGPSE6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
FEJUPSPGCapital
and Countryside in Japan 300–1180&BTU"TJB1SPHSBN
$PSOFMM6OJWFSTJUZ
BOEDPFEJUPS
of The Dictionary of Sources of Classical JapanPOMJOFQVCMJDBUJPO
BOETeishinkōki: The Year
939 in the Journal of Regent Fujiwara no Tadahira&BTU"TJB1SPHSBN
$PSOFMM6OJWFSTJUZ
"
volume of selections from the ChūyūkiKPVSOBMPG'VKJXBSBOP.VOFUBEBDPODFSOJOHUIFCJSUIPG
Toba Tennō is in press, as is another co-edited volume: Land, Power, and Ritual: The Estate System
in Medieval Japan.
Kristopher L. ReevesJTDVSSFOUMZEPJOHSFTFBSDIGPSIJTEPDUPSBMEJTTFSUBUJPO$PMVNCJB6OJWFSTJUZ
XIJMFXPSLJOHBT"TTJTUBOU1SPGFTTPSPG+BQBOFTF-JUFSBUVSFBUUIF/BUJPOBM*OTUJUVUFPG
+BQBOFTF-JUFSBUVSFJO5PLZP)JTDVSSFOUSFTFBSDIGPDVTFTPO4JOJUJDQPFUSZkanshi
QSPEVDFE
during the Heian period, especially the complex and changing relationships between patronage
BOEBOUIPMPHJ[BUJPO
xi
Contributors
Brian Ruppert
1I%1SJODFUPO
)JSBTBXB1SPGFTTPSPG+BQBOFTF4UVEJFTBOE$IBJSPGUIF"TJBO
4UVEJFT1SPHSBNBU#BUFT$PMMFHF
JTBVUIPSPGJewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power)BSWBSE
6OJWFSTJUZ"TJB$FOUFS
)BSWBSE6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
BOEDPBVUIPSSFDFOUMZPGA Cultural
History of Japanese Buddhism8JMFZ#MBDLXFMM
)FJTBMTPBVUIPSPGi#VEEIJTNJO+BQBOw
Encyclopedia of Religion
OE FE
.BDNJMMBO 3FGFSFODF 64"
i#VEEIJTN BOE -BX JO
+BQBOwJOBuddhism and Law
$BNCSJEHF6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
BOEPUIFSQVCMJDBUJPOTPOQSFNPEFSO +BQBOFTF SFMJHJPOT JO &OHMJTI BOE +BQBOFTF
JODMVEJOH i.FEJFWBM #VEEIJTNTw JO UIF
forthcoming Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 1: Premodern Japan$BNCSJEHF6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
He is currently completing book manuscripts respectively on the development of scripture
shōgyō
BOEPOJOEFCUFEOFTTJOQSFNPEFSO+BQBOFTF#VEEIJTN
Sakaue YasutoshiJT1SPGFTTPSJOUIF(SBEVBUF4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFTBU,ZVTIV6OJWFSTJUZ)F
attended the University of Tokyo, graduating from the Faculty of Letters, and then received his
NBTUFSTEFHSFFGSPNUIF(SBEVBUF4DIPPMPG)VNBOJUJFTBUUIFTBNFJOTUJUVUJPO)FIBTTFSWFE
BTBHSBEVBUFBTTJTUBOUPGUIF'BDVMUZPG-FUUFSTBUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG5PLZPo
BOE
TJODF
BT-FDUVSFS
"TTJTUBOU1SPGFTTPS
BOE1SPGFTTPSBU,ZVTIV6OJWFSTJUZ)JTSFTFBSDIGPDVTFT
on the origins and development of the ritsuryō state and the transition to the medieval polity,
QSJNBSJMZGSPNBOJOTUJUVUJPOBMQFSTQFDUJWF.PSFDPODSFUFMZ
IJTXPSLIJHIMJHIUTUIFMFHBDJFTPG
Chinese law, and the tensions between written law and customary practice as the cornerstones of
the classical Japanese bureaucracy and revenue-collection systems. His publications include Tōryō
shūihōDPFEJUFE
5ƞLZƞEBJHBLVTIVQQBOLBJ
Nihon no rekishi 5: ritsuryō kokka no tankan to
“Nihon”,ƞEBOTIB
SFQSJOUFE,ƞEBOTIBHBLVKVUTVCVOLƞ
Shiriizu Nihon kodaishi 4:
Heijō-kyō no jidai *XBOBNJ TIJOTIP
Nihon kodai no rekishi 5: sekkan seiji to chihō shakai
:PTIJLBXBLƞCVOLBO
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Ken’ichi Sasaki JT 1SPGFTTPS PG "SDIBFPMPHZ
'BDVMUZ PG "SUT BOE -FUUFST
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5PLZP )F SFDFJWFE B 1I% JO "OUISPQPMPHZ GSPN )BSWBSE 6OJWFSTJUZ JO )JT NBKPS
research interest is the archaeology of state-formation in Japan from eastern peripheral perspecUJWFT 4JODF IF XBT IJSFE BU .FJKJ
IF IBT CFFO DPOEVDUJOH mFMEXPSLT JO UIF TPVUIFSO *CBSBLJ
1SFGFDUVSFPMEQSPWJODFPG)JUBDIJ
)JTNBKPSQVCMJDBUJPOTJODMVEFShinano omuro tsumi’ishizuka
kofun-gun no kenkyui"4UVEZPGUIF0NVSP$BSJOBOE&BSUIFO.PVOE(SPVQJOUIF0ME1SPWJODFPG4IJOBOP
w3PLVJDIJTIPCƞ
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GSPN UIF .PVOE $POTUSVDUJPO UP #VEEIJTU 5FNQMFT JO 4FWFOUI $FOUVSZ &BTUFSO +BQBO
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Peter D. ShapinskyJT"TTPDJBUF1SPGFTTPSPG)JTUPSZBUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG*MMJOPJT
4QSJOHmFME"
specialist in medieval Japan and its maritime history, he is the author of Lords of the Sea: Pirates,
Violence, and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan 6OJWFSTJUZPG.JDIJHBO$FOUFSGPS+BQBOFTF4UVEJFT
BOEOVNFSPVTTIPSUFSXPSLT
Pierre F. Souyri1I%
*OTUJUVU/BUJPOBMEFT-BOHVFTFU$JWJMJTBUJPOT0SJFOUBMFT
JT1SPGFTTPSPG)JTUPSZBU(FOFWB6OJWFSTJUZ"GPSNFS%JSFDUPSPG.BJTPO'SBODP+BQPOBJTFJO5PLZP
and co-editor of Annales (Histoire, Sciences Sociales) and Cipango, Cahiers d’études japonaises, he is a
specialist on medieval Japan, the formation of the social sciences in modern Japan, and the history
of political thought in Japan. His publications include The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval
Japanese Society $PMVNCJB 6OJWFSTJUZ 1SFTT
Nouvelle Histoire du Japon 1FSSJO
History at Stake in East Asia$BGPTDBSJOB
Japon colonial 1880–1930, Les voix de la dissension
xii
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Contributors
-FT#FMMFT-FUUSFT
Samouraï, 1000 ans d’histoire1SFTTFT6OJWFSTJUBJSFTEF3FOOFT
ÌEJUJPOT
$IÆUFBVEFT%VDTEF#SFUBHOF
KamikazesDPBVUIPSFEXJUI$POTUBODF4FSFOJ 'MBNNBSJPO
Moderne sans être occidental, Aux origines du Japon d’aujourd’hui(BMMJNBSE
BOE
numerous shorter works.
Detlev Taranczewski %SQIJMJO+BQBOFTF4UVEJFT<
6OJWFSTJUZPG'SBOLGVSUBN.BJO>
venia legendi JO +BQBOFTF 4UVEJFT <
#POO 6OJWFSTJUZ>
)F TUVEJFE BU UIF 6OJWFSTJUZ PG
'SBOLGVSUBN.BJO
5PLZP.FUSPQPMJUBO6OJWFSTJUZ
BOE8BTFEB6OJWFSTJUZ)FIBTBMTPDPOEVDUFESFTFBSDIBUUIF)JTUPSJPHSBQIJDBM*OTUJUVUF6OJWFSTJUZPG5PLZP
BOEBU4FJLFJ6OJWFSsity. His main fields of research are medieval Japan, paddy field irrigation, historical cartography,
and the history of history in Japan. His research includes studies of Nitta no shō and the local
rule of the Nitta family in the Kamakura era, the formation of local self-government in medieval
Japan through the process of conflict and cooperation in paddy-field irrigation, recent and
historical access to water resources, and reproduction of elites by delegation and differentiation
of royal Herrschaft in medieval Japan.
Hitomi TonomuraJTBNFNCFSPGUIF%FQBSUNFOUPG)JTUPSZBOE8PNFOT4UVEJFT1SPHSBN
BUUIF6OJWFSTJUZPG.JDIJHBO)FSDVSSFOUBSFBTPGTUVEZBSFXBSBOEWJPMFODF
DPNNFSDFBOE
merchants, and gender and sexuality. Her next book will examine the construction of military
manhood in battle-prone society of late medieval Japan. Her publications include Community and
Commerce in Late Medieval Japan: The Corporate Villages of Tokuchin-ho4UBOGPSE6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
BOE Women and Class in Japanese History 6OJWFSTJUZ PG .JDIJHBO $FOUFS GPS +BQBOFTF
4UVEJFT
BTXFMMBTOVNFSPVTBSUJDMFTQFSUBJOJOHUPHFOEFSFESFMBUJPOTBOEUIFJSSFQSFTFOUBtions in premodern Japanese society and culture.
Charlotte von VerschuerJT1SPGFTTPSPG+BQBOFTF)JTUPSZBU&DPMF1SBUJRVFTEFT)BVUFT&UVEFT
Her research focuses on material culture, agriculture, and international trade. Her publications in
&OHMJTIJODMVEFAcross the Perilous Sea: Japanese Trade with China and Korea from the Seventh to Sixteenth Centuries$PSOFMM6OJWFSTJUZ1SFTT
BOERice, Agriculture, and the Food Supply in Premodern Japan
USBOTMBUFEBOEFEJUFECZ8FOEZ$PCDSPGU3PVUMFEHF
4IFBMTPDPFEJUFE
Dictionary of Sources of Classical Japan%JóVTJPO%F#PDDBSE
xiii
a
sum
Hyuga
Higo
Bungo
n
Nagato
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Japan in the tenth century
Sat
Iwami
Tosa
Bingo
Awa
Sanuki
Kawachi
Awaji
Kii
Ise
Omi
Iga
Kaga
Sado
Sagami
Musashi
Kozuke
Echigo
Awa
Kazusa
Shimosa
Hitachi
Shimozuke
Dewa
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Pacific Ocean
Izu
Kai
Suruga
Shinano
Totomi
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Hida
Etchu
Noto
Honshu
Owari
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Echizen
Yamashiro
Yamato
Settsu
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sa
Waka
Kyoto
Inaba TajimaTango
Mimisaka
Tamba
Harima
Bizen
Hoki
Shikoku
Iyo
Aki
Izumo
Oki
Sea of Japan
Source: Map entitled “Japan in the Tenth Century,” in Karl Friday, The First Samurai: The Life and Legend of the Warrior Rebel, Taira Masakado (New York: Wiley, 2008), p. xii.
Map
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Bit
Introduction
Karl F. Friday
History changes. And indeed, if it did not, there would be little point to historical research, for most
historians would be doing scarcely more than collecting and organizing tidbits of information—
and perhaps, very occasionally, discovering new bits in hitherto unknown archives and adding
them to the pile. This is the sort of endeavor that Robin Collingwood dismissed as “scissors-andpaste history,” but it is most assuredly not what historians actually do with their time.1 The
resulting stark contrast between The Past itself, which must be immutable, and historians’ decidedly mutable accounting of it seems puzzling at first blush; and has long served as fodder for wit,
ranging from Franklin P. Jones’ observation that, “Perhaps nobody has changed the course of
history as much as the historians,” to Pogo Possum’s (Walt Kelly’s sage-resident of Okefenokee
Swamp), lament that “The past ain’t what it used to be.”
But in truth there is no puzzle here. All history is a reconstruction of the past, one that is finite
and incomplete, circumscribed by both the capacity and the intent of its builders. And all history
is, as Carl Becker put it, “not part of the external world, but an imaginative reconstruction of
vanished events,” assembled to enrich a society’s understanding of itself, and always with an eye
toward the needs of the present. “It is,” Becker reminds us,
for this reason that the history of history is a record of the “new history” that every age rises
to confound and supplant the old … every generation, our own included, must inevitably,
understand the past and anticipate the future in light of its own restricted experience.2
The essays that compose this volume summarize the history of attempts to reconstruct premodern Japan, defined here as the era before 1600. The decision to end the book’s coverage with
the sixteenth century reflects prevailing conventions within the profession, which divide Japanese history into either three major epochs (premodern, early modern, and modern) or two
(premodern and modern), with the break at or around 1600. This, in turn, echoes dominant
trends in scholarship, which emphasize the role of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and early nineteenthcentury socio-economic developments—rather than thoroughgoing national reinvention in the
Western image—in shaping late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan. That is, most
historians today consider the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) to be more appropriately approached
as a preface to the modern age, than as a postscript to the medieval era.3
1
K.F. Friday
“Premodern Japan” is, of course, like all historical period labels, an invented construct that
historians deploy for referential (and analytical) convenience. It is, to be sure, a somewhat problematic construct. For one thing, “premodern” constitutes a definition in the negative, labeling
the epoch for what it is not, rather than for some affirmative characteristic. And for another, the
term hints at a teleological view of history, a progression toward the modern, and consequently,
perhaps, a connection to “modernization theory” and the modernization paradigms of Max
Weber and Talcott Parsons.4 But both objections can, upon closer inspection, be recognized
mainly as hypercriticism. In the end, they raise a challenge to identify an appropriate alternative
label that decades of conference panels, editorial discussions, and professional conversations have
thus far been unable to meet, except with more awkward expressions, like “Japan before 1600.”
“Premodern,” in the sense in which it is employed in this volume, and within the field at large, is
best understood as an anodyne, entirely temporal in connotation.
By the same token, “premodern Japan” embraces a very long span of time—ten or more centuries during which change featured at least as prominently as continuity. Useful explanation,
and meaningful analysis, therefore demand subdivision of this diffuse epoch. Historians have,
accordingly, devised a number of overlapping systems through which to conceptualize “Japan
before 1600.”5
The best-known periodization schema sorts the premodern age into eras defined by the
(nominal) geographic seat of power. Although there is variation among the sub-fields of history,
and scholars frequently debate the precise boundaries of some periods, by and large, this conceptualization identifies eight major epochs, with some overlap between a few. Thus the Asuka (or
more commonly in the West, the Yamato) period, beginning in the sixth century and lasting
until the turn of the eighth, was followed by the Nara period (710–794), the Heian period
(794–1185), the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the Muromachi period (1333–1568), and the
Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568–1600). The late fourteenth to late sixteenth centuries are also
frequently divided into the Nanbokuchō (1336–1392) and Sengoku (1477–1573) periods.
But while readily familiar to scholarly and general audiences alike, and therefore useful for
short-hand references, these systems are not without foibles. Most importantly, many of the key
cultural, social, economic, and political changes that interest historians did not coincide neatly
with shifts in the location of the capital, or even with changes of leadership. Historians, therefore, also identify broad, thematic epochs.
For much of the postwar era, historians in Japan have broken premodern history into three
such periods: the genshi (“primordial”) age, lasting until the late fifth or early sixth century, the
kodai (“ancient” or “antiquity”) age, spanning the sixth through the twelfth centuries, and the
chūsei (“medieval”) age, running from the late twelfth until the late sixteenth centuries.6 While
this schema was originally derived from Marxist models classifying historical periods in terms of
modes of production, the labels have become standard in Japan, even among historians who
otherwise reject Marxist analyses. Historians in the West have also by-and-large adopted this
system, albeit not without inconsistencies of translation and other problems.
Of the three ages posited by this schema, chūsei poses the fewest difficulties for either adoption or
translation. Indeed, both the term and the construct originated, at the dawn of the twentieth
century, as appropriations from European history.7 And while chūsei was originally borrowed as an
analogy, with an eye toward mapping Japanese onto Western and world history, it remains apposite
to Japan’s past considered entirely in its own right—that is, as a label for an age of snowballing
socio-political upheaval bookended by the relative stability, and the relatively centralized orders, of
the classical and early modern eras. “Medieval” therefore seems a reasonably unproblematic English
sobriquet for the period. Nevertheless, as it is commonly applied—to the long span of time from
the late twelfth to the late sixteenth centuries—“the medieval age” encompasses a great deal of
2
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Introduction
history. For this reason, it has become common practice to subdivide it into at least two parts: an
early medieval period, during which the institutions of the classical age remained prominent, and a
late medieval period, during which they very nearly faded into insignificance.
The term genshi, and the question of where to distinguish it from the kodai era (and why),
presents thornier issues. The literal meaning of genshi (written with characters meaning “origin”
and “begin”) corresponds fairly closely to the English terms “primordial,” “primeval,” “inaugural,” or “initiatory”; but all of these seem ludicrous in application to an epoch that extends into
the first four or five centuries of the ce/ad era. Some authors have used “prehistoric” or “protohistoric” as labels for the era.8 But in addition to being teleological (as is, in fact, genshi itself ),
these terms are essentially meaningless, now that the historical profession has long since abandoned the time-worn distinction between the pre- and post-documentary past.9 “Ancient” offers
another possibility, but this term has become problematically ambiguous because of its history of
usage—a point to which I will return in a moment. The best solution may be the term “archaic,”
which has also gained some currency among historians.10
Kodai represents a similarly difficult construct. To begin with, its standard application is far
too broad, spanning at least the sixth to the twelfth centuries, and sometimes stretching backward to include the fifth, or forward to include the thirteenth centuries. As such, “kodai” subsumes both the early state-formation era and the first five or six centuries following the
establishment of the sinified imperial (ritsuryō) state. It seems conceptually appropriate—indeed,
I would argue essential—to distinguish the socio-political structure(s) of the late seventh to
twelfth centuries from those of earlier times, as most historians writing in recent decades have, in
fact, done.
Anglophone historians usually label this later epoch as either “ancient” or “classical.” The
latter, however, has much to recommend it over the former. In addition to being (as noted above)
ambiguously applied to both the fifth to early seventh centuries and the seventh to twelfth centuries, “ancient” also carries negative connotations. It is primarily a chronological term; but
outside the Japanese context it is usually applied to the extremely remote past, and to raise
impressions of eras long-dead and worthy only of antiquarian interest. “Classical,” on the other
hand, is role-attributive, and far more positive in nuance—one need only compare the images
brought forth by the phrases “Classical Greece” and “Ancient Rome” to verify this. More specifically, “classical” identifies the foundational nature of the seventh to twelfth centuries in
Japan’s developmental history, the era during which the quintessential, enduring elements of
subsequent Japanese civilization—the Chinese-style monarchy, the ritsuryō legal structure, the
court-centered hierarchy of status and authority, the network of provinces and districts, the
religious system, and numerous other features—were put into place.11
This volume, then, employs both the capital-appellative periodization schema (Nara, Heian,
Kamakura, etc.) and a somewhat refined version of the broad theme-denominative terminology
discussed in the foregoing paragraphs: an Archaic era lasting until the mid-seventh century; a
Classical epoch from the mid-seventh to the late twelfth century; an Early Medieval period
during the thirteenth to early fifteenth centuries; and a Late Medieval period of the late fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries—followed by an Early Modern period from the end of the sixteenth to
the late nineteenth century.
In one sense, the study of premodern Japan is as old as the subject itself. The first historical chronicles, the Kojiki (“Record of Ancient Matters”) and the Nihon shoki (“Chronicle of Japan”), were
produced in the late seventh century, followed by a sequence of court-sponsored histories in the
tradition of Chinese dynastic chronicles—Shoku Nihongi (“Continued Chronicle of Japan”),
Nihon kōki (“Later Chronicle of Japan”), Shoku Nihon kōki (“Continued Later Chronicle of Japan”),
3
K.F. Friday
Nihon Montoku tennō jitsuroku (“Veritable Records of Emperor Montoku”), and Nihon sandai jitsuroku (“Veritable Records of Three Reigns”).12 The first “privately produced” histories were
literary works cast in imitation of the official chronicles—Eiga monogatari (“Tales of Splendor”),
Ōkagami (“Great Mirror”), Imakagami (“New Mirror”), Mizukagami (“Water Mirror”), Azuma
kagami (“Mirror of the East”), and Masukagami (“Enhanced Mirror”)—and wartales, including
Shōmonki (“Tale of Masakado”), Mutsu waki (“Account of Mutsu”), Ōshū gosannenki (“Chronicle
of the Latter Three Years’ War”), Heike monogatari (“Tale of the Heike”), and Genpei jōsuiki
(“Account of the Rise and Fall of the Minamoto and Taira”).13 Interpretive histories, written by
individuals, arguably began with Jien’s Gukanshō (“Excerpts by a Foolish Official”), which
appeared in the early thirteenth century, and Kitabatake Chikafusa’s fourteenth-century Jinnō
shōtōki (“Record of the True Lineages of Divinities and Sovereigns”), followed by the work of
Motoori Norinaga and other kokugaku (“national studies”) scholars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.14
But modern research on Japanese history began in the late nineteenth century, pioneered by
Nakada Kaoru, Hara Katsurō, Hoshino Hisashi, Miura Hiroyuki, Kiraizumi Kiyoshi, Kume
Kunitake, Watanabe Yosuke, Ryō Susumu, Nishioka Toranosuke and others. These Meiji—
(1868–1912) and Taishō— (1912–1926) era historians were heavily influenced by the “scientific”
perspective advocated by Leopold von Ranke and the German positivists, and by issues revolving
around Japan’s search for its place in the world, vis-à-vis the rest of Asia and the Western powers.
Much of their work was dominated by comparisons and constructs—such as feudalism—drawn
from European history. From the 1920s, Marxist models became influential, as historians debated
over how to fit Japan’s past into Marx’s framework of Slave, Feudal, and Capitalist stages through
which all developing societies pass.
During the 1930s, historical research in Japan was progressively circumscribed by the government’s increasingly strident nationalism. But these shackles came off with the end of the Pacific
War, and historians found themselves newly free to question even the most basic premises of the
received wisdom. Postwar scholarship on premodern Japan has been dominated—and sharply
divided—by two groups: Marxist-Socialist historians led by Ishimoda Shō, Matsumoto
Shinpachirō, and (in more recent decades) Amino Yoshihiko; and a positivist, or empirical, school
led by Satō Shin’ichi, Nagahara Keiji, Kuroda Toshio, and Takeuchi Rizō. Both groups set their
sights on recovering a history centered on the interplay of central with local power, and of the
agency of elites with that of the rank and file.
Western scholarship on premodern Japan has a much shorter history, and until just a few
decades ago suffered from an appreciable gap in methodological sophistication. The earliest work
was Englebert Kaempfer’s Das Heutige Japan, published posthumously (and in English translation)
in 1727, as The History of Japan. Based principally on the author’s first-hand observations and
information otherwise collected during his two-year sojourn in Japan in the 1690s, Kaempfer’s
study, along with French, Dutch, and German versions thereof subsequently produced, remained
Western readers’ sole window into the archipelago for more than two centuries, when it was at
last joined by Walter Dening’s The Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, James Murdoch’s three-volume A
History of Japan, and a handful of other works.15
Dening’s and Murdoch’s accounts were principally collections and compilations of legends.
The real Anglophone pioneers of historical scholarship on premodern Japan were Asakawa
Kan’ichi and Robert Karl Reischauer in the prewar era; and George Sansom, Delmer Brown,
Minoru Shinoda, and Paul Varley in the 1950s and 1960s. With the exception of Asakawa, who
was in many respects a man ahead of his time, these scholars based their work primarily on chronicles and other narrative sources, and on amalgamation of studies published in Japanese. But this
approach changed, and Western scholarship on premodern Japan came of age, in the late 1960s
4
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Introduction
and 1970s, when John W. Hall, Jeffrey Mass, G. Cameron Hurst, Francine Hérail, Elizabeth Sato,
Carl Steenstrup, Prescott Wintersteen, Martin Collcutt, Michael Solomon, Kenneth Grossberg
and others at last began to integrate the full range of source materials available to historians—
documents, court records, diaries, legal codes, archeological findings, and artwork, as well as
chronicles, narrative sources, and secondary scholarship in both Japanese, English, and (albeit less
systematically or comprehensively) other languages.
In the decades since, scholarship on premodern Japanese history has broadened, deepened, and
expanded exponentially. In both Japan and the West an unprecedented number of specialists
have entered the field. Collectively, their work is marked by a shift in focus from the history of
elites to a broader examination of social structures and their intersection with political, economic, institutional, and cultural evolution; a shift in methodology from dependence on literary
and narrative sources to incorporation of documentary sources, physical evidence of the past and
analysis guided by theoretical constructs borrowed from the social sciences; and a fundamental
reassessment of nearly all the key tenets of what was once the received wisdom.
Prior to the 1960s, visions of premodern Japan—particularly the English-language
literature—described a historical landscape littered with failed regimes and radical breaks with
what had gone before, in a narrative dominated by themes of usurpation: An emergent tribal
confederation was reformed—very nearly at a stroke, in the wake of a spectacular coup d’état in
645—into a centralized imperial regime slavishly copied from Tang China. But this overly ambitious attempt to force Japanese square pegs into Chinese round holes was doomed from the start.
Within decades of their inception, organs and procedures were abandoned and, bit by bit, the
authority of the imperial throne that underlay the system became buffered by layers (“screens and
curtains” in the words of George Sansom) and usurped.16 Real power passed from reigning
emperors to Fujiwara regents, and then to retired sovereigns, after which the court itself was
slowly pushed aside. Warriors assumed control of first the countryside and then, with the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate in the 1180s, of the country as a whole, marking the demise
of the classical age and the onset of a medieval, “feudal” world. And the pattern continued, as
shoguns ruling in the name of emperors themselves became figureheads for Hōjō regents.
Attempts to restore the past, first in the form of Emperor Go-Daigo’s quixotic and ill-fated
“Kenmu Restoration” (1333–1336) and then in the form of a new shogunate under Ashikaga
Takauji and his heirs, only hastened the pace of change, as warlords in the countryside gobbled
up real power, first ruling in the name of shoguns who ruled in the name of emperors, but later
all-but sovereign in their own right, in positions that owed to little beyond raw military might.
And then, just as the archipelago was dissolving into utter chaos, three brilliant leaders—Oda
Nobunaga (1534–1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu
(1543–1616)—emerged in sequence, restoring national order, albeit at the expense of progress.
The Tokugawa, the ultimate victors in this opera, stabilized the new order and their place in it
by freezing society, stifling change, and hermetically sealing Japan off from contact with the
outside world.
As Jeffrey Mass observed, “part and parcel of this way of thinking was a search for the institutionally new … ‘change’ seemed more compelling than ‘survival’.”17 This perspective owed in large
part to myopic engrossment with analogy to European history and faith in literary and other narrative sources. But it began to break down rapidly in the 1970s, as historians became more sophisticated in methodology, more attentive to approaching premodern Japan on its own terms, less
infatuated with the role of “great men,” and more skeptical of hoary archetypes. The shift began
with John W. Hall’s focus on the resilience of old patterns, and continued under the generation of
historians who came of age in the 1970s and their emphasis on the survival of older institutions,
mindsets, and practices alongside new developments. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, the
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K.F. Friday
field had become dominated by a paradigm of mostly incremental—albeit sometimes sudden and
dramatic—innovation within enduring fundamental patterns. The image of decline and failure has
been superseded by one of resilience and innovation within prescribed limitations.
Robin Collingwood famously observed that “every present has a past of its own, and … every
generation must rewrite history in its own way.”18 This volume, then, is directed at current and
future historians. It is designed and intended not as a high-level textbook or introduction to premodern Japanese history (or various topics thereon), but as a platform for future research—a
basecamp and a reconnoiter of ground covered thus far.
The volume features essays by leading historians on twenty-five topics critical to contemporary research interests and agendas, presented in four thematic Parts: “Geography and the
Environment,” “Political Events and Institutions,” “Society and Culture,” and “Economy and
Technology.” As is inevitably the case in anthologies of this sort, decisions about topical coverage
were guided in part by the interests and priorities of individual authors, and further shaped by
contributor attrition in the late stages of the project. And while the approaches taken by individual authors vary considerably, each aims at equipping scholars seeking to conduct research on
these various subjects with a firm, foundational grasp of what historians are doing, what they
have done, and how. The challenge taken up by each contributor was to construct historiographic surveys in the broadest sense, incorporating summaries of what has been written about
each topic and when, but going beyond that to discuss larger epistemological issues, including
available sources, the evolution of research methodologies, important debates among scholars in
the field, limits on what can be gleaned from known sources and methodologies, and key questions that need yet to be explored.
Notes
1 Robin Collingwood, The Idea of History, 249–280.
2 Carl Becker, “Everyman His Own Historian,” 233, 234–235.
3 The Tokugawa period, which lies, for the most part, outside the scope of this volume, is also known as
the Edo period.
4 For an overview of modernization theory and critiques thereof, see Dean C. Tipps, “Modernization
Theory and the Comparative Study of National Societies: A Critical Perspective.”
5 These issues are discussed in more detail in Karl F. Friday, “Sorting the Past.”
6 The genshi era is commonly divided into three overlapping archeological epochs: the Jōmon (beginning
around 14,000 bce), Yayoi (from around 900 bce), and Kofun (beginning around 250 ce) ages.
7 For more on the construct of medievalism and the medieval, see Thomas Kierstead, “Medieval Japan:
Taking the Middle Ages Outside Europe”; and Andrew Edmund Goble, “Defining ‘Medieval’.”
8 See, for example, Gina Barnes, Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State; Yūji Mizoguchi,
“Affinities of the Protohistoric Kofun People of Japan with Pre- and Proto-Historic Asian Populations”; or Joan R. Piggott, The Emergence of Japanese Kingship.
9 See, for example, Conrad Totman, Japan Before Perry: A Short History or Mikiso Hane, Premodern Japan:
A Historical Survey.
10 See, for example, Cornelius J. Kiley, “The Role of the Queen in the Archaic Japanese Dynasty,” or
“State and Dynasty in Archaic Yamato”; Meryll Dean, Japanese Legal System; Bradley Smith, Japan: A
History in Art; or Noritake Tsuda, A History of Japanese Art: From Prehistory to the Taisho Period. The term
“archaic” is, to be sure, no less loaded with antiquarian connotations and implications than “ancient.” It
does, however, avoid the confusion that otherwise results from the dual identity of “ancient” in the
English-language literature—that is, the fact that “ancient” has been used in some studies to describe the
period before the ritsuryō era, and in others to refer to the Nara and Heian periods, and not what came
before. There is, in fact, a rather extensive literature on the notion of “archaic states.” Among the most
important studies here are Gary M. Feinman and Joyce Marcus, Archaic States; and Norman Yoffee,
Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations.
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Introduction
11 Joan R. Piggott, “Defining ‘Ancient’ and ‘Classical’.” At the same time, the political and economic
structures of the seventh to twelfth centuries were hardly of an unwavering piece. By the tenth century,
governance and land-holding practices had evolved a considerable bit away from the letter—and even
the spirit—of the Chinese-inspired legal codes, although they still remained well within the framework
of the court-centered imperial state. For this reason, most specialists also break the classical era into
imperial state (ritsuryō) and oligarchic (ōchō kokka or kenmon taisei) phases, lasting from the mid-600s until
the late 800s, and from the mid-ninth through the mid-fourteenth century, respectively. For details, see
Chapters 6 and 7 of this volume.
12 The court histories are examined at length in Sakamoto Tarō, The Six National Histories of Japan. English
translations of these texts include: Basil Hall Chamberlain, trans., Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters;
Donald Philippi, Kojiki; Gustave Heldt, Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters; W.G. Aston, Nihongi:
Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to 697 AD; Ross Bender, Nara Japan, 749–757: A Translation from
Shoku Nihongi; Bender, Nara Japan, 758–763: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi; Bender, Nara Japan,
767–770: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi; Bender, The Edicts of the Last Empress, 749–770: A Translation
from Shoku Nihongi; and Shimizu Osamu, “Nihon Montoku Tenno Jitsuroku: An Annotated Translation, with a Survey of the Early Ninth Century.”
13 Important English studies and translations include: William and Helen C. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes: Annals of Japanese Aristocratic Life in the Heian Period; Joseph K. Yamagiwa, The Ōkagami: A
Japanese Historical Tale; Giuliana Stramigioli, “Masakadoki”; Judith N. Rabinovitch, Shomonki: The
Story of Masakado’s Rebellion; Helen McCullough, “A Tale of Mutsu”; Helen McCullough, The Tale of
the Heike; Kitagawa Hiroshi and Bruce Tsuchida, The Tale of the Heike; and Royall Tyler, The Tale of the
Heike. The historiography of the wartales is discussed in detail by H. Paul Varley, in Warriors of Japan as
Portrayed in the War Tales.
14 Delmer Brown and Ishida Ichirō, The Future and the Past: A Translation and Study of the Gukansho, an
Interpretive History of Japan Written in 1219; H. Paul Varley, A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. On kokugaku, see Joyce Ackroyd, Lessons from History: Arai Hakuseki’s Tokushi Yoron; Harry Harootunian, Things
Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa Nativism; Mark McNally, Proving the Way: Conflict and
Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism; Peter Nosco, Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in
Eighteenth Century Japan; and Michael Wachutka, Kokugaku in Meiji-period Japan: The Modern Transformation of ‘National Learning’ and the Formation of Scholarly Societies.
15 The full (English) title of Kaempfer’s study was, The History of Japan Together with a Description of the
Kingdom of Siam 1690–92. Beatrice Bodart-Bailey’s retranslation of the original manuscript, Kaempfer’s
Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed, is the most accessible version of the text. Dening’s study appeared in
1888, while Murdoch’s was published sequentially between 1910 and 1926.
16 George Sansom, Japan: A Short Cultural History, 300.
17 Jeffrey P. Mass, “Changing Western Views of Kamakura History,” 179.
18 Collingwood, The Idea of History, 247–248.
References
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Press, 1982.
Aston, W.G. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1972
(reprint of 1896).
Barnes, Gina L. Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State. Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies,
No. 17. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, 1988.
Becker, Carl. “Everyman His Own Historian.” The American Historical Review 37, no. 2 (1932): 221–236.
Bender, Ross. The Edicts of the Last Empress, 749–770: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi. Create
Space, 2015.
Bender, Ross. Nara Japan, 749–757: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi. CreateSpace, 2015.
Bender, Ross. Nara Japan, 758–763: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi. CreateSpace, 2016.
Bender, Ross. Nara Japan, 767–770: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi. CreateSpace, 2016.
Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. Kaempfer’s Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1999.
Brown, Delmer, and Ishida Ichirō. The Future and the Past: A Translation and Study of the Gukansho, an Interpretive History of Japan Written in 1219. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932.
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Collingwood, Robin. The Idea of History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1946.
Dean, Meryll. Japanese Legal System. London: Routledge-Cavendish, 2002.
Dening, Walter. The Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Tokyo: Hakubunsha, 1888. Republished by Hokuseido, 1955.
Feinman, Gary M., and Joyce Marcus. Archaic States. School of American Research Advanced Seminar
Series. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1998.
Friday, Karl F. “Sorting the Past.” In Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850, edited by Karl F. Friday,
16–20. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2012.
Goble, Andrew Edmund. “Defining ‘Medieval’.” In Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850, edited by
Karl F. Friday, 32–41. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2012.
Hane, Mikiso. Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991.
Harootunian, Harry. Things Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa Nativism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Heldt, Gustave. Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Keirstead, Thomas. “Medieval Japan: Taking the Middle Ages Outside Europe.” History Compass 2, no. AS
110 (2004): 1–14.
Kiley, Cornelius J. “The Role of the Queen in the Archaic Japanese Dynasty.” International Congress of Orientalists, 29th Paris 1 (1973): 45–49.
Kiley, Cornelius J. “State and Dynasty in Archaic Yamato.” Journal of Japanese Studies 3, no. 1 (1973):
25–49.
Kitagawa Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida. The Tale of the Heike. University of Tokyo Press, 1975.
Mass, Jeffrey, P. “Changing Western Views of Kamakura History.” In Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese
History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.
McCullough, Helen Craig. “A Tale of Mutsu.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies no. 25 (1964): 178–211.
McCullough, Helen Craig. The Tale of the Heike. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988.
McCullough, William, and Helen C. McCullough. A Tale of Flowering Fortunes: Annals of Japanese Aristocratic
Life in the Heian Period. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980.
McNally, Mark. Proving the Way: Conflict and Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2005.
Mizoguchi, Yūji. “Affinities of the Protohistoric Kofun People of Japan with Pre- and Proto-Historic Asian
Populations.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Nippon, no. 96 (1988): 71–109.
Murdoch, James. A History of Japan. 3 vols. New York: F. Unger, 1964. Originally published 1910–1926.
Noritake Tsuda. A History of Japanese Art: From Prehistory to the Taisho Period. Rutland, VT: Charles
Tuttle, 2015.
Nosco, Peter. Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in Eighteenth Century Japan. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1990.
Philippi, Donald L. Kojiki. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1968.
Piggott, Joan R. “Defining ‘Ancient’ and ‘Classical’.” In Japan Emerging, edited by Karl F. Friday, 21–31.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2012.
Piggott, Joan R. The Emergence of Japanese Kingship. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Rabinovitch, Judith N. Shomonki: The Story of Masakado’s Rebellion. Tokyo: Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, 1986.
Sakamoto Tarō. The Six National Histories of Japan. Translated by John S. Brownlee. Vancouver: UBC
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Sansom, George B. Japan: A Short Cultural History. New York: Appleton-Century. 1943.
Shimizu Osamu. “Nihon Montoku Tenno Jitsuroku: An Annotated Translation, with a Survey of the Early
Ninth Century.” PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1951.
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Stramigioli, Giuliana. “Masakadoki.” Rivista Studi Orientali 53, no. 1–2 (1979): 1–69.
Tipps, Dean C. “Modernization Theory and the Comparative Study of National Societies: A Critical Perspective.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 15, no. 2 (1973): 199–226.
Totman, Conrad. Japan Before Perry: A Short History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
Tyler, Royall. The Tale of the Heike. New York: Viking, 2012.
Varley, H. Paul. A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
Varley, H. Paul. Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1994.
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Introduction
Wachutka, Michael. Kokugaku in Meiji-period Japan: The Modern Transformation of ‘National Learning’ and the
Formation of Scholarly Societies. Leiden; Boston: Global Oriental, 2013.
Yamagiwa, Joseph K. The Ōkagami: A Japanese Historical Tale. With a foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer.
London: Allen & Unwin, 1967.
Yoffee, Norman. Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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