Landed estates (sh�en) produced much of the material wealth supporting all levels of late classical and medieval Japanese society. During the tenth through sixteenth centuries, estates served as sites of de facto government, trade network nodes, developing agricultural technology, and centers of religious practice and ritual. Although mostly farmland, many yielded nonagricultural products, including lumber, salt, fish, and silk, and provided livelihoods for craftsmen, seafarers, peddlers, and performers, as well as for cultivators. By the twelfth century, an estate "system" permeated much of the Japanese archipelago. This volume examines the system from three perspectives: the land itself; the power derived from and exerted over the land; and the religion institutions and individuals that were involved in landholding practices. Chapters by Japanese and Western scholars explore how the estate system arose, developed, and eventually collapsed. Several investigate a single estate or focus on agricultural techniques, while others survey estates in broad contexts such as economic change and maritime trade. Other chapters look at how we learn about estates by inspecting documents, landscape features, archaeological remains, and extant buildings and images; how representatives of every social stratum worked together to make the land productive and, conversely, how cooperative arrangements failed and rivals battled one another, making conflict as well as collaboration a hallmark of the system. On a more personal level, we follow the monk Ch�gen's restoration of Ōbe Estate and his installation of a famous Amida triad in a temple he built on the premises; the strategies of royal ladies J�saimon - in, Hachij�in, and K�kamon - in as they strove to keep their landholdings viable; and the murder of estate official Gor�zaemon, whose own neighbors killed him as a result of a much larger dispute between two powerful warrior families. Land, Power, and the Sacred represents a significant expansion and revision of our knowledge of medieval Japanese estates. A range of readers will welcome the primary source research and comparative perspectives it offers; those who do not specialize in Japanese medieval history but recognize the value of teaching the history of estates will find a chapter devoted to the topic invaluable. Contributors and translators: Kristina Buhrma; Michelle Damian; David Eason; Sakurai Eiji (translated by Ethan Segal); Philip Garrett; Janet R. Goodwin; Yoshiko Kainuma; Rieko Kamei-Dyche; Sachiko Kawai; Hirota K�ji (translated by Janet R. Goodwin); Ōyama Ky�hei (translated by Janet R. Goodwin); Nagamura Makoto (translated by Janet R. Goodwin); End� Motoo (translated by Janet R. Goodwin); Joan R. Piggott; Ethan Segal; Dan Sherer; Kimura Shigemitsu (translated by Kristina Buhrman); Noda Taiz� (translated by David Eason); Nishida Takeshi (translated by Michelle Damian).

Representing an unprecedented collaboration among international scholars from Asia, Europe, and the United States, this volume rewrites the history of East Asia by rethinking the contentious relationship between Confucianism and women. The authors discuss the absence of women in the Confucian canonical tradition and examine the presence of women in politics, family, education, and art in premodern China, Korea, and Japan.
What emerges is a concept of Confucianism that is dynamic instead of monolithic in shaping the cultures of East Asian societies. As teachers, mothers, writers, and rulers, women were active agents in this process. Neither rebels nor victims, these women embraced aspects of official norms while resisting others. The essays present a powerful image of what it meant to be female and to live a woman's life in a variety of social settings and historical circumstances. Challenging the conventional notion of Confucianism as an oppressive tradition that victimized women, this provocative book reveals it as a modern construct that does not reflect the social and cultural histories of East Asia before the nineteenth century.

This volume, edited by Joan Piggott (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), includes fourteen essays, originally written in Japanese and here interpreted in English. It introduces readers to a broader array of historical and archaeological research on center-periphery relations than has ever before been available to English readers. Each essay has been translated, annotated, and introduced by a specialist who selected it for its invaluable contribution to his or her own work, and who here renders it into English for a non-specialist audience. The book features thirteen newly created maps, and also includes an exhaustive list of sources (including Chinese characters). Together with its readable and well-annotated text, extensive glossary, rich bibliography, and comprehensive index, these combined tools make for a valuable resource to scholars and students interested in premodern Japan. Researchers whose work has been interpreted include Tsude Hiroshi, Kobayashi Yukio, Hara Hidesabur�, Inoue Tatsuo, Takahashi Tomio, Takeda Sachiko, Hotate Michihisa, Morita Tei, Sasaki Muneo, Toda Yoshimi, Miyazaki Yasumitsu, Motoki Yasuo, Ishimoda Sh�, and Koyama Yasunori. Scholar-interpreters include Mikael Adolphson, Michiko Aoki, Bruce Batten, Walter Edwards, Karl Friday, Jan Goodwin, Gustav Heldt, and Joan Piggott.

This volume, edited by Joan Piggott (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), includes fourteen essays, originally written in Japanese and here interpreted in English. It introduces readers to a broader array of historical and archaeological research on center-periphery relations than has ever before been available to English readers. Each essay has been translated, annotated, and introduced by a specialist who selected it for its invaluable contribution to his or her own work, and who here renders it into English for a non-specialist audience. The book features thirteen newly created maps, and also includes an exhaustive list of sources (including Chinese characters). Together with its readable and well-annotated text, extensive glossary, rich bibliography, and comprehensive index, these combined tools make for a valuable resource to scholars and students interested in premodern Japan. Researchers whose work has been interpreted include Tsude Hiroshi, Kobayashi Yukio, Hara Hidesaburo, Inoue Tatsuo, Takahashi Tomio, Takeda Sachiko, Hotate Michihisa, Morita Tei, Sasaki Muneo, Toda Yoshimi, Miyazaki Yasumitsu, Motoki Yasuo, Ishimoda Sho, and Koyama Yasunori. Scholar-interpreters include Mikael Adolphson, Michiko Aoki, Bruce Batten, Walter Edwards, Karl Friday, Jan Goodwin, Gustav Heldt, and Joan Piggott.

This book is organized around a fully annotated translation of daily entries from the year 939 in the Teishinkoki, the journal of Fujiwara Tadahira, an early regent. The translation makes entries from a courtier journal accessible to English readers for the first time. The finished work provides startling insights into the Heian court led by Tadahira during the 930s and 940s, when the regency took established form even as it met challenges from regional rebellions in eastern and western Japan. Note: This book reads from right to left. It is not in error, please do not return your order.

This book is organized around a fully annotated translation of daily entries from the year 939 in the Teishinkoki, the journal of Fujiwara Tadahira, an early regent. The translation makes entries from a courtier journal accessible to English readers for the first time. The finished work provides startling insights into the Heian court led by Tadahira during the 930s and 940s, when the regency took established form even as it met challenges from regional rebellions in eastern and western Japan. Note: This book reads from right to left. It is not in error, please do not return your order.