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Daily Life and Demographics in Ancient Japan

Author: William Wayne Farris

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2020-08-06

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 0472901966

For centuries, scholars have wondered what daily life was like for the common people of Japan, especially for long bygone eras such as the ancient age (700–1150). Using the discipline of historical demography, William Wayne Farris shows that for most of this era, Japan’s overall population hardly grew at all, hovering around six million for almost five hundred years. The reasons for the stable population were complex. Most importantly, Japan was caught up in an East Asian pandemic that killed both aristocrat and commoner in countless numbers every generation. These epidemics of smallpox, measles, mumps, and dysentery decimated the adult population, resulting in wide-ranging social and economic turmoil. Famine recurred about once every three years, leaving large proportions of the populace malnourished or dead. Ecological degradation of central Japan led to an increased incidence of drought and soil erosion. And war led soldiers to murder innocent bystanders in droves. Under these harsh conditions, agriculture suffered from high rates of field abandonment and poor technological development. Both farming and industry shifted increasingly to labor-saving technologies. With workers at a premium, wages rose. Traders shifted from the use of money to barter. Cities disappeared. The family was an amorphous entity, with women holding high status in a labor-short economy. Broken families and an appallingly high rate of infant mortality were also part of kinship patterns. The average family lived in a cold, drafty dwelling susceptible to fire, wore clothing made of scratchy hemp, consumed meals just barely adequate in the best of times, and suffered from a lack of sanitary conditions that increased the likelihood of disease outbreak. While life was harsh for almost all people from 700 to 1150, these experiences represented investments in human capital that would bear fruit during the medieval epoch (1150–1600).

War and State Building in Medieval Japan

Author: John A. Ferejohn

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2010-04-20

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0804774315

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The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody wars between the 16th and 17th centuries. This book, which brings Japan's case into conversation with the history of state building in Europe, points to similar factors that were present in both places: population growth eroded clientelistic relationships between farmers and estate holders, creating conditions for intense competition over territory; and in the ensuing instability and violence, farmers were driven to make Hobbesian bargains of taxes in exchange for physical security.

Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan

Author: William E. Deal

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0195331265

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This book is an introduction the Japanese history, culture, and society from 1185 - the beginning of the Kamakura period - through the end of the Edo period in 1868.

Warriors of Medieval Japan

Author: Stephen Turnbull

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-09-20

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1849089930

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Combines material previously published as Warrior 29: Ashigaru 1467-1649, Warrior 64: Ninja AD 1460-1650, Warrior 70: Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603, with a new section on Samurai, new images, and a new introduction and conclusion. Driven by strict codes of honour and bound by deep allegiances of rank, family or religion, the elite warriors of medieval Japan were bold fighters, loyal comrades and deadly enemies, With rare material from Japanese sources and lavish artwork and photography, this book examines the military lives, beliefs and battle experience of four formidable warrior types – samurai, ninja, warrior monk and ashigaru foot soldier – resulting in a highly authoritative account of Japan's warrior elite.

Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan

Author: Edward R. Drott

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2016-05-31

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 082486686X

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Scholars have long remarked on the frequency with which Japanese myths portrayed gods (kami) as old men or okina. Many of these “sacred elders” came to be featured in premodern theater, most prominently in Noh. In the closing decades of the twentieth-century, as the number of Japan’s senior citizens climbed steadily, the sacred elder of premodern myth became a subject of renewed interest and was seen by some as evidence that the elderly in Japan had once been accorded a level of respect unknown in recent times. In Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan, Edward Drott charts the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to old age in medieval Japan, tracing the processes by which the aged body was transformed into a symbol of otherworldly power and the cultural, political, and religious circumstances that inspired its reimagination. Drott examines how the aged body was used to conceptualize forms of difference and to convey religious meanings in a variety of texts: official chronicles, literary works, Buddhist legends and didactic tales. In early Japan, old age was most commonly seen as a mark of negative distinction, one that represented the ugliness, barrenness, and pollution against which the imperial court sought to define itself. From the late-Heian period, however, certain Buddhist authors seized upon the aged body as a symbolic medium though which to challenge traditional dichotomies between center and margin, high and low, and purity and defilement, crafting narratives that associated aged saints and avatars with the cults, lineages, sacred sites, or religious practices these authors sought to promote. Contributing to a burgeoning literature on religion and the body, Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan applies approaches developed in gender studies to “denaturalize” old age as a matter of representation, identity, and performance. By tracking the ideological uses of old age in premodern Japan, this work breaks new ground, revealing the role of religion in the construction of generational categories and the ways in which religious ideas and practices can serve not only to naturalize, but also challenge “common sense” about the body.

Land, Power, and the Sacred

Author: Janet R. Goodwin

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2018-07-31

Total Pages: 587

ISBN-13: 082487546X

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Landed estates (shōen) 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 Chōgen’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 Jōsaimon’in, Hachijōin, and Kōkamon’in as they strove to keep their landholdings viable; and the murder of estate official Gorōzaemon, 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 Kōji (translated by Janet R. Goodwin) Ōyama Kyōhei (translated by Janet R. Goodwin) Nagamura Makoto (translated by Janet R. Goodwin) Endō Motoo (translated by Janet R. Goodwin) Joan R. Piggott Ethan Segal Dan Sherer Kimura Shigemitsu (translated by Kristina Buhrman) Noda Taizō (translated by David Eason) Nishida Takeshi (translated by Michelle Damian)

Akutō and Rural Conflict in Medieval Japan

Author: Morten Oxenboell

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2018-05-31

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0824872649

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This volume offers the first in-depth analysis in English of an understudied phenomenon in medieval Japanese history: the so-called akutō (literally, “evil bands”). Employing chronicles, laws, and legal documents from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as recent Japanese scholarship, Morten Oxenboell examines the significance of akutō in legal proceedings to provide a nuanced understanding of how rural communities organized for and engaged in violent conflicts. He deconstructs the image of akutō as instigators of violence by underlining the significance of the term as a rhetorical device used by litigants to voice their grievances in Kamakura legal proceedings. The many instances in which akutō appear offer a clear example of the ways in which the new legal vocabulary concealed realities behind rhetorical flourishes and narratives of violence and predation. Violence was certainly a part of the negotiation for rights and privileges in the estate system, and Oxenboell demonstrates how conflicts developed and were untangled by local actors, who were rarely given a voice in sources from this period. By peeling away the rhetoric, he presents us a unique view of rural populations organizing their communities in the face of violence, whether as victims of outside aggression or as aggressors themselves against landlords or neighbors. The book therefore goes beyond the usual focus on elites in medieval Japanese history by concentrating on local mobilization schemes and strategies, which were often framed and defamed by central elites. Rural residents, who could not rely on the authorities for protection, handled their own security concerns via complex social mechanisms that tied together locals and absentee landlords in an uneasy relationship of mutual dependency. By examining the fissures in this relationship—in the form of akutō complaints—Oxenboell shows that violent activism was part of the daily management of estates and that such conflicts do not indicate an absence of order but rather a system of checks and balances that helped create a vibrant society.

Daily Life and Demographics in Ancient Japan

Author: William Farris

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13:

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For centuries, scholars have wondered what daily life was like for the common people of Japan, especially for long bygone eras such as the ancient age (700-1150). Using the discipline of historical demography, William Wayne Farris shows that for most of this era, Japan's overall population hardly grew at all, hovering around six million for almost five hundred years. The reasons for the stable population were complex. Most importantly, Japan was caught up in an East Asian pandemic that killed both aristocrat and commoner in countless numbers every generation. These epidemics of smallpox, measles, mumps, and dysentery decimated the adult population, resulting in wide-ranging social and economic turmoil. Famine recurred about once every three years, leaving large proportions of the populace malnourished or dead. Ecological degradation of central Japan led to an increased incidence of drought and soil erosion. And war led soldiers to murder innocent bystanders in droves. Under these harsh conditions, agriculture suffered from high rates of field abandonment and poor technological development. Both farming and industry shifted increasingly to labor-saving technologies. With workers at a premium, wages rose. Traders shifted from the use of money to barter. Cities disappeared. The family was an amorphous entity, with women holding high status in a labor-short economy. Broken families and an appallingly high rate of infant mortality were also part of kinship patterns. The average family lived in a cold, drafty dwelling susceptible to fire, wore clothing made of scratchy hemp, consumed meals just barely adequate in the best of times, and suffered from a lack of sanitary conditions that increased the likelihood of disease outbreak. While life was harsh for almost all people from 700 to 1150, these experiences represented investments in human capital that would bear fruit during the medieval epoch (1150-1600).

The Japanese Samurai

Author: Louise Park

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780761444480

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Ancient and Medieval People profiles some of the fiercest warriors in history. Learn about their lives and times, notorious battles, and daring feats! In The Japanese Samurai, read about famous samurai battles in Japan. Learn about samurai swords, the Bushido code, and the decline of the ancient samurai. Book jacket.