Sakaue Y., with K.L. Reeves
Notes
1 It was once presumed that the adoption of ritsuryō codes was an element shared in common by all East
Asian states, and consequently served, along with the Chinese writing system, Confucianism, and Bud-
dhism, to differentiate this cultural sphere from the rest of the world (see, for example, Nishijima Sadao,
“Higashi Ajia sekai no keisei to tenkai”), 67. Recent research, however, convincingly argues that the
kingdoms of the Korean peninsula did not compile systematic legal codes. See Kitamura Hideto,
“Chōsen ni okeru ‘ritsuryōsei’ no henshitsu,” 181–186.
2 Niida Noboru, Tōrei shūi; Niida Noboru and Ikeda On, Tōrei shūiho. This latter work includes attempts
at reconstructing portions of the ryō regulations of the Japanese Taihō legal code of 701. An English
translation and commentary on the Tang appears in Wallace Johnson, The T’ang Code.
3 Dai Jianguo, “Tianyige cang mingchaoben ‘guanpinling’ kao,” 46–70. Tianyige bowuguan, Zhongguo
shehui kexueyuan lishi yanjiusuo tianshengling zhengli ketizu, Tianyige cang mingchaoben tianshengling
jiaozheng fu tangling fuyuan yanjiu.
4 While the term, “Seventeen- Article Constitution” has become the standard appellation for this famous
document (introduced, according to Nihon shoki, by Shōtoku Taishi in 604), the name is somewhat
misleading. The document is, in the words of Asakawa Kan’ichi,
no constitution or law in the modern sense, for it defines no State institution, contains no
positive legislation, and has no word of punishment or enforcement. It is rather a set of
maxims written ... as a guide to ... daily conduct in official life.
It was, nevertheless, a significant step toward the formation of the ritsuryō system, in that, “the moral
maxims are either Buddhistic or Chinese in principle, while all the others are altogether Chinese.”
Asakawa Kan’ichi, The Early Institutional Life of Japan, 253–254.
5 These districts were initially called hyō, and were later renamed gun under the Taihō code, promulgated
in 701.
6 Key studies of the emergence and adoption of the ritsuryō system in English include Asakawa, The Early
Institutional Life of Japan; John W. Hall, Government and Local Power in Japan; Richard J. Miller, Japan’s
First Bureaucracy; Inoue Mitsusada, “The Ritsuryō System in Japan”; and Bruce Batten, “Foreign Threat
and Domestic Reform” and “State and Frontier in Early Japan.”
7 The Battle of Paekchon River, which took place of the western coast of Korea, and its effect on Japanese
political developments, are discussed in detail in Batten, “Foreign Threat and Domestic Reform.”
8 The history of law in early China is discussed in Shiga Shūzō, “Hōten hensan no rekishi.” A concise
account in English of the influence of Chinese culture on early state formation and the initial compila-
tion of Japanese legal codes appears in Marian Ury, “Chinese Learning and Intellectual Life.”
9 The standard text and commentary for modern research on the content of Japanese ritsuryō codes, is
Ritsuryō, volume 3 of Nihon shisō taikei, edited by Inoue Mitsusada.
10 Nakada Kaoru, “Yōrōryō no shikōki ni tsuite,” “Tō-ryō to Nihon- ryō to no hikaku kenkyū,” and
“Yōrō koryō ōbunjō no kenkyū”; Takikawa Seijirō, Ritsuryō no kenkyū.
11 Sakamoto Tarō, Taika kaishin no kenkyū.
12 Inoue Mitsusada, “Gunji seido no seiritsu nendai ni tsuite.”
13 Kishi Toshio, “Zōseki to taika kaishin no mikotonori,” 86–104.
14 Kamada Motokazu, “Hyō no seiritsu to kokuzō,” 165. We also now know that the Naniwa Palace,
constructed in 652, during Emperor Kōtoku’s reign, possessed a spacious main office or reception
compound (chōdōin) wherein courtiers gathered to discuss political matters and conduct important
ceremonies. The floorplan of this compound most probably formed the model for later palaces,
beginning with the Fujiwara Palace, erected in 710. See Yoshikawa Shinji, “Naniwa nagara toyosaki no
miya no rekishiteki ichi,” 89–90. Textual critique of the Taika reform edicts also focused on the devel-
opment of the units under which various population groups were organized. Key studies here include
Hirano Kunio, “Taika kaishin to Tenmu chō,” 446–451, and Kamada Motokazu, “7 seiki no Nihon
rettō,” 35–41.
15 Aoki Kazuo, “Kiyomihara ryō to kodai kanryōsei.”
16 Hayakawa Shōhachi, “Ritsuryō dajōkansei no seiritsu.”
17 Inoue Mitsusada, “Nihon ritsuryō no seiritsu to sono chūshakusho,” 96; Kishi Toshio, “Zōseki to taika
kaushin no mikotonori,” 107–109. For an English- language introduction to mokkan, see Joan Piggott,
“Mokkan: Wooden Documents from the Nara Period.”
18 Ichi Hiroki, “Asuka Fujiwara shutsodo no hyōseika nifuda mokkan,” 365–378.