8
The court and its provinces
Producing and distributing wealth in classical
society, 700–1200
Detlev Taranczewski
Living in a modern national state makes us prone to take Japan’s strong cultural and political
homogeneity for granted. But looking back on the history of the Japanese archipelago, we recog-
nize that for most of the last 15,000 years it was split by its topography into various cultural
regions.
A fundamental change occurred during the period from 700 to 1200. The greater part of the
archipelago was joined into a coherent whole. Power and wealth were concentrated, step by step,
in a metropolitan court, a centripetal social order developed, integrating even regions remote
from the capital. Rule by a royal court was established through a long series of conflicts, eventu-
ally finding acceptance among at least the majority of the old regional elites. From this point
forward, exchange of knowledge, people, and goods between the center and its regions increased
to an extent never known before. The cultural, political, economic, and social coherence created
during this period determined the shape of the archipelago to the present day.
This chapter introduces the important steps and factors in this process. The dynamism of the
dichotomy between center and periphery, social stratification and social movements, institutions
of land use and taxation will be the main subjects of discussion.^1 The chapter concludes with
information about further reading, methods of research, and special subjects of discussion in the
field.
Establishing a relationship between the center and periphery under the
ritsuryo ̄ system
Premodern societies can be compared to icebergs. Only a small part sticks out above the surface
of the water, but we know that this portion is supported by an invisible 80 or 90 percent of the
ice. Historical documents may captivate us by their vivid and suggestive depiction of characters
and events, but they are strongly biased, because of their origin in the sphere of ruling elites. The
ruled majority of the population is only sporadically sketched from their own perspectives.
Documents make ruling elites appear as the principal actors, even when they were in reality
merely reacting to the actions of the ruled.
In classical Japan, the period spanning the late seventh to the late twelfth centuries, ruling
elites were, in fact, divided into several blocks and factions, with antagonistic interests from time