The court and its provincesThe increasing complexity of the balance of power in the capital and in the provinces offered
the new regional elites opportunities for strengthening their position in multiple alliances with
governors and the ruling higher authorities of a shōen. In order to reduce the influence of provin-
cial administration, they sometimes commended title and partial income rights over their estates
to higher- ranking figures—temples, top court nobles, and members of the imperial family—
who used their power and influence to keep their rights legally recognized, protecting them from
efforts by provincial governors to confiscate the lands and return them to the public rosters. At
the other end of shōen administration, local elites were appointed as shōen officers. Such a change
in legal form bore some risks, but in most cases the zaichi ryōshu were able to gain more stable and
more profitable rights to their territories under the new conditions. The era of medieval decen-
tralization and division of power had irrevocably begun.
Further reading, methods of research, and special subjects for discussion
History also has its history. Subjects, methods, and theoretical frames of reference are ever-
changing, and lines of development become visible. In this respect, books on history become old,
but not necessarily antiquated. Many studies are eventually superceded, yet continue to have
long- lasting effects on later generations of historians.
Ishimoda Shō’s landmark study of the classical state, Nihon no kodai kokka, is a case in point.
The theories he introduced therein—citing the promotion of agriculture as one nucleus (along-
side military functions) of the state’s authority, and the role of local elites (especially the gunji
class) as a decisive element in the acceptance and legitimation of court rule in the provinces—
remain fundamental to current thinking on the subject. Both of these ideas were derived not
simply from primary sources but rather as a result of theoretical work in close conjunction with
analysis of documentary sources, particularly Karl Marx’s theory of an Asiatic mode of produc-
tion and Karl Wittfogel’s theory of oriental despotism and hydraulic society.
Both Marx and Wittfogel stressed the role of hydraulic engineering in the early state- building
process and the degree to which it retarded the development of individual possession of land.
Nevertheless, the differences between various countries and regions to which these concepts can
be applied—China and Japan, for example—remain a crucial topic for discussion.^51
All of these theories have helped to formulate fruitful hypotheses concerning topics for which
primary sources are, in most cases, fragmentary and insufficient. The debates through which
historians like Ishimoda and Amino discussed their theories and formulated new ideas constitute
a vital subject of research in and of themselves—and one that is in danger of being forgotten.
Indeed, since the late 1980s, scholarship on premodern Japanese history has shown a marked
decrease of interest in theoretical debate, and in the history of social change. Without critical
discussions of theory, however, history devolves to little more than a collection of interesting
stories.
As we have seen, much research on rural communities in classical times was inspired by such
debates. New types of sources, methods of analysis, and approaches were developed. Middle-
and late- twentieth-century urban spread, in conjunction with historical preservation laws that
mandated archeological surveys of potentially valuable sites prior to construction, led to an
explosion of new archeological data. And insights obtained through this new data in combina-
tion with those derived from historical geography and historical cartography helped to recon-
struct hydraulic engineering, jōri-fields, and settlements in the classical epoch. Social
anthropology, with its commitment to local and regional history (chihōshi), also assisted in
developing new approaches, such as the integration of studies of local culture, social conflicts,
and social movements.