D. Taranczewski
kenkyū; Isogai Masayoshi, Gunji oyobi uneme seido no kenkyū; Nagayama Yasutaka, “Kokka to gōzoku”;
Yamaguchi Hideo, “Chiiki shakai to kokugun sei”; and Kanegae Hiroyuki, “Gunji to kodai sonraku”
are useful introductory readings. Niino Naoyoshi, Kenkyūshi: Kuni no miyatsuko, 214–240 summarizes
the discussion about continuities between the politically centralizing, pre- ritsuryō system of kuni no miy-
atsuko and gunji.
10 Kinoshita Ryō, Kokufu: Sono hensen o shu nishite gives a comprehensive introductory description of pro-
vincial offices and their changing functions during the ritsuryō and ōchō eras, with a strong focus on
archaeology. See also Yoshimura Shigeki, Kokushi seido. Studies of gunji include Yamanaka Toshiji,
“Kokuga, gunga no kōzō to hensen,” and Satō Makoto, “Kyūto, kokufu, gunga.”
11 For the history of ancient irrigation, a crucial task of the classical state and society, see Kameda Takashi,
Nihon kodai yōsui shi no kenkyū and Kinoshita Seiichi, Kodai Nihon no kasen kangai. For examples in various
regions and discussion of theoretical implications, and especially for the eighth century, see Charlotte
von Verschuer, “Water Management in Japan in the 8th Century.”
12 On this point see note 40, below.
13 On the military role of provincial authorities under the ritsuryō system until the ninth century, see
Yoshinaga Masafumi, “Kodai kokka no gunji soshiki to sono henshitsu.” For the ōchō and insei eras, see
Shimomukai Tatsuhiko, “Kokuga to bushi”; and Ishii Susumu’s classic study, Kamakura bushi no jitsuzō:
Kassen to kurashi no okite (especially pp. 2–57). For studies in English, see Karl Friday, “Teeth and Claws:
Provincial Warriors and the Heian Court”; and Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early
Japan. Court ladies of provincial origin are discussed in Isogai Masayoshi, Gunji oyobi uneme.
14 See Kinoshita Ryō, Kokufu.
15 How the political and cultural roles of Buddhism and kami- cult (the term Shintō has many anachronistic
connotations and should be used with caution when applied to the classical era; for more on this point,
see Chapter 12 of this volume) may have differed and how interrelations between the two functioned
during the various epochs in the relations between center and peripheries remains an interesting ques-
tion not yet sufficiently discussed. On Buddhism and kami cults in the provinces, see Kinoshita Ryō,
Kokufu and Suzuki Keiji, “Ritsuryō kokka to jingi·bukkyō.” For further developments, especially the
amalgamation of Buddhism and kami- cults in the provinces, see Kawane Yoshiyasu, Chūsei hōken shakai
no shuto to nōson, 1–42.
16 Traffic and circulation of goods are discussed by Hotate Michihisa, Janet Goodwin, and Gustav Heldt,
in “Traffic between Capital and Countryside in Ritsuryō Japan”; and by Kinoshita Ryō in Kokufu and
“Kodai no kōtsū taikei.” Wooden tablets (mokkan) used as a kind of declaration document for tax goods
are a very useful source for economic history, especially when analyzed in combination with the docu-
ments of the central administration. Research on mokkan is introduced by Joan R. Piggott, “Mokkan:
Wooden Documents from the Nara Period.”
17 On ancient horse breeding and connected social and economic matters see Yamaguchi Hideo, “8–9 seiki
no maki ni tsuite”; Toda Yoshimi, Nihon ryōshusei, 280–316, and Nihon chūsei no minshū to ryōshu, 47–57;
Ishii Susumu, Chūsei bushidan (especially pp. 138–149); Fukuda Toyohiko, Taira no Masakado no ran,
passim; and Karl Friday, The First Samurai: The Life and Legend of the Warrior Rebel Taira Masakado. On
shūba no tō see Endō Motoo, “Shūba no tō no kōdō to seikaku.”
18 Takeda Sachiko, “Roads in the Tennō-centered Polity,” discusses Takeda Sachiko’s comprehensive
studies on the classical transportation system.
19 The concept of peripheries is crucial for the understanding of the classical polity in Japan as well as in the
Sino- centered regional order—cf. Takahashi Tomio, Henkyō: mō hitotsu no Nihonshi and “The Classical
Polity and its Frontier.” Introductions to this order and how it influenced the relations between the
center and peripheries in the frame of the Japanese archipelago can be found in Ōmachi Ken, “Higashi-
Ajia no naka no Nihon ritsuryō kokka”; Ishigami Eiichi, Kodai kokka to taigai kankei, especially 270–277;
and Kumata Ryōsuke, “Kodai kokka to ebisu·hayato.”
20 For conflicts between Emishi especially and early ritsuryō state cf. Kumata Ryōsuke, “Kodai kokka”; and
Karl Friday, “Pushing beyond the Pale: The Yamato Conquest of the Emishi and Northern Japan.”
21 Kurazumi Yasuhiko, Dazaifu provides an introduction to the Dazaifu.
22 Hayakawa Shōhachi’s classic Ritsuryō kokka (especially pp. 433–447) offers a useful outline of the classi-
cal tax system. More details on its development and theoretical aspects are provided by Kushiki Yoshi-
nori, “Seisan·ryūtsū to kodai no shakai hensei.”
23 The study of the historical landscape forms an important field of research situated between archaeology,
historical geography, and historical science mainly based on written documents. Such studies permit us
insights into aspects of history—from the organization of everyday life and production to spatial factors