The imperial court in medieval Japancollections of court documents, house and temple records, and aristocratic diaries, the main
sources for the medieval period.^30
Another cache of primary sources for the period is Dai Nihon shiryō, the sixteen- part series that
chronicles Japan’s history day- by-day from the ninth to nineteenth centuries. This vast collection
of sources was begun late in the nineteenth century with the object of continuing the official
histories of the classical period. Accordingly, the imperial court and its activities make up a major
thread of the collection, as do events and developments that shaped government and rulership.
What, then, are fruitful topics for new scholarship, or particularly promising avenues of
research? The possibilities are numerous, but a few I would suggest are the following (with rec-
ommendations based in part on holes in the broader field, inclusive of work in Japan, and also
based on the state of scholarship outside of Japan).
First, the economics of court families begs for attention. Work in English is particularly thin,
leaving us with the simplistic picture of declining revenue and confiscated land. That no doubt
occurred over the course of the medieval era, but without close studies we are left in the dark as
to the workings and significance of court families’ estates (shōen)—either during the Kamakura
era, when their position in the broader economy was large, or later, when they were at the center
of disputes over power and the control of landed wealth. Moreover, as revealed in studies by
members of the Chūsei Kuge Nikki Kenkyūkai, research into the economics of sengoku- era
courtiers—on topics ranging from building construction to shōen income and management—
offer insights into matters as diverse as relations with the warriors, law and justice, and the social
lives of courtiers.
Second, a promising avenue of research for the period is microhistory, based perhaps on an
individual courtier’s diary (though there are certainly other sources that could be the core of such
a study). Excellent microhistories exist for comparable or slightly later periods in European and
Amer ican history, work which, despite its limited focus, sheds considerable light on the respec-
tive societies. It is an approach whose time is past due for premodern Japan. Several diaries among
the many that seem well suited for this are Kanmon Nikki of prince Fushiminomiya Sadafusa (also
known as Go- Sukōin; diary: 1416–1452); Tokitsunekyōki of the mid- level courtier Yamashina
Tokitsune (diary: 1576–1608); and Oyudononoue no nikki (1477–1625, 1683–1826) the diary kept
by a succession of women serving in the imperial palace.^31 Each of these could offer insights into
a particular time period and social circle, considerably enriching the field. Tokitsunekyōki, one of
a succession of diaries kept by the Yamashina house, could also be analyzed as part of a family
history, a topic that has received very little attention.
Third, as suggested by my inclusion of Oyudononoue no nikki in the preceding section, another
possibility for research is to consider issues well beyond politics and high culture, including, for
example, gender and medicine, areas represented in English by the pioneering research of Hitomi
Tonomura and Andrew Goble respectively. Goble’s work on the physician Yamashina Toki-
tsune is particularly fruitful in revealing courtiers’ connections beyond the kenmon elite, some-
thing appropriate to this era of increased social mobility and growing cultural integration.^32
In sum, my recommendations for new work point to narrowly defined research into the lives
and activities of courtiers (and their families), male and female, drawing upon the numerous
sources they produced, and placing them (whether as outsiders—“above the clouds”—or
insiders—caught up in mundane affairs) within the broader culture of Japan at the time. At the
heart of such scholarship lies detailed reading and analysis of the sources, the key to this work.