Gender and family: classical ageThe circumstances of such sekkanke wives were therefore significantly different from those of
high- ranking women of the Nara period, who independently managed their own administrative
offices.
Selection of wives for the monarch and the crown prince was highly political, because their
marriages were closely tied to royal succession, and became the center of power struggles. While
aristocrats had once respected the wishes of the marrying couples, from the mid- tenth century
parents, especially fathers, began dictating their children’s marriages. The sovereign, the crown
prince, and other royals and aristocrats began conducting marriage ceremonies during the second
half of the ninth century, and such rituals became customary by the end of the tenth century.
Starting from the first night of sharing a bed, marriage rituals culminated in the most important
event of eating “the third night cakes.”
Marriage to the sovereign involved the woman moving into his palace. Royal marriage there-
fore was designated as “receiving the bride.” Other male aristocrats, however, visited the bride’s
residence, where her family held marriage rituals. In this sense, aristocratic marriage involved
“receiving a groom.” In some cases, the husband began living in his wife’s residence immediately
after the marriage; but many married couples lived separately, and husbands continued to simply
visit their wives periodically. Although married couples sometimes moved to a residence pre-
pared by the husband after a period of separate living, they never lived with his parents.^55
The concept of adultery also emerged for the first time during the Heian period. From the
mid- Heian period onward, a man who had a sexual liaison with a married woman could suffer
violent retribution. This suggests that husbands had increased their control over their wives’
sexuality. Moreover, from around the tenth century, historical sources began discussing rape,
and recording references to women who were selling sex.^56
Labor and the economy during the Heian period
By exploring different ways in which women assumed political power at the Heian court and
within the family, recent scholarship argues that even though women had been excluded from
“public” spaces since the ninth century, they had in fact continued to participate in court politics
through alternative means to make themselves stay influential. For example, Carole Cavanaugh
examines how the roles played by Heian noblewomen in producing textile arts constructed a
foundation of court ideology and hierarchy, showing that women had opportunities to gain
influence.^57
Other scholars claim that when official court posts became unavailable to women, the author-
ity of the mother of the sovereign became important during the mid- Heian period.^58 By becom-
ing female attendants to influential queen- consorts, aristocrat women also experienced additional
opportunities to participate in court affairs.^59 These changes enabled women to exercise signi-
ficant political power and play important roles at court.
Inheritance patterns have been also an important topic in family history. Takamure closely exam-
ined Heian courtier journals to investigate how women inherited residences. Fukutō discovered that
women and men inherited almost equally during the era, and more than 30 percent of land sellers
were women. She also showed, however, that women did not even constitute 10 percent of land
buyers. Based on this, she concluded that women faced more difficulties in protecting their properties
and actively participating in economic activities than men, who could use their official positions as
leverage for maintaining their economic influence. She theorized that women received inheritance
precisely because they faced challenges in acquiring and preserving new wealth.^60
Outside the capital, commoner women played important economic roles as female village
leaders (sato toji). In 1983, a wooden tablet that recorded a district chief ’s order to mobilize