Family, women, and gender in medieval societystrong interest in Japanese women’s history. The issue was named Joseishi kenkyū (“Study of
Women’s History”) and contains a number of remarkably forward- looking essays, including
Nishioka Toranosuke on the position of women in agriculture in classical Japan, Endō Motoo on
women’s salvation in Buddhism, Nakamura Naokatsu on women in medieval warrior society,
and Nakagawa Zennosuke on marriage history from the perspective of women’s history.^14
These were authors who had been exploring women’s history alongside other topics for some
time. Nishioka Toranosuke, for example, was best known for his work on the estate (shōen)
system, but was also called a historian of “the masses (minshū).” He focused especially on people’s
lifestyles (seikatsu) and culture, which he believed to have had an impact on the course of Japanese
history. In this spirit of exploring the cultural power of non- elites, he began writing articles in
the 1920s about women- related topics, such as wet nurses, women’s education, political roles,
reading and writing Chinese, political marriages, and even the relationship between women and
the sound of crickets. He later compiled these writings into a book titled Nihon joseishi kō
(“Thoughts on Japanese Women’s History”). Relying on sources that range from tales and diaries
to documents and laws, the book introduces the full panoply of topics all of which recognize
women’s energy instead of passivity.^15
These early twentieth- century authors, despite their tremendous contributions, are not con-
sidered the founders of Japan’s “women’s history.” Instead, the recognition goes to either Inoue
Kiyoshi (1913–2001) or Takamure Itsue (1894–1964). Before describing their scholarship, we
first need to understand some key concepts that have dominated their scholarship and the works
of others who followed in their footsteps.
Living in modern ie society and writing on medieval ie
“Japan’s women’s history began with the search for the origin of ie, that is, patrilineality and pat-
riarchy (kafuchōsei), which has brought so much suffering to modern women,” commented
Nomura Ikuyo.^16 Ie (house or household), a concept that has framed much Japanese scholarship
on family, women, and gender, is a historical term found in medieval sources but its historio-
graphical significance derives from its modern usage. “Ie” is the first character in the term
“kazoku,” or “family,” which emerged in a civil code of Meiji Japan, promulgated in 1896. The
code granted the household head, the eldest male, the exclusive rights and authority to oversee
the ie’s operation and its members’ affairs, including marriage, residence, inheritance and so on.
Marriage for a woman meant the loss of legal rights to the ie, including parental rights pertaining
to her biological child.^17
Although the postwar constitution replaced the Meiji Code, it kept many nineteenth- century
clauses in effect, still disadvantaging women’s legal position within the household and influen-
cing the research purposes of historians.^18 Scholars continue to see ie as a structure that shaped
every aspect of the household, including economy, profession, marriage, education, not to
mention personal affairs.
Anatomy of premodern “family”: ie and patriarchy
Historians describe the medieval ie as a co- residential, nuclear or stem family, organized around
a heterosexual couple, with the goal of promoting its collective assets and its socially recognized
profession (kagyō), for example, “ie of warriors (tsuwamono),” “ie of [provisioning] clothes,” “ie of
kickball (kemari),” and “ie of poetry.” Ie headship (kachō), imbued with authority over others,
descended patrilineally from the father to the main son (chakushi), along with material assets and
ritual and symbolic power.^19