Sakaue Y., with K.L. Reeves
registering families on a national level. One year later the ryō regulations of the Ōmi code were
enacted, providing a greater degree of organization to Japan’s central bureaucracy.
Tenji’s death in 671 led to the outbreak of civil war between his son, Prince Ōtomo, and his
younger brother, Prince Ōama. Ōama’s victory in this conflict, known as the Jinshin War, and
his subsequent enthronement as Emperor Tenmu (r. 672–686), ushered in the third wave of
ritsuryō development, under Tenmu and his consort and successor, Empress Jitō (645–702,
r. 686–697). The ryō regulations of the Kiyomihara code were enacted and distributed to the
various offices in 689, and the Kōin Register (Kōin nenjaku) was produced the following year,
initiating the practice of compiling national household registers, upon which the distribution of
farm land was to be based, every six years. The Kiyomihara codes also instituted the practice of
promoting courtiers to higher official ranks every six years.
Both the ryō and the ritsu regulations enshrined within the Taihō legal code (enacted in 701
and 702 respectively) were formulated based on the Yonghui ling regulations and Yongkui lü,
albeit adapted in accordance with the unique experiences and national sociopolitical environ-
ment of Japan. This last development marks the solid establishment of the Japanese ritsuryō
state.^8
This Taihō code was followed half a century later by the Yōrō code—the first version of the
ritsuryō that survives to the present—which took inspiration from the first of Emperor Xuan-
zong’s three Kaiyuan era ling regulations (compiled in 715). Fujiwara Fuhito (659–720) played a
leading role in the initial formation of the Yōrō code, although he passed away before its comple-
tion. Nearly three decades after Fuhito’s death, in 757, this Yōrō legal code was at last promul-
gated, and would remain in effect until its abolition in early modern times.^9
Early scholarship on the formation of the ritsuryo ̄ state
A great deal of research has been done regarding both the compilation and enactment of the
various Japanese ritsuryō codes. Noteworthy prewar Japanese scholars in this field include Nakada
Kaoru (1877–1967) and Takikawa Masajirō (1897–1992). Nakada pioneered comparative study
of Chinese and Japanese ritsuryō codes, and examined documents stored in the Nara- period
Shōsōin archive, proving conclusively that the Yōrō legal codes, although compiled in 718, were
not actually enacted until the year 757; while Takikawa constructed a general history of Japanese
ryō regulations, beginning with the Ōmi ryō, followed by the Kiyomihara ryō, the Taihō ryō, and
concluding with the Yōrō ryō. Takikawa also worked on reconstructing the Taihō ryō, as well as
providing an overview of the original political agenda behind the compilation of the Yōrō ryō.^10
Mention must also be made here of Sakamoto Tarō, who analyzed developments between the era
of Shōtoku Taishi and the enactment of the Taihō ritsuryō, looking closely at the advance of cen-
tralized authority and ritsuryō state formation.^11
Post- war scholarship may be said to have begun with Inoue Mitsusada (1917–1983) and the
debate inspired as a result of his questions regarding the ancient system of administrative divisions
of land (gun and hyō).^12 This debate led, among other things, to an enthusiastic criticism of historical
records pertaining to the Taika Reform edicts. While the principal regulations of these edicts, as
preserved in Nihon shoki, are still recognized as being more- or-less faithful representations of the
original text of 646, it is now agreed that the subordinate clauses (known as hanjō) are later embel-
lishments taken from the Taihō ryō, and were not included in the original edicts.^13 Moreover, it has
since become clear that what had been known in the pre- Taika era as provinces (kuni) overseen by
hereditarily appointed provincial administrators (kuni no miyatsuko) were, around the year 649,
during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku (597–654, r. 645–654), divided into smaller administrative
units, known as kohori or hyō, governed by officials newly appointed by the central government.^14