Iju ̄in Y., with S. Kawai
villagers for planting rice paddies was excavated from the Attame jōri site in Iwaki City, Fuku-
shima prefecture. The recipient of this order was the satotoji in the mid- ninth century. Although
women had been excluded from formal posts, such as village head, they nonetheless acted as
leaders and assumed important tasks such as organizing the labor force.^61
Nevertheless, as the ritsuryō tax collection system, based on rice field distribution and residence
unit register records, fell apart, affluent families at the local level also developed a patriarchal ie
system.^62 Male members of these affluent local families, called “tato,” took on the roles of supervis-
ing cultivation and submitting taxes. Since “tato” was an official tax collector position, names of
male representatives were registered in the records, and women were said to have been excluded.
Directions for future research
This chapter has provided a historical overview of family and gender in classical Japan, covering
from the Jōmon to the Heian periods. It has also shown that the status of women and the charac-
teristics of the classical Japanese family were different from those which developed under the
Chinese dynasties of the same time periods.
As mentioned at the beginning, scholars in Japan had long examined Japanese family history
in relation to the history of its state formation. They believed that it was important to examine
when both private property and the patriarchal system developed in Japan, as these were essential
conditions for state formation.^63 Since these scholars believed that the establishment of the patri-
archal system increased male dominance, they hypothesized that women’s status significantly
diminished when the Japanese state was formed. They thereby made no serious effort to conduct
a close examination of women’s roles.
Classical Japanese women, however, held economic and political rights enabling them to
maintain independence from male control. This situation was very different from that of women
in many other societies. Recent scholarship also supports the conclusion that classical Japan was
a bilateral society. Based on these reasons, newer scholars challenge the existing theory that
women had already been under control of patriarchs at the time of the state formation.
With the use of interdisciplinary approaches, scholars of women’s and gender history have
advanced our understanding about classical Japanese women’s status, roles, and other social
aspects that shaped their lives. For example, these scholars incorporated archaeological evidence
and scientific analysis to reveal the existence of female chieftains in Japan. Furthermore, they
have been conducting comparative research on women’s social status in various societies includ-
ing Japan, the Korean peninsula, China, and other parts of north Asia. To further understand
characteristics of family and gender in prehistoric and classical Japan, future scholarship should
continue to apply interdisciplinary approaches and incorporate comparative analyses to examine
political, economic, and labor conditions of women.
Notes
1 Takamure Itsue, Takamure Itsue zenshū 1: Bokeisei no kenkyū; Takamure Itsue, Takamure Itsue zenshū 2–3:
Shōseikon no kenkyū. Bokeisei no kenkyū was originally published in 1938, and Shōseikon no kenkyū was
originally published in 1953. See also Sekiguchi Hiroko, Nihon kodai kazokushi no kenkyū, vol. 2.
2 William H. McCullough, “Japanese Marriage Institutions in the Heian Period.” A decade and a half
later, Peter Nickerson expanded on McCullough’s work, arguing that the matrilocal/uxorilocal mar-
riage patterns favored by Heian aristocrats served to soften and diffuse patrilineally transmitted power.
While status, he contended, descended through male lines (along with surnames), incorporation of sons-
in-law into the households of their fathers- in-law effectively divided “possession” from “ownership” of
status and power: Power derived from status, which was owned by the paternal side and could only be