LAW AND SOCIETY MEDIEVAL JAPAN.
Dr. Andrew Goble
361 McKenzie
346-4800
Office Hours: MW 0900-1000.
[email protected].
Department of History.
University of Oregon.
HIST 407/507, Fall 2011.
T 1500-1750, 42 LIB.
CRN 17072/17073.
General
In this seminar we will explore aspects of the content and role of law in different
eras in the medieval and early modern eras (roughly 1200-1850). During this time the
warrior class was the single most dominant ruling group. While warriors came into
prominence as a result of armed activity, and while the period from the 1330s to 1600
was characterized like no other by the phenomenon of warfare and long-term violence,
warriors also produced a legal culture which has had a profound influence on the
development of Japanese society.
In this class we will look at a number of different historical periods, and for each
one we will examine some topic areas which were of great legal and jurisdictional
concern. Those areas of concern will also tell us a great deal about social conditions and
social concerns, which in turn helped define what issues would be of legal concern.
We will look at four general areas. We will start in the 1200s, with the
establishment of the first warrior government and the promulgation of the foundational
warrior law code, the Jōei Formulary; then we will look at issues of commerce and law
prompted by the emergence of a monetized commercial economy from the 1300; then
we will look at the phenomenon of domain law codes that became ubiquitous during
the civil war of the 1500s; and we will finish with a survey of some aspects of crime and
punishment to which the early modern Tokugawa regime gave attention.
Requirements
Active participation in class discussion; serving as a "discussion leader" at least
twice (this is normally done in conjunction with one to three others, rather than being a
solo effort). Discussion leaders collectively cover the readings for the week; the rest of the class
covers a portion of them (to be designated later).
A term paper of around 4500-5500 words. Graduate Students will additionally
submit a 3-4 page book review. The term paper is due no later than November 29.
Texts and readings.
Books (or books in which articles appear) noted on the Reading Schedule (see
below) are on course reserve in the Knight Library. Journal articles, and some items
from edited collections, will be available on Blackboard.
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For some useful historical background reading you might usefully consult such
works as P. Souyri, The World Turned Upside Down; the relevant chapters of J.W. Hall,
Japan From Prehistory to Modern Times; or H.P.Varley, Japanese Culture. The Cambridge
History of Japan, for which volumes 3 and 4 are relevant for this course, are available in
electronic form through the Knight Library catalog. You might find it generally useful
to browse through such journals as Monumenta Nipponica, Harvard Journal of Asiatic
Studies, or Journal of Japanese Studies, all of which are also available online through the
Knight Library catalog.
DISCUSSION SCHEDULE
Week 1 (9/27/11): Course Introduction and Overview of Period.
Week 2 (10/04/11): Kamakura Legal System.
Week 3 (10/11/11): Family, Inheritance, and Property in Kamakura.
Week 4 (10/18/11): Commerce, Money, and Law in the Muromachi Era..
Week 5 (10/25/11): Sixteenth Century Civil War Era: Domain Law.
Week 6 (11/01/11): Sixteenth Century Civil War Era: Kyoto.
Week 7 (11/08/11): Tokugawa Social Status and Law.
Week 8 (11/15/11): Tokugawa Crime and Punishment.
Week 9 (11/22/11): Individual projects.
Week 10 (11/29/11): Paper due.
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READING SCHEDULE
Week 1 (9/27/11): Course Introduction, Overview of Time Frame.
Week 2 (10/04/11): Kamakura Legal System
Mass, J.P. The Development of Kamakura Rule.
“Institutes of Judicature,” in J. C. Hall, Japanese Feudal Law, pp. 1-44.
Steenstrup, C. “The Legal System of Japan at the End of the Kamakura Period
from the Litigant’s Point of View.” In B. McKnight ed., Law and the State in Traditional
East Asia, pp. 73-110.
Steenstrup, C. “Sata Mirensho, A Fourteenth Century Legal Primer.” Monumenta
Nipponica, 35 (Winter, 1980), pp. 405-435.
Week 3 (10/11/11): Family, Inheritance, and Property in Kamakura.
Mass, J.P. Lordship and Inheritance in Medieval Japan.
Mass, J.P. The Development of Kamakura Rule.
Tonomura, H. “Women and Inheritance in Japan’s Early Warrior Society”
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 32 (1990), pp. 592-623.
Atkins, P. “Nijō v. Reizei: Land Rights, Litigation, and Literary Authority in
Medieval Japan.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 66.2 (2006), pp. 495-529.
Moon, Hyungsub. “The Matsura Pirate-Warriors of Northwestern Kyushu in the
Kamakura Age.” In Berger et al eds., Currents in Medieval Japanese History, pp. 365-401.
Gouge, K. “Alpine Samurai: The Ichikawa and Warrior Family Dynamics in
Early Medieval Japan.” MA Thesis, University of Oregon, 2009.
Steenstrup, C. “The Gokurakuji Letter.” Monumenta Nipponica, 32.1 (Spring 1977),
pp. 1-34.
Week 4 (10/18/11): Commerce, Money, and Law in the Muromachi Era.
Segal, E. Coins, Trade and the State.
“The Ashikaga Code.” In Hall, J. C., Japanese Feudal Law, pp. 49-71.
Grossberg, K. and Kanamoto, N. The Laws of the Muromachi Bakufu.
Gay, S. The Moneylenders of Late Medieval Kyoto.
Segal, E. “Awash With Coins: The Spread of Money in Early Medieval Japan.” In
Berger et al eds., Currents in Medieval Japanese History, pp. 333-364.
Brown, D. “The Japanese Tokusei of 1297.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12
(1949), pp. 188-206.
Yamamura, K. “The Growth of Commerce in Medieval Japan.” In The Cambridge
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History of Japan, Vol. 3, Medieval Japan, pp. 344-393.
Week 5 (10/25/11): Sixteenth Century Civil War Era: Domain Law
Ryavec, C. Political Jurisdiction in the Sengoku Daimyo Domain: Japan, 1477-1573.
“Imagawa House Law.” In Ryavec, C. Political Jurisdiction in the Sengoku Daimyo
Domain, Appendix V, pp. 211-233.
“Kōshū Hatto” [Takeda House Law]. In Ryavec, C. Political Jurisdiction in the
Sengoku Daimyo Domain, Appendix V, pp. 234-248.
Kanda, J. Jinkaishū.
Jansen, M. “Tosa in the Sixteenth Century: The 100 Article Code of Chōsokabe
Motochika.” In Hall, J.W. and Jansen, M. Studies in the Institutional History of Early
Modern Japan, pp. 89-113.
Week 6 (511/01/11): Sixteenth Century Civil War Era: Kyoto.
Tite, D. Law and Status in Early Tokugawa Kyoto.
Berry, M. E. “Restoring the Past: The Documents of Hideyoshi’s Magistrate.”
HJAS, 43.1 (1983), pp. 57-95.
Berry, M. E. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto.
Wakita Osamu. “The Emergence of the State in Sixteenth Century Japan.” Journal
of Japanese Studies, 8.2 (1982), pp. 343-367.
Week 7 ((11/08/11): Tokugawa Social Status and Law.
Berry, M.E. “Public Peace and Private Attachment: The Goals and Conduct of
Power in Early Modern Japan.” Journal of Japanese Studies, 12.2 (1986), p. 237-271.
Hall, J.W. “Rule by Status.” Journal of Japanese Studies, 1.1 (1974), pp. 39-49.
Henderson, D. F. “The Evolution of Tokugawa Law.” In Hall, J.W. and Jansen,
M. Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan, pp. 203-229.
Henderson, D.F. “Tokugawa Village Contracts.” Journal of Japanese Studies, 1.1
(1974), pp. 51-90.
Henderson, D. F. Village “Contracts” in Tokugawa Japan.
Sakai, R. M. The Status System and Social Organization of Satsuma.
Week 8 (11/15/11): Tokugawa Crime and Punishment.
“Edict in 100 Articles.” In J. C. Hall, Japanese Feudal Law, pp. 145-266.
Botsman, D. Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan.
Wright, D. E. “Female Crime and State Punishment in Early Modern Japan.”
Journal of Women’s History, 16.3 (2004), pp. 10-29.
Stanley, A. “Adultery, Punishment, and Reconciliation in Tokugawa Japan.”
Journal of Japanese Studies, 33.2 (2007); pp. 309-335.
Tonomura, H. “Sexual Violence Against Women: Legal and Extralegal Treatment
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in Pre-modern Warrior Societies.” In Tonomura, H, Anne Walthall, and Wakita Haruko
eds. Women and Class in Japanese History, pp. 135-152.
Week 9 (11/22/11): Individual projects.
Week 10 (11/29/11): Pizza 
Some additional materials which may be of interest.
Asakawa, K. The Documents of Iriki.
Asao Naohiro. “The Sixteenth Century Reunification.” Cambridge History of Japan,
Vol. 4, Early Modern, pp. 40-95.
Gay, S.“The Lamp Oil Merchants of Iwashimizu Shrine.” Monumenta Nipponica,
64:1 (2009), pp. 1-51.
Wigmore, J. H. Law and Justice in Tokugawa Japan: materials for the history of
Japanese law and justice under the Tokugawa Shogunate 1603-1867. [18 volumes].
Shapinsky, P. “Predators, Protectors, and Purveyors: Pirates and Commerce in
Late Medieval Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica, 64:2 (2009), pp. 273-313.
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