The New Capital Flashcards
Emishi
Main obstacle in the acquisition of more land by state. The Emishi, Ebisu or Ezo (蝦夷) constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region which was referred to as michi no oku (道の奥) in contemporary sources. The first mention of them in literature dates to AD 400,[citation needed] in which they are mentioned as “the hairy people” from the Chinese records. Some Emishi tribes resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods (7th–10th centuries AD).
State the reason for military failures in the 8th century.
The military provisions of the Taihō (大鳳) code were inadequate. The ruling class in the 8th century were predominantly civilian in outlook due to Chinese and Buddhist influence. The immediate cause was inefficient working of the system of recruiting.
Ainu
The Ainu or the Aynu (Ainu: アィヌ, Aynu, Аину; Japanese: アイヌ, Ainu; Russian: Áйны, Áĭny), also known as the Ezo (蝦夷) in the historical Japanese texts, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Japan (Hokkaidō and formerly North-Eastern Honshū) and Russia (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Khabarovsk Krai and the Kamchatka Peninsula).
State reasons for the arise of class of private warriors in the 8th century.
Private domains had developed in size and promoted local separation from government. There was disorder and violence. Farmers began to form their own defense and attach themselves to powerful landlords. Some wealthier magnates kept their own soldiery.
Azumabito
“Men of the East” praised in early Japanese literature. Men recruited before the reform period for expeditions against Korea. They were well practiced in warfare against aborigines. Much more skilled than actual government forces.
Sakanouye Tamuro Maro
Deputy to Seito Taishi. Celebrated in Japanese history as paragon of military virtues. Was able to push the frontier north against the “eastern barabarians.” Was first to be given title of Sei-i Taishōgun (征夷大将軍, or “barbarian-subduing Generalissimo.”
This same Tamuramaro is remembered in Aomori’s annual Nebuta Matsuri which feature a number of gigantic, specially-constructed, illuminated paper floats. These great lantern-structures are colorfully painted with mythical figures; and teams of men carry them through the streets as crowds shout encouragement. This early ninth century military leader is commemorated in this way because he is said to have ordered huge illuminated lanterns to be placed at the top of hills; and when the curious Emishi approached these bright lights to investigate, they were captured and subdued by Tamuramaro’s men.
Loyal to Emperor Saga, he quickly defeated the Heizei rebels during the Kusuko Incident in 810.
Seito Taishi
Literally means “great general who subdues the eastern barbarians.” Appointed in 791 AD.
Sei-i Taishōgun
“Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians”, a high military title from the early Heian period in the 8th and 9th centuries. Was given to military commanders during the early Heian period for the duration of military campaigns against the Emishi, who resisted the governance of the Kyoto-based imperial court.
Shogun
The term shogun (将軍, lit. “army commander”) is the abbreviation of the historical title Sei-i Taishōgun (征夷大将軍, lit. “Great general appeaser of the barbarians”).
Why were the Ainu able to hold out for more than twenty years against large campaigns directed towards them?
There are several factors. [1] stubborn character, [2] neutrality and positive assistance from pioneer settlers who resented the intrusion of the central government into the eastern border country where they free from taxation and had other liberties.
Describe the conflict between rural and metropolitan interests that began in the 8th century and continued for three hundred years.
The expenditure of the central government (military, palaces, public works, roads, bridges) meant more levied taxes. The great landowners were determined to evade these new taxes. It was continuous struggle between administration and provisional notables for the effective control of agricultural land.
The real source of power in Japanese life was the land. The apparatus of government in the capital city was an artificial growth. The stream of edicts and rules from the metropolis did not succeed in changing the character of the agrarian society. The law had to be adjusted to society and not the society to the law.
Describe the reason for the failure of the land laws of the Taihō reform (701 AD).
The elaborate, logical, symmetrical system of government borrowed from China was unsuited to the conditions in Japan. Ancient habits and the rice culture made the Chinese regulations unworkable in practice. The borrowed procedures were too cumbersome to adapt; requiring copious amounts of paperwork, examinations, reporting, etc.
Handen-Shūju system
One of the major pillars of the Ritsuryō was the introduction of the Handen-Shūju (班田収受制) system, similar to the equal-field system in China. This regulated land ownership. Based on the registration, each citizen over 6 was entitled to a “distributed field”, subject to taxation (approx. 3% of crops). The area of each field was 2 tan (段) for men and two-thirds of this amount for women. The field was returned to the country at death. Land belonging to shrines and temples was exempt from taxation. Collection and redistribution of land took place every 6 years.
Eventually collapsed. An edict in 902 AD stated it had been in disuse for a long time (in some places since 850) and ordered it resumed.
Ritsuryō
Ritsuryō (律令) is the historical law system based on the philosophies of Confucianism and Chinese Legalism in Japan. It defines both a criminal code (律, Ritsu) and an administrative code (令, Ryō).
During the late Asuka period (late 6th century – 710) and Nara period (710–794), the Imperial Court in Kyoto, trying to replicate China’s rigorous political system from the Tang dynasty, created and enforced some collections of Ritsuryō.
In 645, the Taika (or Taihō) reforms were the first signs of implementation of the system.
Ukarebito
Term used to denote fugitives had left the service of their lords. Many had gone to work on private estates after leasing or selling their plots of land.
Also known as rōnin which literally means “wave man”. It is an idiomatic expression for “vagrant” or “wandering man”, someone who is without a home. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master’s land. It then came to be used for a samurai who had no master. (Hence, the term “wave man” illustrating one who is socially adrift).
Many reported as absconded or dead had in fact taken refuge in neighboring manors who could not be overpowered by provincial authorities.
Describe the reason for the collapse of the Handen-Shūju system.
The allotment system was not appropriate for rice land in a country where the cultivator was deeply attached to to the small plot which he cultivated regarded as his own. Provincial governments usually favored local sentiment before any legal claims. heavy burden of tax, forced labor, and military service combined to drive the holders to either sell or lease their plots or simply abscond and seek livelihood elsewhere.
List some of the abuses of the capital nobles in the 8th century Japan.
[1] the falsification of tax records, [2] the misappropriation of interest collected paid by farmers, [3] and the seizure of grain stocks held in reserve against short stocks.
Kageyushi
A result of rampant illegal behavior of local administrators. The law required a newly appointed governor be given a release or clearance to his predecessor.
Established at the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), to audit the accounts of local administrators who were retiring from office. Instituted to compensate for weaknesses in the earlier system of starting and terminating official appointments, the kageyushi in the 9th century became the single, if only partially effective, means of extending the power of the central government to the provinces. However, thereafter its control declined, along with that of central authority during the rest of the period.
Shōen
From about the 8th to the late 15th century, any of the private, tax-free, often autonomous estates or manors whose rise undermined the political and economic power of the emperor and contributed to the growth of powerful local clans. The estates developed from land tracts assigned to officially sanctioned Shintō shrines or Buddhist temples or granted by the emperor as gifts to the imperial family, friends, or officials. As these estates grew, they became independent of the civil administrative system and contributed to the rise of a local military class.
With the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, or military dictatorship, in 1192, centrally appointed stewards weakened the power of these local landlords. The shōen system passed out of existence around the middle of the 15th century, when villages became self-governing units, owing loyalty to a feudal lord, or daimyo, who subdivided the area into fiefs and collected a fixed tax.
Kampuka or Kanpaku
The Kanpaku (関白) was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the Emperor, but was the title of both first secretary and regent who assists an adult Emperor. During a certain period in the Heian period, they were the effective rulers of Japan.
One of the many extra-legal offices created out of the Japanese mind’s practical necessity in response to the impractical and unbending nature of Chinese code.
Sesshō and Kanpaku
In Japan, Sesshō (摂政) was a title given to a regent who was named to act on behalf of either a child Emperor before his coming of age, or an empress regnant. The Kanpaku (関白) was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the Emperor, but was the title of both first secretary and regent who assists an adult Emperor. The Kanpaku (関白) was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the Emperor, but was the title of both first secretary and regent who assists an adult Emperor. During a certain period in the Heian period, they were the effective rulers of Japan. There was little, if any, effective difference between the two titles, and several individuals merely changed titles as child Emperors grew to adulthood, or adult Emperors retired or died and were replaced by child Emperors. The two titles were collectively known as Sekkan (摂関), and the families that exclusively held the titles were called Sekkan-ke or Sekkan family. After the Heian period, shogunates took over the power.
Fujiwara no Mototsune
Mototsune invented the position of kampaku regent for himself in order to remain in power even after an emperor reached maturity. This innovation allowed the Fujiwara clan to tighten its grip on power right throughout an emperor’s reign. The office soon became hereditary in the Fujiwara family.
Fujiwara no Mototsune (藤原 基経, 836 – February 25, 891), also known as Horikawa Daijin (堀川大臣), was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician of the early Heian period.[1]
He was born the third son of Fujiwara no Nagara, but was adopted by his powerful uncle Fujiwara no Yoshifusa, who had no sons. Mototsune followed in Yoshifusa’s footsteps, holding power in the court in the position of regent for four successive emperors.
Kurōdo-dokoro
The Kurōdo-dokoro (蔵人所), also read as Kurando-dokoro and often translated as the Chamberlain’s office, was an organ of the imperial Japanese government established in 810 by Emperor Saga. It was set up outside of the statutory government structure described in the ritsuryō code and was placed directly under the emperor’s authority. Its original responsibility was to take care of the emperor’s archives and imperial documents as well as to attend to various personal needs of the sovereign. However, over the course of the 9th century, the office’s role and responsibilities expanded considerably, and by the end of the 9th century it had become a clear control point within the government. Through it the emperor was, for a while, able to exercise his direct influence over the bureaucracy. At the same time the emperor’s conduct of official business through the Chamberlain’s usurped much of the power and functions of the statutory Council of State (太政官, daijō-kan).
Kebiishi
Kebiishi, body of police commissioners who constituted the only effective military force during Japan’s Heian period (AD 794–1185). The Kebiishi was the backbone of the administration during this time, and its decline about 1000 marked the beginning of the disintegration of central control over the outlying areas of the country.
In some provinces, the Kebiishi are said to have taken excessive powers, but rural disorder may had called from such drastic measures.