The Ancien Régime

Abstract

Japanese history in the centuries predating the emergence of the modern era — the second half of the nineteenth century — can largely be written in terms of opposing centrifugal and centripetal forces. The ritsu-ryo system, referred to in the preceding chapter, had witnessed a high degree of political, administrative, military and economic centralisation. In the latter half of the Heian period, however, strong centrifugal forces asserted themselves with both political and military power, along with a degree of economic autonomy, devolving away from the centre, that is, the imperial court of Kyoto. In this process of transition and especially in the course of the twelfth century a series of wars — for example, the Hogen (1156) and Heiji (1159–60) insurrections — broke out, further eroding imperial power; indeed the most significant result was the transfer of administrative power from the court nobles to the military chiefs. In this manner was feudalism brought about in Japan. The imperial court was gradually stripped of land and people. Under the feudal system, the lord exercised exclusive rights of tenure and taxation over the areas under his jurisdiction and his retainers owed allegiance to him, not to the tenno. In the evolution of Japanese feudalism, increasing stress was placed on the lord-vassal relationship; that which arose as the result of a military arrangement would, especially during the Edo period, receive ideological sanctification.