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| [a] Built RF |
For the next dozen or so posts, I have been asked to write about Heian Japan (794-1185). It is one of the most fascinating periods in world history, so I trust that the topics will "connect" for readers of the first ten "Asian Miscellany" posts (almost all of the topics—children, family, urban/rural—are the same). They work well for people interested in a brief introduction to Heian Japan or for people interested in comparative issues. Although an introduction to the Heian period in Japan would require its own introduction, I trust that a reading of these "Heian Japan posts (11-20 in Asian Miscellany) will encourage a few of you to read a bit of the literature of the period.
Click here for other posts in the Heian Japan mini-series:
City-Country Children Food-Drink Entertainment Sports-Games
Education Family Life Work-Labor Language-Literature Housing-Shelter
Narratives of leisure dominate the literature of the Heian period. The reader of such narratives often comes to the conclusion that the Heian elite had too much time on its hands. In the narrow sense, this is doubtless true. There are so many tales of court games, displays of fashion, and conspicuous leisure that their descriptions account for quite literally thousands of pages of Heian writing. The careful student of literature, society, and economy, however, will quickly be able to see a picture of work in Heian Japan that is as distinctive as it is laborious. The remaining, albeit far fewer, texts that speak to labor beyond the life of court give us an even deeper picture of what it was to work in Heian Japan.
Rural Work
Surrounding the capital city like revolving planets were the rural estates (shōen) that supported the refined court life in the capital and would ultimately uproot that very lifestyle. They covered all of the territory in central Japan (the main island of Hōnshū), as well as large swaths of the west and east, at least as far as present-day Tokyo. Although regarded by inhabitants of the capital as boorish and hopelessly countrified, these areas could be said to contain the very approach to labor that over the centuries would reshape the Japanese work ethic.
The rural estates required farm labor, farm labor supervision, the manufacture of agricultural implements, and many other layers of production and leadership. In time, the estates would require guarding, which led to the creation of entire protective forces that would be the foundation for the samurai culture of future generations. Nowhere is this budding rural work ethic better seen than in a fragment of text from the early Heian period. It shows the devotion of the tato to the lands on which he is employed, as well as the sense of detail he needed to have about everything from field laborers (he is clearly a kind of “foreman”) to his superiors.
The husband of the third daughter is a man by the name of Tanaka Hōeki. He is
diligent in his farming occupation and entertains no other ambition. He owns
several chō of land, and is called the daimyō-tato. He provides his own spades
and hoes to cultivate the rich and poor fields, and prepares ahead for dry seasons.
He repairs his own domestic-style and Chinese-style plows. He is skillful in his
handling of workers…In spring he wastes not a single grain of seed, but in the fall
he receives ten-thousandfold in return. From the time he beings planting in the
spring to the time he completes his harvest in the fall, he commits not a single
faulty step...[1]
Urban Work
Rural Work
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| [b] Work RF |
The rural estates required farm labor, farm labor supervision, the manufacture of agricultural implements, and many other layers of production and leadership. In time, the estates would require guarding, which led to the creation of entire protective forces that would be the foundation for the samurai culture of future generations. Nowhere is this budding rural work ethic better seen than in a fragment of text from the early Heian period. It shows the devotion of the tato to the lands on which he is employed, as well as the sense of detail he needed to have about everything from field laborers (he is clearly a kind of “foreman”) to his superiors.
The husband of the third daughter is a man by the name of Tanaka Hōeki. He is
diligent in his farming occupation and entertains no other ambition. He owns
several chō of land, and is called the daimyō-tato. He provides his own spades
and hoes to cultivate the rich and poor fields, and prepares ahead for dry seasons.
He repairs his own domestic-style and Chinese-style plows. He is skillful in his
handling of workers…In spring he wastes not a single grain of seed, but in the fall
he receives ten-thousandfold in return. From the time he beings planting in the
spring to the time he completes his harvest in the fall, he commits not a single
faulty step...[1]
Urban Work
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| [c] Modern tato RF |
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| [d] Kyoto carrying (today) RF |
Occasionally, a cook or palanquin carrier appears in a Heian narrative. Our best example of the vast gulf between rural and urban work, however, might best be seen in a short historical document from the first century of Heian rule. Already, the provincial economic changes were altering society. It can be seen clearly in a document forbidding Heian nobility from leaving the capital to become local samurai—the protectors of landed estates.
Lately, those people whose domiciles are in the capital city [of Heian], and who are
the children and heirs of princes and of important court officials, reside outside the
capital region. Some intermarry [with people from outer provinces] and others
engage in agriculture or commerce, and are no different from the people in the
provinces…If they persist in their disobedience and do not mend their ways,
regardless of any connections they might have, they must be banished to distant
places.[2]
That moving to the countryside to find work in agriculture (or commerce) would lead to serious penalty should give readers a perspective on how great the gulf was between urban and rural culture.
Court Work
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| [e] Li'l samurai RF |
On top of it all, there were the emperors themselves, with their own very challenging kinds of work. By the time that the Fujiwara family had taken control of the political life of Japan, it was in their best interest to make sure that emperor’s “ruled” only until early adulthood. A more mature emperor could learn the nuts-and-bolts of court politics well enough to challenge his handlers, and a few did, giving pause to the Fujiwara controllers and new ideas to the imperial family.
The ideal model from the perspective of the “handlers” was to exhaust a young emperor in court ritual (often many different ceremonies every day, requiring painstaking changes of clothing and memorization of ritual texts) before giving way to another emperor who was also related to the “handler” family. In time, the former emperors—many of whom were alive at any one time—gained the upper hand, but not before the entire work and political structure began to crumble, and power moved to the provinces.
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If we only think of “work” as manual labor, we cannot begin to get a full picture of life in Heian Japan. To be sure, manual labor made up the vast bulk of daily life both within the capital cities and throughout the villages and small cities on the rest of the islands. Work exists on many levels, though, and political work figures prominently in Heian life. When we begin to think about the many layers of labor, our picture of Heian society becomes ever richer and more complex.Click here for other posts in the Heian Japan mini-series:
City-Country Children Food-Drink Entertainment Sports-Games
Education Family Life Work-Labor Language-Literature Housing-Shelter
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| [f] Fighting works RF |
[1] David Lu, Japan: A Documentary History (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), 100.
[2] Lu, 103.
Bibliography
Lu, David. Japan: A Documentary History. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.
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