The Heian Court and Genpei Warriors: Survival of the Fittest Seized Through Power and Lineage

2024/07/10

My original research theme was to clarify the essence of the power of the "Muromachi-dono"—the unified authority who controlled the Imperial Court while serving as the Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate—through the analysis of rituals. That research could not progress without answering the question: "How did the rituals of the Kamakura Shogunate prepare the rituals of the Muromachi Shogunate?" This question boiled down to: "How did the court rituals performed at the Imperial Court and the rituals of local samurai society outside the court prepare the rituals of the Kamakura Shogunate?" and converged on the issue of "Whether samurai were born in the capital's Imperial Court or in the provinces outside it." The result of my own thinking on this issue was my previous book, "Unraveling the Origins of the Samurai: The Hybrid Ancient Period and the Emergent Middle Ages" (Chikuma Shinsho, 2018).

However, in my previous book, I ended the story at the moment of the samurai's establishment (around the time of Taira no Masakado's Rebellion). Compared to the time of the Kamakura Shogunate's establishment two and a half centuries later, there is still a significant gap. This current book is a sequel written to fill that void. Furthermore, I am preparing another volume focusing on those who did not reach the pinnacle of the samurai class, which will bring my theory on the establishment of the samurai to a close.

However, Imperial Court culture flowed into parts of samurai culture, and Imperial Court culture itself contained a mix of Japan's unique traditional elements and elements of foreign origin. In particular, the ideology of "Li" (ritual/decorum) rooted in Confucianism entered from China. The ideology of "Li" itself has historical stages, and information on which stage was introduced to Japan, when, by whom, and with what motivation is essential for clarifying Japanese ritual culture.

I must trace the "Path of Li" back to its origins, following the development of the "Li" ideology in ancient China chronologically and tracking how it passed through the Korean Peninsula. To do this, I must reconstruct the geography of the ancient Korean Peninsula, for which no established theory exists (such as the locations of the four commanderies directly ruled by the Han Dynasty, and the locations of the territories and capitals of Goguryeo and Baekje). After establishing a chronologically traceable path for the "Path of Li"—from ancient China to the ancient Korean Peninsula, then to the ancient Japanese Imperial Court, and finally to the Kamakura Shogunate—I want to discuss the rituals of the "Muromachi-dono" and the society, culture, and power surrounding them.

This book represents the point where I currently stand within that long-term plan. It is a race against time, but I believe it is a project of just the right scale for my life's work.

The Heian Court and Genpei Warriors: Survival of the Fittest Seized Through Power and Lineage

Yuichiro Momosaki

Chikuma Shinsho

368 pages, 1,320 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time of publication.