tax quotas for the provinces, and delegate the power of tax collection to provincial officials. In the actual execution of the system, however, greedy officials at each level would collect more than the set quota and pocket the difference. This put the cultivators at the mercy of the grasping officials. The system was made worse when the emperor granted the imperial family, aristocrats, and monasteries exemption from taxes and government jurisdiction. Local lords saw a loophole in the exemptions. They would formally sign the ownership of their land over to a privileged individual in the royal court, and then nominally pay a small rent for the right to use the same piece of land, and thus be exempted from taxes and government control. Small cultivators followed suit; they gave up title of ownership to tax‐exempt local lords and powerful institutions, thus freeing themselves from the arbitrary control of local government. But the system had unintended consequences: (1) It created a class of absentee landowners, who would hire local “stewards” to manage their lands; and (2) this new arrangement reduced large numbers of free peasants to serfdom.
Large landholders were essentially tax‐exempt under this system. Powerful men at the royal court became titleholders of lands they did not honestly own, manage, or cultivate, but they benefitted from it by collecting small but steady payments in rent. The peasants, who were the original owners and cultivators of the land, were now tenants or serfs—but even they were glad to be beyond the reach of the government officials. The ultimate loser was the emperor and government, for they had lost control of a good portion of their tax base.
This intricate system of land ownership and taxation is a good example of the unique multilayered structures of Japanese society: The titleholder of the land was neither the true owner nor the cultivator, and the true owner and cultivator wasn’t the titleholder.
The emperor also decided that the Chinese system of a recruited army was too expensive and inefficient. So he organized locally recruited mounted warriors, whose function was to collect taxes and maintain local law and order. These were men of means, for only they could afford to undergo the long years of training and purchase their horses, armor, and weapons. They soon became an elite class of professional warriors or bushi, also called samurai from the Japanese verb saburai, “to serve.” These warriors served their higher, liege lord and ultimately, in theory, the emperor. Local government officials, stewards, and an occasional aristocrat would follow the emperor’s example and hire their own samurai. A strong personal bond existed between a local lord and his samurai, for the lord gave his samurai land or a salary, and a samurai in return pledged his loyalty to the lord.
The samurai developed a code of conduct, called bushido or the “way of the warrior.” It is an amalgam of traditional Japanese warrior ethic, Chinese Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism. It emphasizes discipline, austerity, loyalty, and self‐sacrifice. The cherry blossom came to symbolize the samurai, for a parallel was seen between the cherry blossom in its vitality and fiery burst of color in springtime and the brief and violent life of a samurai. A true samurai accepted a valiant life and an early death as the honorable norm.
The aristocratic Fujiwara family lent their name to an exquisite and sophisticated Fujiwara culture that dominated Japan’s high society in the Heian period. Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1028) dominated the royal court for 30 years, as the father of four empresses, the grandfather of three emperors, and the uncle of two emperors. He was wealthy and powerful, and he was learned in history, poetry, literature, music, and Buddhism. These qualities made him the embodiment of Fujiwara culture, in which birth, rank, and breeding were everything, and the focus was on the pleasures of leisure and beauty.
The Tale of Genji (ca. 1010) is a long novel about life in Heian Japan. It is variously called the world’s first modern novel, the first psychological novel, or a historical novel. Its author, Murasaki Shikibu, was born to a minor noble Fujiwara family, and her father served in the imperial court as a scholar‐official. Recognizing her talents, her erudite father decided to teach her classical Chinese literature and poetry and kanji, all of which were traditionally reserved for the education of men. She grew up to become a lady‐in‐waiting to Empress Shoshi, and had a front seat to observe Fujiwara’s culture up‐close.
The novel’s central character, Genji, is a handsome imperial officer, and the plot follows him on his many romantic ventures. A love child of his later becomes emperor, and appoints him to high office. But when his beloved lady companion, also named Murasaki, dies, he contemplates the fleeting and illusory nature of life.
While the novel centers on Genji’s life, it also reaches out to paint a broad canvas of the society surrounding him, which makes the novel a rich tapestry of the times.
The royal family relocated to Heian (modern Kyoto) after residing in Nara for less than a hundred years. The move coincided with the decline and fall of China’s Tang Dynasty, and Japan stopped sending missions to China to learn Chinese ways. Japan had arrived at a turning point: It would end its wholesale borrowing from China, and launch out on its own. But the preceding period of cultural borrowing would prove invaluable to its future development.
The aristocratic Fujiwara family ruled Japan during the Heian period. They gained control over the throne without any violent and abrupt coup d’état, but by marrying their daughters to the emperors generation after generation. This often made a Fujiwara the grandfather and regent of a very young emperor. Thus, the Fujiwara aristocrats would rule, while the emperor would continue to reign, but his time and energy would all be consumed by purely ceremonial functions. To escape manipulation by the Fujiwara family, he might abdicate the throne to his son, take Buddhist vows, and try to influence events from behind the scenes. This system was called “cloistered politics.” By the eleventh century, the emperor had joined other aristocratic families as a contender for wealth and power. Layer piled upon layer, Japan’s political structure had become just as convoluted as its land and tax systems.
The “Age of the Shogun” (Twelfth–Sixteenth Centuries)
The Heian government had become dysfunctional by the twelfth century as the great aristocratic families and local lords fought fiercely for power. Minamoto Yoritomo emerged victoriously out of the ensuing civil wars. He was recognized as the overlord of all samurai because of his military prowess, and the emperor bestowed on him the title of shogun, meaning “barbarian‐subduing‐generalissimo” or “general‐in‐chief.” He set up a bakufu (literally a “tent government,” i.e., military government) at Kamakura, and from there he ruled the entire country. He ruled over a semicentralized feudal society: He had the power to confirm the hereditary land rights of a daimyo, “great name” or great lord. The daimyo enjoyed autonomy within his own domains or han, but swore his loyalty to the shogun, and paid taxes and provided military service to him. Nominally, the emperor had granted the shogun his title, and appointed him to rule as the emperor’s deputy. In fact, the emperor had been reduced to a figurehead, conducting endless ceremonial functions in Heian, away from the power center at Kamakura. Thus began the “Age of the Shogun.”
The emperor reigned, the shogun ruled, and the local lords enjoyed autonomy in their own domains. This basic government structure would dominate Japan, with some exceptions, until the Meiji Restoration in the mid‐nineteenth century. It was an extremely intricate system that the Joei law code of 1232 attempted to clarify and explain. But the Hojo Regency during the late thirteenth and much of the fourteenth centuries complicated political relationships across Japan. Just as the Fujiwara family co‐opted imperial power during the Heian period, so too a power behind the shogun soon emerged. The Minamoto Shogun’s family soon lost power to the Hojo family, who became the real power during the Minamoto Shogunate. Hojo daughters married into the Minamoto family and pushed the shogun’s family aside to join the emperor as a figurehead. Another layer of complexity was added to the already bewilderingly complex power structure.
The tradition of aristocratic cultural refinement of the Heian era was preserved in the Kamakura era of shoguns. The samurai class adopted the Zen sect of Buddhism with its emphasis on restraint and austerity, and the samurai’s Zen culture would replace the aristocratic culture of refinement over time. Japanese Zen gardens and minimalist ink paintings are good expressions of the Zen aesthetic.