1999 June 26 conference
Room 207
1. Warriors and Authority in
Kamakura Japan
Chair: Ethan Segal,
Stanford University. Discussant: Robert Borgen, University of California,
Davis (visiting professor, Meiji Gakuin University).
Panel Abstract:
The establishment of the Kamakura government following the Gempei War has often been
treated as an immediate transformation from courtier to warrior rule.In reality, the
changes brought about by the new government were neither sudden nor clear, as the newly
established shogunate struggled to define the parameters of its dominion.On the one hand,
Yoritomo presented himself as a charismatic chieftain, demanding total fidelity from his
men, while on the other he laid the groundwork for a complex and efficient judicial system
that often was forced to rule against the same group of retainers.The Bakufu struggled to
be a source of stability in rapidly changing times, and new developments in land, economy,
and justice forced leaders to continuously rethink the basis of their authority.As a
historical moment, this period of development was one fraught with tensions about the
nature of authority that played themselves out both in the economic and political lives of
the rising warrior class and the narratives that rose concomitantly to give them voice.
This panel provides an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which the authority of the
Kamakura government impinged on the lives of its followers.It also examines ways authority
was construed within the psychological realm of the narratives of warrior ascendancy.The
first paper considers how Yoritomo's authority is established within the narrative of the
Genpei War as the ultimate source of rewards.This suggests an attempt to narrate a
stronger central Kamakura authority than may have actually existed. The second paper
explores how narrative accounts handled a challenge to that authority in the Soga
Monogatari. How could the Bakufu maintain its authority in a narrative in which its
representative opposes a virtuous hero? The third paper further examines the conflicts
stemming from Kamakura's dual role as personal lord for its retainers and impersonal
judicial authority for society-at-large. Although the Bakufu attempted to rescue samurai
in debt, the failure of its fiscal policies revealed that the spread of a market economy
could force Kamakura to abandon its earlier personal authority.
1) Michael Watson, Meiji
Gakuin University."Warriors Rewarded: 'Kimi no
go-on' in Gunki Monogatari"
This paper will examine literary references to warriors who received their lords' favor
("go-on" or "o-megumi").In the war tales, rewards are sometimes
promised in advance, on fulfillment of a specific task or deed. In other cases they are
granted after men have accomplished a feat of bravery. The period of time elapsing may be
a matter of years, in which case the reference will take the form of a prolepsis or
flash-forward. A typical example comes at the end of the "Nobutsura" episode
(Heike monogatari, 4.5): When the Genji era came ["Genji no yo ni natte"],
Nobutsura wentdown to the eastern provinces and reported the whole story through Kajiwara
Heizo Kagetoki [to Yoritomo]. Most impressed, the Kamakura Lord gave him land in Noto
Province as reward. Similar expressions are also used to describe rewards to a Genji
loyalist who is not a warrior, the monk Jitsugen-ajari (6.12). In Heike monogatari, this
motif takes the listener or reader beyond the main timeframe of the story to a future
where the victorious Yoritomo rules from Kamakura and dispenses rewards to those who
worked for his victory. In the ending of the "Fujito" (10.14), this has the
effect of shifting attention away from the warrior and his immediate superior, the
commander-in-chief present at the scene of the battle, and foregrounding the ultimate
source of rewards, Yoritomo. Other aspects of the motif will be discussed through a
comparison of variant accounts, and of related chronicles and tales.
2) Elizabeth Oyler, Stanford University."Defining Authoritative Voice in Soga
Monogatari"
The Soga Monogatari, an early medieval tale that focuses on the conflict between Bakufu
authority and personal loyalty, casts the issue of the nature of warrior rule into stark
relief.It highlights in particular the irreconcilability between the Soga brothers' heroic
revenge for the death of their father against their uncle, who is backed by shogunal
sanction, and the judicial system which must condemn them.This paper will focus on the
tension between these two conceptual modes of righteousness, one which asserts bakufu
authority as a code of law, and the other which supports virtuous heroes whose sense of
loyalty are developing into the paradigm for warrior behavior. This is a struggle that is
played out not only thematically but also in the narrative style of the text.
This paper will focus on the rufubon Soga
Monogatari, also making reference to the Azuma kagami and several kowakamai to discuss how
these two conflicting tendencies are employed in turn to justify the tale of the brothers'
revenge.Stylistic analysis will discuss the juxtaposition of official, non-narrative
documentation and legal decisions with the more lyrical personal narrative of the
brothers' trials.This comparison addresses specifically the struggles within narrative
representations of the budding shogunal system to establish an authoritative voice.
Particular attention is accorded to the ways in which Yoritomo and his government are
given narrative authority through the inclusion of legal documents in the tale while
simultaneously being removed far enough from the brothers' vendetta to be able to endorse
the virtuousness that their revenge on their father's killer embodies.
3) Ethan Segal, Stanford University. "Warrior Debt and Conflicting
Obligations in Kamakura Japan"
Yoritomo's personal confirmation of land holdings was key to his establishing an
independent government in the East.The warriors organized under the Bakufu cemented ties
through mechanisms of gift exchange in which warriors received rights to income in
exchange for services.In studies of medieval Europe, this type of economic relationship
has been classified by anthropologists and historians as a "gift economy." Lords
established authority by providing for their followers without concern for the actual
monetary value of gifts and services exchanged.At the same time that this gift economy was
flourishing in Japan, however, improved agricultural techniques and strengthened peasant
land rights allowed the spread of markets and growth of commerce. The non-reciprocal
exchanges of this emerging "profit economy" demanded an impartial authority,
which would ensure that debts and obligations were paid.
This study will explore how the "gift
economy" model can be applied to Japan by focusing on the debt abrogation decrees of
the thirteenth century. These decrees, known as "tokuseirei" (literally
"virtuous administrative orders"), were issued by the Bakufu to assist samurai
retainers who fell into debt.Tokuseirei became necessary because samurai, accustomed only
to operating in a gift economy, were unable to manage their finances and lost their land
holdings in the new profit economy. Because the original basis of Bakufu authority lay in
awarding land to its retainers, Kamakura had no alternative but to require private lenders
to forgive samurai debts and restore confiscated lands.Yet the growth of market
transactions had fostered a new aspect of Bakufu authority as impartial judge in land
disputes. Tokuseirei favoring only warriors were therefore extremely disruptive to
Kamakura society; their issuance raises important questions concerning how the Bakufu
could reconcile its policies with notions of "virtuous administration."
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