The Geography of Power In Medieval Japan (ebook)

Argumento de The Geography of Power In Medieval Japan (ebook)

In this reevaluation of the estate system, which has long been recognized as the central economic institution of medieval Japan, Thomas Keirstead argues that estates, or shoen, constituted more than a type of landownership. Through an examination of rent rolls, land registers, maps, and other data describing individual estates he reveals a cultural framework, one that produced and shaped meaning for residents and proprietors. Keirstead's discussion of peasant uprisings shows that the system, however, did not define a stable, closed structure, but was built upon contested terrain. Drawing on the works of Foucault,de Certeau, and Geertz, among others,this book illuminates the presuppositions about space and society that underwrote estate holding. It traces how the system reordered the social and physical landscape, establishing identity for both rulers and subjects. Estate holders, seeking to counter the fluid movement of populations across estate boundaries, pressed into service a social distinction between "peasants" and "wanderers." Peasant rebels made use of the fiction that the estate comprised a natural community in order to resist proprietorial exactions. In these instances, Keirstead contends, the estate system reveals its governing logic: social and political divisions were articulated in spatial terms; power was exercised (and contested) through geography.

Originally published in 1992.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.0Acknowledgments 1 In Go-Sanjo's Archive: Discovering the System of the Estates 3 Estates and the Estate System 10 Tracing the Break 14 Go-Sanjo's Archive 17 2 Hyakusho and the Rhetoric of Identity 25 Defining the Subject 26 The Lineaments of Identity 30 A Wandering State 34 Inventing the Hyakusho 38 Split Subjects 44 3 Official Transcripts: Myo, Maps, Surveys, and the Entitlement of the Estate 46 Myo: Points of Contention 47 Borders 51 Taking the Measure of the Land 57 Gathering 62 Myo and Hyakusho 66 Orderly Places, Contested Spaces 69 4 The Theater of Protest 72 Rebellion 74 The Rituals of Rebellion 83 Petitioning 87 Hyakusho moshijo 90 Closing in on the Subject 94 5 Conclusion: The Debate about Decline 98 Notes 119 Glossary 157 Bibliography 165 Index 179