Episode 108: The Great Change
Memorial to Ki no Tsurayuki at the site believed to be the governor’s office of ancient Tosa. Ki no Tsurayuki, a famous poet who is credited with compiling the Kokinshu anthology also wrote the Tosa Nikki or Tosa Diary. Though fictionalized and written from the point of view of a woman of Tosa province, it is thought to be based on Tsurayuki’s own travels between the capital and Tosa when he was sent there as a Kokushi, or Provincial Governor. Those Governor positions were one of the things that were created as part of the Taika reforms. Though initially they were very limited in power and scope, that would change over time, especially as the central government began to take a more direct role in the governance of the provinces.
This episode we jump into the Taika Reforms, also known as the Great Change. This would really kick off the movement to remake the Yamato government into the bureaucratic state that became known as Japan. This is definitely a period of Great Change, as the name “Taika” implies. At the same time, we don’t actually have an extant law code until much later: early on the administrative “code” of rewards and punishments is more of a series of royal edicts.
The “provinces” of ancient Japan are the old “kuni”. These provinces are still something people use, today, to describe certain areas of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The early provinces likely evolved from lands that were either conquered by Yamato or who at least agreed to some nominal level of subordination. Later, many of the provinces would be carved up into smaller, more manageable sizes.
It isn’t exactly clear to me which of the many provinces existed when the eight kokushi were sent out, but it refers to the Eastern Provinces. This is probably meaning the Azuma no Kuni, which seems to reference the Kanto region, but we aren’t given specifics.
References
Bauer, M. (2020). The History of the Fujiwara House: A Study and Annotated Translation of the Toshi Kaden. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv125jv4q
Van Goethem, E. E. M. A. (2009). Capital and Countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese Historians Interpreted in English (Joan R. Piggott, ed.). Journal of Asian Studies, 68(3), 988–90.
Kracke, E. A. (1976). Early Visions of Justice for the Humble in East and West. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 96(4), 492–498. https://doi.org/10.2307/600081
Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4
Knox, George William (1903). The Early Institutional Life of Japan, a Study in the Reform of 645 A. D. By K. ASAKAWA, Ph.D. The American Historical Review, Volume 11, Issue 1, October 1905, Pages 128–129