Production, Use and Transmission of Administrative Documents on the Village Level in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan

A Case Study of the Uchiura Region

Individual Research Project

This project examines administrative documents from the village level with the aim of transcending historiographical boundaries of periodisation between the Middle Ages (c. 1100–1590) and the Early Modern Period (1590–1870) in Japan. In order to connect research on medieval and early modern written artefacts a combination of two approaches will be applied. One part of the project investigates continuities and breaks in patterns of material and visual characteristics, as well as content from the 16th and 17th centuries, and relates them to changes in their production and use. Another part of the project questions the break between the periods from the perspective of transmission by tracing interactions with medieval written artefacts in early modern villages and analysing their role in regional society. The aim is to apply these approaches to sources stemming from different hierarchies of communication.

The project will proceed as a case study of collections from the Uchiura region (内浦), present-day Numazu City (沼津市). As these collections include sources from the ruler–subject level (e.g. orders, tax documents, land registers, etc.) as well as from the intra- and inter-village level (e.g. loan or sale certificates, contracts, etc.), the study can give an insight into a wide variety of practices related to administrative writing on the village level. The results of the investigation can thus contribute to the understanding of developments in regional administration and society between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period on the island chain. Furthermore, the combination of the two approaches also allows the project to connect to interdisciplinary discussions regarding questions of pattern changes and transmission of written artefacts in general.