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Bibliographic Data: Batten, Bruce Loyd. “Foreign Threat and Domestic Reform: The Emergence of the Ritsuryô State.” Monumenta Nipponica 41:2 (Summer 1986): 199-219.
Main Argument: Contra John Whitney Hall, the so-called Taika Reforms took place in three phases: one, during the actual Taika era (645-54, reign of Kôtoku); two, during the 660s; and three, after the end of the Jinshin War in 672 (completed under Jitô in the 690s). The liquidation of the Soga provided the impetus for the first phase, and the victory of Tenmu and Jitô in the Jinshin War provided the same for the third. However, it was anxiety over a possible Tang invasion of Japan after the Japanese defeat at the battle of Paekchon River in 663 (after which Koguryo was conquered by combined Tang/Silla forces; Silla eventually emerged as the unifier of the peninsula after the Tang forces departed) that provided the impetus for the middle phase.
( Foreign Threat & Domestic Reform )
Bibliographic Data: Yoshie Akiko and Janet R. Goodwin. “Gender in Early Classical Japan: Marriage, Leadership, and Political Status in Village and Palace.” Monumenta Nipponica 60.4 (winter 2005): 437-79.
Main Argument: "The discovery that women played a surprisingly powerful role in early classical Japan has not yet been incorporated into our general understanding of the history of the age" (437). Specifically, "women known as toji played a major role in rural society in the management of agricultural enterprises and the supervision of labor. On a higher social level, consorts of the sovereign known as ôtoji, or "grand toji," managed productive enterprises within their own independent residences" (ibid). These extra-codal roles were descended from the even great social power women could wield during the pre-code era, and in a different, attenuated form survived into the middle Heian era, after which the consolidation of a patriarchal family structure and social roles was complete.
( Gender in early classical Japan )
Critical assessment: I'm not sure I've encountered a better illustration of the principles discussed in Joanna Russ' How to Suppress Women's Writing than the historiography of ancient and early classical Japan. Yoshie does a beautiful job of exploding sexist assumptions and arguments with evidence from a variety of sources.
Meta notes: Always historicize. Especially your sexist assumptions.
Main Argument: Contra John Whitney Hall, the so-called Taika Reforms took place in three phases: one, during the actual Taika era (645-54, reign of Kôtoku); two, during the 660s; and three, after the end of the Jinshin War in 672 (completed under Jitô in the 690s). The liquidation of the Soga provided the impetus for the first phase, and the victory of Tenmu and Jitô in the Jinshin War provided the same for the third. However, it was anxiety over a possible Tang invasion of Japan after the Japanese defeat at the battle of Paekchon River in 663 (after which Koguryo was conquered by combined Tang/Silla forces; Silla eventually emerged as the unifier of the peninsula after the Tang forces departed) that provided the impetus for the middle phase.
( Foreign Threat & Domestic Reform )
Bibliographic Data: Yoshie Akiko and Janet R. Goodwin. “Gender in Early Classical Japan: Marriage, Leadership, and Political Status in Village and Palace.” Monumenta Nipponica 60.4 (winter 2005): 437-79.
Main Argument: "The discovery that women played a surprisingly powerful role in early classical Japan has not yet been incorporated into our general understanding of the history of the age" (437). Specifically, "women known as toji played a major role in rural society in the management of agricultural enterprises and the supervision of labor. On a higher social level, consorts of the sovereign known as ôtoji, or "grand toji," managed productive enterprises within their own independent residences" (ibid). These extra-codal roles were descended from the even great social power women could wield during the pre-code era, and in a different, attenuated form survived into the middle Heian era, after which the consolidation of a patriarchal family structure and social roles was complete.
( Gender in early classical Japan )
Critical assessment: I'm not sure I've encountered a better illustration of the principles discussed in Joanna Russ' How to Suppress Women's Writing than the historiography of ancient and early classical Japan. Yoshie does a beautiful job of exploding sexist assumptions and arguments with evidence from a variety of sources.
Meta notes: Always historicize. Especially your sexist assumptions.