Premodern Japan

Emperor Kōnin, who had taken the throne in Hōki 1 (770), reigned until his abdication in the spring of the first year of Ten'ō (781). The eleven years of his rule were designated by the era name of 'Jeweled Tortoise', so labelled because of the auspicious omens of two white turtles that heralded his reign.

Nara's hackneyed image as Japan's―first permanent capital‖ in the minds of Western historians has been steadily undermined by the realization that in fact Nara was anything but. Shōmu Tennō's midcentury capital shuffling was described in 1991 by William Coaldrake as a reversion to the―peripatetic palace syndrome‖, and a―brief revival of the indigenous notion of a capital as impermanent.‖ 1 Joan Piggott discussed Shōmu's attempts to build capitals at Kuni and Shigaraki in terms of both factional struggles at court ...

After the death of Female Emperor Shōtoku in 770, Prince Shirakabe, a grandson of Emperor Tenji, took the throne as Emperor Kōnin. His reign was heralded by a prophetic folksong, a wazauta, and the appearance of two auspicious white tortoises. Upon his accession Kōnin changed the era name to Hōki (‘Jeweled Tortoise’). The new emperor named his consort Imperial Princess Inoue, a daughter of Emperor Shōmu, as his Empress, and her son Osabe as Crown Prince. Two years later, in 772, he deposed both Inoue and Osabe, accusing them of sorcery. In 773 he named Imperial Prince Yamabe, the son of an obscure lady who was a descendant of a Korean king, the Crown Prince; Yamabe later became Emperor Kanmu. Later that year Kōnin’s sister died; Inoue and Osabe were again accused of sorcery in causing her death and were imprisoned in a government mansion. In 775 both died on the same day.

"The Bears in Japan Have Discovered a Delicious Snack: Humans" Haaretz [weekend suppl.] (August 2, 2024), 54–55

שינויי האקלים והדמוגרפיה ביפן מוציאים את הדובים מהיערות, והרשויות מגיבות באטיות
מאז 2008, 41 איש מתו בהתקלויות עמם. שנת 2023 היתה שנת שיא מבחינה זו והיד עוד נטויה

Deutsche Japanologen und Japanjuristen leben in weitgehend getrennten Welten. Sie haben separate Studiengänge, sie unterhalten verschiedene akademische Vereinigungen und sie veröffentlichen in jeweils unterschiedlichen Zeitschriften. Doppelqualifikationen sind selten. Schnittstellen in den Studiengängen, wie Recht als Modul im japanologischen Bachelorstudiengang, oder japanische Rechtsterminologie im Rahmen der nachzuweisenden fachliche Fremdsprachenkenntnisse oder gar japanisches Recht als Schwerpunktbereich im Staatsexamensstudiengang Rechtswissenschaften werden kaum angeboten. Immerhin verfügt der alle drei Jahre veranstaltete Deutschsprachige Japanologentag schon seit 2002 auch über eine Sektion Recht, die mangels Interesse freilich nicht immer besetzt werden konnte. So ist die Wahrnehmung dessen, was die jeweils andere Gruppe leistet, beschränkt. Hier soll deshalb von einem jüngst verstorbenen japanologischen Grenzgänger die Rede sein, der für das Verständnis der japanischen Rechtsgeschichte im deutschsprachigen Raum Großes geleistet hat:

Abstract:
Nanpo Bunshi’s famous Teppōki (An Account of
Firearms) describes the arrival in 1543 of a ship at
Tanegashima, an island off of Kyushu, with Portuguese
on board who introduced firearms to Japan. Often, this
event is identified with the arrival of some Portuguese
in Japan mentioned in contemporaneous Portuguese
accounts and the Teppōki is interpreted in light of that.
However, this paper argues that there is no good
reason to assume that they describe the same events.

Another matter often discussed is the nature of
Nanpo’s sources, as he wrote his account over sixty
years after the event. This article argues that because
several of his dates include the cyclic days (analogous
to giving days of the week), Nanpo must have had a
source written in 1543, or an extract of one, as only
someone writing in that year could have known the
cyclic days.

Emperor Shōmu's travels, particularly in the years from 740 to 745, have long attracted attention from Japanese scholars. He has been characterized as "the wandering Emperor," and the period saw the sovereign undertake a months-long trek from the capital in Nara to the east and northeast, culminating at the site of his new capital, Kuni, at the end of 740. Then in the fall of 742 he set out for Shigaraki in Ōmi Province, where another city was begun, until a series of forest fires and earthquakes forced its abandonment in 745. At the Kōkadera in Shigaraki the construction of a massive statue of Rushana Budda was initiated, although the disasters forced the interruption of the project, which continued back at the Nara capital. Significantly, a good portion of time before and after this great peregrination was spent at yet another capital, Naniwa, in present-day Osaka, which Shōmu had rebuilt in the 720s. This translation covers the years of Shōmu's reign from 738 to 748. It analyzes his travels as both a reaction to the Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebellion of 740, and also as a spiritual pilgrimage, during which the Emperor began to understand himself as a disciple of the Buddha due to karmic causation in previous lives. The growth of official Buddhism was coupled with intense devotion to the Ise Great Shrine, and a new reverence for the shrine of Hachiman in distant Kyushu.

The first fourteen years of Shōmu's reign were marked by a number of dramatic incidents. In 727 a Crown Prince was born to Shōmu and his consort Kōmyō, but the infant died within a year. Prince Nagaya, the Great Minister of the Left, led the government until the bizarre affair of his supposed conspiracy resulted in the death of him and his family in 729. Shortly thereafter Kōmyō, a Fujiwara woman, was elevated as Empress. From 735 to 737 a great smallpox epidemic ravaged the country, leading to the deaths of many of the high nobility, including the four sons of Fujiwara Fuhito. Tachibana no Moroe rose to prominence at the end of this period along with the Buddhist priest Genbō and Shimotsumichi no Makibi (later Kibi no Makibi). Miraculous omens of tortoises and new planetary observations marked this era, along with the increasing importance of official Shinto and Buddhism. Diplomatic relations with Silla and Balhae increased significantly, along with a major military campaign against the Emishi in the northeast.

The first fourteen years of Shōmu's reign were marked by a number of dramatic incidents. In 727 a Crown Prince was born to Shōmu and his consort Kōmyō, but the infant died within a year. Prince Nagaya, the Great Minister of the Left, led the government until the bizarre affair of his supposed conspiracy resulted in the death of him and his family in 729. Shortly thereafter Kōmyō, a Fujiwara woman, was elevated as Empress. From 735 to 737 a great smallpox epidemic ravaged the country, leading to the deaths of many of the high nobility, including the four sons of Fujiwara Fuhito. Tachibana no Moroe rose to prominence at the end of this period along with the Buddhist priest Genbō and Shimotsumichi no Makibi (later Kibi no Makibi). Miraculous omens of tortoises and new planetary observations marked this era, along with the increasing importance of official Shinto and Buddhism. Diplomatic relations with Silla and Balhae increased significantly, along with a major military campaign against the Emishi in the northeast.

"Miss Nippon 2024 Sparked a Lively Public Debate."
Haaretz [weekend suppl.] (February 2, 2024), 44–45.

קרולינה שיאינו נולדה באוקראינה ומתגוררת ביפן מגיל 5. בינואר השנה, היא זכתה בתואר מיס ניפון - הראשונה ששני הוריה אינם ממוצא יפני. אולם למרות הצטמקות האוכלוסייה והמחסור בידיים עובדות, רבים במדינה עדיין רואים בה ובמהגרים אחרים איום על טוהר הגזע המקומי (וככלות הדיון הציבורי אודותיה, כשבועיים לאחר הבחירה, שיאינו נאלצה לוותר על כתרה בשל קשר קודם עם גבר נשוי)

Proposed to express unions Newspaper and Le monde diplomatique, as well as Merkur concerning - to long for newspapers - scientists and artists i know and developments, which are endangouring once more what should and may will become the general intellect. (Two to three Passages and Footnotes are added after the first publication in this version of the text: about the currency, the note about Swiss too, maybe one or two others.)

The Chronicle of Kamatari is the first of the three extant parts of the Tōshi Kaden (The History of the Fujiwara House). Most likely composed around the middle of the eighth century, the Chronicle tells us the story of Nakatomi no Kamatari (614-669), the patriarch of the Fujiwara house. The text is important in three ways. First, if provides details regarding seventh century political developments not included in other sources. Second, borrowing from several Chinese sources and the Nihon Shoki, the text presents a fine example of East Asian intertextuality. Third, the Chronicle greatly contributes to our understanding of the establishment and formulation of sovereignty in the early Japanese state.

The guiding question for this contribution can be specified as follows: To what extent is the acquisition of 'paranormal' abilities thematized in religious anthropologies and to what extent is the successful mastery of such abilities perceived as a particularly dignifying achievement in religio-anthropological terms? – However, a comprehensive comparative answer cannot be promised in this article; rather, it is a kind of 'workshop report' that examines this problem in the context of concrete case studies.
    The subject of the following remarks are: (1) contemporary UFO faith, (2) the Pali-tradition of Buddhism, (3) the classical Yoga sutras and (4) Scientology – followed by (5) some final observations and conclusions.
————————————————————————————————————
Die Leitfrage für meine Ausführungen läßt sich wie folgt präzisieren: Inwiefern wird in religiösen Anthropologien der Erwerb ‘paranormaler’ Fähigkeiten thematisiert und inwieweit sieht man in der erfolgreichen Beherrschung solcher Fähigkeiten anthropologisch eine besonders würdevolle Errungenschaft? – Eine umfassende komparatistische Antwort kann in diesem Beitrag allerdings nicht in Aussicht gestellt werden; es handelt sich vielmehr um eine Art ‘Werkstattbericht’, der diesem Problem im Rahmen von konkreten Fallbeispielen nachgeht.
    Gegenstand der nachstehenden Ausführungen sind: (1) der zeitgenössische UFO-Glaube, (2) die Pali-Tradition des Buddhismus, (3) die klassischen Yogasutren und (4) Scientology – gefolgt von (5) einigen abschließenden Beobachtungen und Folgerungen.

Hiermit erkläre ich, daß JAPANISCHES HEILSVERSTÄNDNIS: SOTERIOLOGIE IM KONTEXT DES JAPANISCHEN ANIMISMUS (JAPANESE UNDERSTANDING OF SALVATION: SOTERIOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF JAPANESE ANIMISM) von mir stammt und daß alle Quellen, die ich gebraucht oder zitiert habe, durch vollständige Quellenangaben kenntlich gemacht sind. Unterschrift ３ STATEMENT BY THE CANDIDATE

Appearing in Beliefs, Ritual Practices, and Celebrations in Kansai - III - (Ed.  Carmen Săpunaru Tămaş (ed.). Bucureşti : Pro Universitaria, 2023), this chapter provides a broad introduction to some of the multitude of goshuin (papers with stamps and calligraphy marking visits to religious institutions in Japan). Broadly, it argues that the use of different styles of Amabie in goshuin reflect syncretic practices, different prayers, faiths, and multiple approaches to religion and the pandemic. The use of Amabie in Gashuin also reveal changing understandings of the virus itself and people’s responses to it.

"When the Catastrophe Struck, They Unsheathed Their Swords against Anyone who Appeared Different." Haaretz [weekend suppl.] (September 1, 2023), 50–51.

יפן מציינת בימים אלה מאה שנים לרעידת האדמה הקטלנית בתולדותיה. טבח שהתרחש בצִלה מלמד על המהירות שבה ההמון עלול לאבד כל רסן

Domestic animal usage remains a key problem in understanding Japan's premodern economy. Assumptions that religious and other cultural proscriptions limited the use of domesticated animals, and the consumption of meat in particular, from Late Antiquity until Westernisation in the nineteenth century remain widespread. However, the zooarchaeological record from historic Japan is patchy and the scholarly literature often uncritically reproduces state-centred ideas about agriculture and the economy. In this essay we critically review the ways in which historical and zooarchaeological studies of animal usage in premodern Japan have been impacted by broader cultural discourses. We examine animal usage from the Bronze Age to the eve of modernisation, broadly 1000 BC to AD 1850, in terms of a tension or dialectic between promotion and restriction by the state and other authorities. While the utilisation of animals for warfare and official transport was more closely controlled, other uses reflected a complex and often international political ecology that requires further analysis by zooarchaeologists.

Female Emperor Genshō who took the throne in 715 after Genmei's abdication. Several poems in the Man'yōshū are attributed to her, including a well-known lament upon moving to the new capital. Shoku Nihongi records that she ordered the compilation of the provincial gazetteers that became known as the Fudoki. However, the chronicle does not record the presentation of the Kojiki to her court, although its preface gives the precise date in 712. Her grandson Prince Obito, the later Shōmu Tennō, came of age during her reign. Copper was discovered in 708, leading to the minting of the first official Japanese coins, and the period of her rule is distinguished by the ongoing attempts to introduce the currency into the economy, as well as the rollout of many features of the Ritsuryō law codes.

‘Japón en su historia’ nos ofrece un recorrido riguroso y preciso a través de la evolución de la sociedad, religión y cultura japonesas desde sus orígenes hasta la actualidad, basado en los trabajos de investigación y divulgación más recientes publicados en Japón. Orientado tanto al público general como al especializado, este libro ofrece explicaciones detalladas y actualizadas de cada período histórico acompañadas de un abundante apartado visual que incluye mapas, gráficos, fotografías y dibujos, además de una amplia bibliografía. Desde una perspectiva que enfatiza los intercambios y las relaciones humanas con las comunidades foráneas, conoceremos la historia de los primeros pobladores del archipiélago japonés, sus cultos y manifestaciones, las mecánicas que propiciaron el surgimiento de un protoestado centralizado en el siglo vii, el desarrollo de una sofisticada cultura cortesana en el siglo xi, los condicionantes sociales y religiosos que favorecieron la aparición de una élite samurái o los procesos políticos y culturales que acabarían desembocando en la modernización del país a finales del siglo XIX hasta llegar al Japón de nuestros días.

Emperor Monmu's brief reign was sandwiched between those of two women sovereigns. He was preceded by his grandmother, female Emperor Jitō, and succeeded by his mother (and great-aunt), female Emperor Genmei. Monmu ascended to the throne in 697 at the tender age of 14, the youngest Tennō thus far. He died about ten years later. The most significant incident of his reign was the promulgation of the Ritsuryō, the civil and penal codes, in 701.

die in westlichen Sprachen inzwischen zum Thema "Zen" verfaßt worden sind, den für den Anlaß angemessensten herauszusuchen-immerhin verzeichnet die 1991 publizierte Biblio graphie von James L. GARDNER annähernd 3.000 Titel zum Thema "Zen-Buddhismus" j n westlichen Sprachen und enthält natürlich auch eine große Zahl von Schriften, die sich speziell mit dem Zen-Buddhismus in Japan befassen. 1 Die quantitativ geradezu erdrückende Textlage war jedoch nicht das Problem; vielmehr gewann ich den Eindruck, daß eine ganz spezifische, für eine Veranstaltungsreihe wie diese m.E. besonders geeignete Darstellung des Themas "Zen-Buddhismus in Japan" generell eigentümlich unterrepräsentiert ist. Die Formulierung dieses Themas-"Zen-Buddhismus in Japan"-impliziert in meinem Ver ständnis im wesentlichen zwei Aspekte: Zum einen die Entfaltung einer spezifischen Überliefe rung innerhalb der buddhistischen Lehre, genauer gesagt des Mahayana, zum anderen den hi storischen Kontext, in welchem sich diese Entfaltung vollzog, ein Kontext, der je nach Akzen tuierung geographische, politische und gesellschaftliche Fragestellungen mit einbeziehen müß te. Das Interesse der westlichen Zen-Rezeption, so wie es sich in den diesbezüglichen Schriften widerspiegelt, gilt überwiegend, ja beinahe ausschließlich dem erstgenannten Aspekt: Es be handelt Zen als eine aus dem chinesischen Ch'an-Buddhismus entstandene Tradition, die sich in Japan zum geradezu dominierenden Ausdruck buddhistischer Spiritualität und Lebensweise entwickelte oder entwickelt haben soll. Hier liegen eine Vielzahl von Arbeiten zu bedeutenden japanischen Zen-Meistern wie etwa DOGEN und HAKUIN vor, deren Beitrag zu einer originären japanischen Philosophie (im Falle DÖGENS) oder zur Systematisierung und Revitalisierung der Zen-Praxis (bei HAKUIN) mit Recht hervorgehoben werden. 2 Und selbst wenn-was bei die-1 James L. GARDNER: Zen Buddhism.

In the modern Japanese imperial family, women are prevented from taking the throne which is an artefact of the Imperial Household Law of 1889. The subject remains the centre of considerable debate in contemporary Japanese politics although surveys suggest broad support for the possibility of female enthronement, the ruling LDP is currently resistant to any change to the existing succession laws. Proponents of change point to an historical tradition of female sovereigns, arguing that the current succession rules are not only sexist but deleterious to the imperial succession itself, running counter to historical practices (and a dwindling number of potential male heirs). Conversely, conservative perspectives on the law argue that the birth of Prince Hisahito in 2006, the heir to the throne, renders the issue low in importance, and that historical female sovereigns were enthroned only on a shortterm 'placeholder' basis (nakatsugi) safeguarding the throne for a juvenile male heir. This latter point, argues women's historian Yoshie Akiko, is mainly an extrapolation-with roots in Meiji, but largely established in the 1960s-from the relatively recent cases of Empresses Meishō (r. 1629-43) and Go-Sakuramachi (r. 1762-71), and does not reflect the actual role of empresses regnant in ancient Japanese history. What, then, do contemporary court annals such as the Nihon shoki tell us about these women and their relationships to imperial power and succession?

Nach der Skizzierung historischer Meilensteine in Politik und Wirtschaftist es erforderlich, sich eingehender mit den religiösen Anschauungen zu beschäftigen, die im vorherigen Kapitel erwähnt wurden. Für die Entwicklung vonFamilienunternehmeni st dieses Kapiteli nm ehrerleiH insicht relevant. Die religiösen Anschauungen haben Rituale hervorgebracht, die über Jahrhunderte die Moralvorstellungen 1 geprägt haben, an denen sich Familien und auch die japanische Gesellschafta usrichten. Sie bilden die Grundlage für die Formen des Miteinanders innerhalb der Familie und im Unternehmen, jenseits religiöser Bedeutungen und Bindungen, als Ausdruck der spezifischen japanischen Kultur. Die Unterscheidung zwischen Ritual und Religion ist für den japanischen Kontext zentral. Seit der Öffnungdes Landes und dem Kontakt mit dem Westen gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhundertshat die jeweilige japanische Regierung genau diesen Punkt stets betont und auch rechtlich umgesetzt. Besonders beim Shintō handelt es sich nach japanischer Auffassung um Rituale mit moralischem Charakter und nicht um Religion im Sinne der europäischen Bekenntnisreligionen 2. 3.1 Die Bedeutungvon Ritualen Wieunter 3.2 nochauszuführen sein wird, gehen etliche der Rituale, die im Alltag gerade langlebiger Familienunternehmen anzutreffen sind, auf shintō istische Vorstellungen zurück, die auf den Jahreszyklusder Natur und den Lebenszyklus des Menschen Bezug nehmen. Diese waren im Verlauf der Jahrhunderte immer wieder mit Einflüssen vonGlaubensvorstellungenaus dem Ausland konfrontiert, konnten aber im Kern ihrer Durchführung als traditionelle japanische Kultur 1K awano (2005), S. 54f, spricht vonder »moral order« der Rituale, bei denen der Aspekt der kultischen Reinigung zentral ist, da er zur Hygiene in den sozialen Beziehungen der Menschen untereinander und der Menschen in der Gesellschaftbeiträgt.

In Japan gibt es seit der Antike eine Tradition der Kirschblüten-Ikonographie als Sinnbild der Vergänglichkeit, wobei nicht nur gewisse semantische Differenzen zwischen dem japanischen Vergänglichkeitskonzept und der frühneuzeitlichenunter anderem mit der Idee des Vergänglichen verknüpfbaren-Vanitas erkannt werden können, sondern auch innerhalb der japanischen Kirschblüten-Ikonographie semantische Verschiebungen zu verzeichnen sind. Anhand der Analyse der wiederholten Kirschblüten-Ikonographie in Japan und der Rolle des fremden Blickes wird in diesem Beitrag eine Neudeutung japanischer und europäischer Vergänglichkeitskonzepte herausgearbeitet. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet die eurozentristisch geprägte, kunsthistorische Rezeptionsweise von Kirschblüten-Aufnahmen der japanischen Fotografin Mika Ninagawa (✶ 1972) als eine zeitgenössische japanische Variante der Vanitas. Vanitas in Japan? Die im Alten Testament verankerten, in der Frühen Neuzeit wieder entdeckten und sich entfaltenden Vanitas-Topoi erleben seit einiger Zeit eine Wiederholung in der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Das lässt sich den seit dem Jahr 2000 mit einem deutlichen Schwerpunkt in Frankreich stattgefundenen Ausstellungen und Publikationen entnehmen. 1 Seit etwa 2016 wird im euro-amerikanischen Kunstbereich eine dazu passende Tendenz beobachtet: die Rezeption zeitgenössischer japanischer Fotografien mit floralen Motiven als Vanitas. 2

Eclipse records began in the 7 th century in Japan. Eclipses in the 7 th century were recorded in the Nihongi and their reliability changed according to the volumes. Eclipses in the 8 th century were recorded in the Shoku-Nihongi but most of them were written according to the predictions at the time. Eclipses between the 9 th and 11 th centuries were recorded in various literatures and diaries but it is not easy to decide whether they were based on actual observations or not.

Für diese Analyse des \(\it Juhō-yōjin-shū\) wurde das Werk erstmals vollständig herangezogen. Die Auffassung, das Werk sei eine Kritik an Erscheinungen der shingon-buddhistischen Richtung Tachikawa-ryū, ließ sich dadurch revidieren. Es handelt sich vielmehr um eine Apologie soteriologischer Positionen der Shingon-Schule und enstand durch Konfrontation mit den sog. \(\textit {Drei inneren Lehren}\) und dem \(\it Reine-Land-Glauben\). Shinjō thematisiert Phänomene, die sich als lokal in Kyōto und den Provinzen Echizen und Etchū auftretend identifizieren ließen. Unter Bezug auf die pessimistische \(\it mappō\)-Eschatologie dient die Wertung der Schriften und Rituale dieser Lehren als Häresie als Abgrenzungskriterium. Die apologetische Absicht zeigt sich in der Kontrastierung dieser Lehren mit soteriologischen Positionen der Shingon-Schule, für deren Gültigkeit die \(\it mappō\)-Eschatologie irrelevant war. Unzutreffend ist die bisherige Generalisierung der Phänomene, deren lokale und ...

Die Grundfrage, auf der alle weiteren Erörterungen unseres Problems aufbauen, hat der Soziologe und Systemtheoretiker Niklas Luhmann wie folgt formuliert: ,,Woran erkennen wir [ ... ], daß es sich bei bestimmten sozialen Erscheinungen um Religion handelt?" 1 Dabei setzt Luhmann-anders als einige postmoderne Religionsforscher-voraus, dass es zwar selbst im modernen "Weltgesellschaftssystem" "keine in ihren Grundlagen welteinheitliche Religion gibt", sehr wohl aber "ein Funktionssystem für Religion als Subsystem der Weltgesellschaft anzunehmen" sei. ,,Denn die religiöse Kommunikation ist überall von anders orientierten Kommunikationen unterscheidbar. Systemgrenzen sind gegeben und werden reproduziert". 2 Luhmann meinte bekanntermaßen, ,,Religion" sei ein selbstsubstitutives soziales System, das für die Gesellschaft eine ganz spezifische Funktion erfüllt, die kein anderes soziales System erfüllt und dessen systeminternen Operationen als "religiös" zu charakterisieren seien. Dabei hat Luhmann jedoch die empirische und kulturvergleichende Perspektive mangels fachlicher Expertise vernachlässigt, die gleichsam das Proprium einer historisch und komparativ arbeitenden Religionswissenschaft ist. Seine Religionstheorie ist daher-m.E. zwar zu Unrecht-unter Ethnozentrismus-und Theologieverdacht geraten.3

Ausgehend von einer Analyse der Izumo-Mythen in den alten Reichschroniken und dem Izumo fudoki macht es sich dieser Aufsatz zur Aufgabe, Izumos Funktion in der politischen Mythologie Japans nachzuzeichnen. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt wird dabei auf Izumos Verbindung zu jenseitigen Reichen des Todes liegen sowie zu ihrer Funktion als Kontrastfolie zum Zentralstaat und dessen Verkörperung, der Figur des Tennō.

This collection of essays comprises both previously unpublished material and revisions of published articles and book chapters. The present volume begins with the third century and concludes at the end of the ninth. The majority of the pieces center on the Nara and early Heian periods, when the imperial capitals were established at Heijōkyō and Heiankyō. Aside from the first chapter, the source of the material is the Six National Histories, or Rikkokushi. My emphasis here is on imperial rule, the Japanese court's self-identification as an empire and the political ideology that legitimized the reign of male and female emperors. Emperors viewed themselves as manifest gods, whose subjects were not only all persons in the Japanese realm, but also the kingdoms of Silla and Palhae on the Korean peninsula. Emperors issued edicts addressed in the eighth century to the high court nobility and then increasingly in the ninth century to Shinto deities at particular shrines as well as the spirits of previous emperors at their tombs. Ancient Japan is an area which is understudied by Western scholars, and this volume is intended to help correct that situation.

Several researchers have reported the increased use ofoand semantic/pragmatic or syntactic motivations for direct object marking based on texts from between the 8th and 11th centuries. However, very few studies documented direct object marking after that period on until Modern Japanese, and the claims regarding semantic/pragmatic or syntactic motivations were not substantiated. By quantitatively examining an 11th century text and two later translations of it, this study documents evidence thato-marking was pragmatically motivated in the 11th century. However, aso-marking gradually increased over the years to be fully grammaticized as a direct object marker by the 20th century, its correlation with the pragmatic factors weakened.

Haaretz [weekend suppl.] (November 18, 2022), 40–45.

הוא מייחל לנפילתה של סין, מזלזל בסכנה אפשרית מקוריאה הצפונית, קורא לפתח נשק גרעיני ומחזיק בהיסטוריה חלופית לגבי יהודים. קסה הידאקי הוא מהאידאולוגים החשובים ביותר של הימים הלאומני ביפן, ושל מפלגת השלטון במדינה ששואפת לעצב מחדש את מקומה בעולם. ראיון.

San'ei-cho and Meat-eating in Buddhist Edo UCHIYAMAjunzO 内山純藏 There have been a number of recent reports about the excavation of large amounts of animal bones from sites within and just outside the city of Edo. These finds prove that animal meat was eaten in the Edo period, although there is no mention of this in historical records. Land mammals are most prominently represented among the bones discovered. Since the eating of animal meat was considered unclean dur ing premodern times in Japan, the common assumption has been that meat consumption was severely restricted, and avoided if at all possible, until after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. However, the Edo-period ani mal remains-including those of large numbers of wild boar, shika deer, and bear, along with dogs, monkeys, and horses-show that despite the assumed social taboo, mammal meat was being quite widely eaten dur ing this period (K a n e k o 1992). One site in which such remains were found is San'ei-cho 三栄町， excavated in 1985 and 1986 by the Shinjuku Board of Education. The report concerning the faunal remains of the site was published in 1991 (K a n e k o 8 c N a g a s h i m a 1991). The Faunal Remains at the San， ei-chd Site The remains at the San'ei-chO site (Tokyo-to Shinjuku-ku San'ei-cho 22) date to the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nine teenth centuries. The site was located a little to the west of the city of Edo, close to the Koshu highway which led west from the city and into present-day Yamanasm Prefecture. This location is significant, in that it would have made San'ei-cho an excellent place from which to redistrib ute meat into the city itself from animals brought from the mountains west of Edo. Details of the structural remains on the site have not yet been puba c k n o w le d g e m e n t s : We would like to thank Y o s h i d a Tadashi and M a t s u i Akira for their comments and advice on an earlier draft of this paper.

Recently social and cultural studies have experienced a 'spatial turn'. Space-related research seems ever expanding: some historians relate macroeconomics and human agency to regional contexts; others focus on micro-spaces like houses, taverns and parish churches; even virtual or imaginary spaces (such as Purgatory) attract increasing attention. In all of these works, space emerges as a social construct rather than a mere physical unit. This collection examines the potential and limitations of spatial approaches for the political history of preindustrial Europe. Adopting a broad denition of 'political', the volume concentrates on two key questions: Where did political exchange take place? And how did spatial dimensions aect political life in dierent periods and contexts? Taken together, the essays demonstrate that premodern Europeans made use of a much wider range of political sites than is usually assumed-not just princely courts, town halls and representative assemblies, but common elds as well as back rooms of provincial inns-and that spatial dimensions provided key variables in political life, both in terms of the embedding of practical governance and in the more abstract sense of patronage networks, conceptualizations of power and territorial ambitions. As such, this book oers a timely and critical engagement with the 'spatial turn' from a political perspective. Focusing on the distinct constitutional environments of England and the Holy Roman Empire-one associated with early centralization and strong parliamentary powers, the other with political fragmentation and absolutist tendencies, it bridges the usual gaps between late medievalists and early modernists and those between historians and scholars from other disciplines. Preface, commentary and a sketch of research perspectives discuss the wider implications of the papers' ndings and reect upon the potential and limits of spatial approaches for political history as a whole.

Drawing on practices and teachings from Daoism, neo-Confucianism, and tantric Buddhism, Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511) created the system of Yuiitsu Shintō, also known eponymously as Yoshida Shintō, all the while making claims for Shintō as the world’s original religion. Important for the establishment of Yoshida Shintō was the creation of a program of rituals. This essay examines one of the three rituals created for the Yoshida ritual program, the Yoshida Shintō goma ritual, which hybridizes tantric Buddhist ritual organization and Daoist symbolism. A pragmatics of ritual is developed as a means of identifying the factors that Yoshida felt were salient in presenting the goma as a Yoshida Shintō ritual.