The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan

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THE INITIAL CONDITIONS 349

tions of the goods it required from all of its shoen, adjusting the dues

from each in regard to the climate and other limitations, as well as the

distance of each shoen from Nara. The existing documents show that

shoen far from the temple paid a large part of their dues with more

readily transportable and nonperishable items such as rice and cloth,

and a

shoen

on the Inland Sea even paid all of its dues in salt.

The Daigoji, another large temple in Nara, not only varied the dues

according to each shoen's distance from Nara and its climatic limita-

tions but also rotated by month and year which shoen, among those

located near Nara, was to supply the temple with vegetables, other

perishable products, and the labor services required for various cere-

monial occasions. The products supplied to the temple from its shoen,

scattered around the capital and to the north in the Hokuriku region,

included sake, seaweed, earthenware, straw mats, charcoal, lumber,

straw, hay, and several other items.

Most of the records for shoen held by the emperor and nobles are

less informative. However, an unusually detailed record concerning

some of the seventy-six shoen belonging to the Chokodo - a temple

built by the cloistered emperor Goshirakawa - reveals that the dues

included such items as oxen, silk, and cotton batting, in addition to

vegetables, rice, and many of the goods listed in the preceding exam-

ples.

In this case, too, the mix of dues varied according to distance and

presumably the ability of each

shoen

to produce various products.

These and other examples show that even in the mid-thirteenth

century, the elite were still obtaining most of their daily necessities

from their shoen. This, however, did not mean that markets were not

becoming more important. In fact, the evidence indicates that these

markets gradually developed from sometime in the eleventh century to

satisfy the needs of lesser nobles, warriors, and various commoners

residing in the capital region.

One group of producer-merchants who began to sell goods in the

market were kugonin, persons supplying the court with such daily

necessities as fish, vegetables, fruit, charcoal, straw mats, and the like

in exchange for exemption from taxes and corvee. Even after they had

begun to sell some of their products in the market sometime in the late

Heian period, they continued to provide their products to the court."

8 Nagahara Keiji, "Shoen ryoshu keizai no kozo," in Nagahara, ed., Chusei, pp. 57-70.

9 Ibid., pp. 75-80. Also see Sasaki, "Sangyo no bunka to chusei shogyo" in Nagahara, ed.,

Chusei, pp. 151-2.

10 Nagahara, "Shoen ryoshu keizai no kozo," in Nagahara, ed., Chusei, pp.

60-63.

11 Wakita Haruko, Nihon

chusei shogyo

hallatsushi

kenkyu (Tokyo: Ochanomizu shobo, 1969),

pp.

112-22; and Toyoda and Kodama, Ryutsushi, pp. 78-79.

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350 THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

Another group of producer-merchants who used the market were

those former part-time cultivators who had supplied, in exchange for

reduced

shoen

dues and corvee, specific goods to the elite of

the

capital

region. These producer-merchants were allowed to sell their goods in

the market as long as they continued to supply goods to the elite. As

these part-time suppliers of daily necessities began to sell more of their

products in the market, they eventually became full-time producer-

merchants permitted to provide the nobles and temples with the prod-

ucts they produced in order to compensate for the dues (often rice) and

corvee that they no longer paid.

There was yet another group of persons who sold goods in the

capital region. These were the fisherman and cultivators of the region

who,

while remaining primarily fishermen and cultivators, came to

Kyoto, Nara, and other satellite towns to sell their

goods.

Although we

learn more about the activities of these part-time merchants as they

begin to play a more important role in the region's commerce after the

mid-thirteenth century, all we know of them until then is that they

were one of the groups of producer-merchants who came to trade their

products in the region.

To summarize, the elites living in the capital region were obtaining,

even in the mid-thirteenth century, most of their daily necessities from

the

shoen

located in and around the capital region. However,

shoen

dues and what was supplied by the

kugonin

and others as a part of the

dues were not the only source of many of the goods that these elites

consumed. As the

kugonin

and others, including nearby fishermen and

cultivators, began to sell their goods in the markets, the elites could

acquire more goods more easily to supplement what they were receiv-

ing from the

shoen,

the

kugonin,

and others.

Little is known of how warriors and commoners in the capital re-

gion obtained their daily necessities. But we can surmise, from what

we have just observed, that they too acquired

significant and increas-

ing portion of these goods from the markets, where more and more

goods were being sold in response to the residents' growing demands.

However, as with the elites, an increasing number of warriors residing

in the capital region also undoubtedly obtained many items from

shoen,

the portion of output they were entitled to as

shugo

jito.

It is

also quite likely that some warriors living or staying for a limited time

in and around the capital must also have received dues in kind from

cultivators working their lands located some distance from the capital.

12 Wakita, Nihon chusei

shdgyd,

pp. 116-20.

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THE INITIAL CONDITIONS 351

These dues in kind from distant landholdings must have consisted of

rice,

cloth, and other products that could be readily transported to

Kyoto and exchanged in the market for numerous goods that the

warriors consumed daily. We can be reasonably certain that by the

early decades of the thirteenth century, warriors - and elites - in the

capital region used cash more frequently than they had in the late

twelfth century.

The artisans under the protection of elites obtained their daily

necessities in the form of in-kind payments from elites and by using

their products to barter among themselves or with cultivators in the

region. Beginning in the early thirteenth century, they may have

received some cash from the elites and others through their market

transactions, and they may have used money to buy the goods they

consumed.

In contrast with the market activities, which were growing only

slowly, trading in specialized products grew more visibly throughout

the twelfth century. By the early decades of the thirteenth century,

elites in the capital region could acquire many specialized products

from artisans and merchants. The reason was that market activities

expanded steadily in the twelfth century as artisans and others who

had been providing their products and services exclusively to the elites

began to sell more of their products and services in the capital region

and even in the surrounding provinces. And a growing number of

commoners were becoming, albeit slowly, consumers of these prod-

ucts and services.

The

emergence

of the za

The producer-merchants of these specialized products, who first ap-

peared in the capital region far ahead of those who later appeared in

the agricultural communities, were also the first to give birth to the

za, a counterpart to the European medieval guild, which played an

increasingly important role in the growth of commerce in medieval

Japan.'

The origins of the capital region's producer-merchants can be

traced to the groups of artisans and others who, sometime during the

13 Takenaka Yasukazu and Kawakami Tadashi, Nihon

shogydshi

(Tokyo: Minerva shobo, 1965),

pp.

42-43;

and Oyama, Kamakura bakufu, p. 378.

14 Because the za has long been studied by many Japanese specialists, there are numerous works

on the subject. See Kozo Yamamura, "The Development of Za in Medieval Japan," Business

History Review 47 (Winter 1973): 438-65, and the works cited in this article.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

352 THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

eleventh century, had begun to be "protected" by the most powerful

elites.

The protection of artisans began because the weakened central

government had become unable to provide the desired goods and

services to the elites. This protection may also have been offered

because the elites, whose political and economic powers had been

increasing at the expense of the government, had the power to pro-

tect or exempt artisans and others from government taxes and could

supply them with food, shelter, and even cash payments. The elites

holding high positions in government were able to "privatize" groups

of artisans so that both patrons and artisans could benefit at the

expense of the government.

Such actions by the powerful elites are exemplified in the well-

known case of the

sekkanke,

the several collateral lines of the highest-

ranked nobles. Sometime during the eleventh century they created,

for their respective

lines,

workshops and offices that oversaw the activi-

ties of artisans who had previously provided specialized services to the

government. The workshops were for smiths, founders, and other

artisans who worked with metals; carpenters, several groups of weav-

ers and those who made silk, cloth, thread, and the like; makers of

Buddhist statues and other goods used in religious services; scroll

makers and painters; papermakers; dye makers and dyers; and several

other groups of artisans. Offices were established to oversee porters

and litter bearers, cooks, those who tended horses and orchards, those

responsible for acquiring fish and other food products (perhaps those

not directly obtained from

shoen

dues), cleaners and sweepers, and the

like.

Though few records remain for other high-ranked and well-off

nobles, we know that they too created such workshops and offices -

fewer in number and smaller in scale than those of the

sekkanke

- to

meet their needs.

By the twelfth century, the elites had much less need to rely on their

"protected" artisans. One reason for this was that more of the pro-

tected artisans began to produce more goods for sale in the market in

addition to those supplied to their protectors. Recent studies by Japa-

nese scholars show that as early as the mid-eleventh century such

artisans as papermakers, weavers, scroll painters, smiths, founders,

and several other highly skilled specialists who had been protected by

the government and the highest-ranked nobles began to produce their

products "privately" and to sell them in the market.

The other rea-

15 Wakita, Nihon chusei shogyd, pp. 199-234, contains an excellent description of the za's

origins. 16 Ibid., pp. 204-5.

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THE INITIAL CONDITIONS 353

son was that an increasing number of other artisans in and around the

region began to produce for the markets. Though the origins of these

artisans remain obscure, many had probably produced their products

in exchange for the stipendiary paddies given to them by temples and

shoen

administrators.

As soon as these artisans began to sell their goods in the markets, za

began to appear under the protection of the court, high-ranking no-

bles,

and temples, because such protection benefited both the patrons

and the producer-merchants. The protection consisted of using the

patrons' political and religious power to reduce or eliminate the compe-

tition that each za might face and to enable the za merchants to engage

in their market activities in the region, and even in nearby provinces,

with a minimum of hindrance (such as the levying of various taxes in

kind or in cash by the government, provincial governors or other

nobles, and temples). This meant that the za enabled merchants to

enjoy substantial monopolistic or monopsonistic power that could in-

crease their income and ability to engage more freely in market activi-

ties in the capital region and nearby provinces. The benefit to the

patrons was that they could share in the za's economic gains, by

continuing to receive the goods they required from the za. The pa-

trons also could demand more goods as the za's profits rose.

Although the historical evidence does not indicate a precise date

when the first za emerged, it seems certain that they began to appear

during the last decades of the eleventh century and throughout the

twelfth, initially in and near the capital and then elsewhere. The

oldest-known description of a za occurs in a petition requesting a

reduction in woodcutting dues, written in 1092.

According to this

source and others dated later, woodcutters belonging to the Seiren-in

temple voluntarily formed a group that was allowed to sell firewood in

the capital in exchange for providing litter-bearing services to the

temple. This group, the Yatsusesato-za, apparently had been formed

to increase the income of its members, by selling firewood in Kyoto.

Further, the presumably exclusive privilege of doing so was granted by

the temple, which then received litter-bearing services in addition to

17 Japanese specialists discussing the za do not consider the gains that the consumers of the

products sold by the za might have realized. However, it is important to note that the za, not

being literal monopolists who could price their products at will (as if facing a totally inelastic

demand), would in most cases have increased output and caused the price to fall. Thus, to ihe

extent that this occurred, the consumer would have gained what economists call "consumers'

surplus"; that is, consumers could have obtained a product at prices below those that they

would have been willing to pay.

18 For the original document relating to this za, see Yamamura, "The Development of Za," p.

441.

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354 THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

the woodcutters' usual work (i.e., cutting wood and supplying fire-

wood in lieu of

shoen

dues).

There is no doubt that several za, similar in origins and functions to

the one just described, existed by this period. Two za, one for selling

charcoal and the other for selling needles, were authorized by the

Shirakawa-in before 1095. The first record of a za belonging to the

Todaiji is dated 1097; this was a za for the temple's woodcutters.

There is mention of

za for lamp oil in Kyoto and another in Kyushu,

but the records are too sketchy to establish much more than their

existence. Documents from the mid-eleventh century also state that

some groups of

sanjo

residents "ceased to pay

shoen

dues" and "entered

into the protection of the powerful." The

sanjo,

which grew in number

throughout the Heian period, reflecting the growth of

shoen,

literally

meant "scattered places" in regard to the

honjo,

the "main place"

where the

shoen

administrators resided. The

sanjo

referred to the resi-

dences of those persons providing the

shoen,

often on a part-time basis,

with various nonagricultural products and specialized services. Be-

cause of the tasks that these persons at the

sanjo

performed,

sanjo

were

usually located at local nodes of transportation, and they grew in

number, first in and around the capital and then in Kinai and else-

where. We cannot be certain whether de facto za were created be

twee::

the

sanjo

residents and "the powerful" who protected them. However,

it appears that the protection was quite similar to that of the producer-

merchants of the capital region.

The most important fact for this chapter, however, is that the num-

ber of za grew during the twelfth century. A document written in

1127

indicates that two lamp-oil za - one belonging to the Daigo temple in

Kyoto and the other sanctioned by a branch shrine of

the

Hachimangu

in Kyushu - functioned as bona fide za. The evidence indicates that

miyaza (za formed by those providing services to shrines) and some

groups in the

sanjo

formed za during the twelfth century.

The powerful temples and court nobles also sanctioned more za as

the twelfth century progressed. For example, a large temple, the

Gionsha, had cotton batting, cloth, lumber, and tangerine za by 1185.

The total number of za at the end of the century cannot be established

precisely, but a reasonable estimate would- be a few dozen. In any

event, by the end of the twelfth century the za had developed to the

point that an entry in a court noble's diary referred to a demand made

by a rush-mat za of Yamato that competitors be restrained. In addi-

19 Japanese specialists also often refer to the residents of the sanjo as sanjo, as well.

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THE INITIAL CONDITIONS 355

tion, in 1195 the members of a za of mercury sellers in Ise petitioned

that competition by "many" outsiders be restricted.

To understand the historical setting in which the za emerged and

grew in number during these centuries, we should note that two

closely related and historically significant changes - one political and

the other economic - were taking place between the mid-eleventh cen-

tury and the end of the thirteenth century. The political change con-

sisted of the gradual rise of the warrior aristocracy, which gained

sufficient strength to form the Kamakura bakufu in 1185. The rise of

the warriors was accomplished at the expense of the central govern-

ment and of those court nobles and temples whose political power was

derived from the legitimating authority of the throne.

The economic change resulted mainly from a slow but steady rise

in agricultural productivity and was spurred by the growing number

of myoden (paddies registered in the name of the head of a patriar-

chally organized group of cultivators, or myoshu, within a shoen), a

significant step toward increasing the rights of cultivators in specific

strips of paddies.

The myoshu, who could share more effectively in

any increases in output, had additional incentives to raise productiv-

ity. They therefore began to hasten the process of improving seeds,

irrigation, and agricultural management. Double cropping began to

be practiced during the early Kamakura period. These develop-

ments, in turn, helped augment the economic power of the warrior

class,

as many of them were also myoshu or myoshu-turned-warriors.

Many were also shoen administrators and thus were in positions to

share in the increasing agricultural output at the expense of the shoen

owners in Kyoto. Thus, what both enabled and motivated these

warriors to join forces to establish the Kamakura bakufu was an

increase in their economic power and the desire to legitimate their

hold on that power.

During the early stage of these changes, that is, during the latter

half of the eleventh and most of the twelfth century, most of the

shoen

belonging to court nobles and temples remained basically secure. The

challenge to the shoen proprietorship by local military powers had

begun, but it did not yet seriously threaten the existence of the shoen

or the economic well-being of the

shoen

owners. Increases in productiv-

20 The diary referred to is Sanchoki by Sanjo Nagakane. See Yamamura, "The Development of

Za,"

p. 442.

21 On the rise of agricultural productivity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and for further

discussion of the myoden as an important institutional development contributing to the

growth of productivity, see Kozo Yamamura, "Tara in Transition: A Study of a Kamakura

Shoen," Journal of Japanese Studies 7 (Summer 1981): 349-91.

356 THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

ity also proceeded slowly, and a marketable surplus was just beginning

to appear.

However, these political and economic changes were sufficient to

enable the court nobles and the temples to recognize the emerging

trend: a decline in their political power and thus a decline in their tax

revenues. At the same time, in the economically most advanced capital

region, some producers began to see that they could earn larger in-

comes if they specialized in the production of certain goods and lim-

ited their competition. The za thus emerged as an institutional means

by which to raise the income of the producers and to compensate for

the falling income of the patrons.

Cities, ports, and markets

To encourage market activities in the capital trade region, the number

of marketplaces in Kyoto rose, and various economic activities in the

several satellite towns and ports increased. In Kyoto, the east market

of the Heian period, located in the eastern half of

the

city (the Sakyo),

became the principal marketplace. That is, a larger number of artisans

and traders came to trade in the Sakyo, especially on Sanjo, Shichijo,

and Hachijo, the major east-west avenues enjoying easy access to ma-

jor thoroughfares to other parts of the region and located close to the

warrior residences to the south. The Sakyo was also more conveniently

situated for several important and economically active temples on the

eastern edge of the city that had long held small markets, the

monzenmachi

(literally, "markets in front of the temple gates").

What we know of the economic activities of Nara, the city of tem-

ples,

is limited to the fact that it was a city consisting principally of the

monzenmachi

two

powerful temples: the Todaiji and the Kofukuji.

Although there are few medieval documents referring to port towns,

we know that many of them - such as Katsura and Toba adjacent to

the capital; Yodo and Kizu on the Yodo River; Imazu, Otsu, and

Sakamoto on Lake Biwa; and Hyogo on the Seto Inland Sea - played

important roles in the economic activities of the capital trade region

during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These were centers for

transshipping government taxes and

shoen

dues to the capital and for

some market activities.

22 A good discussion of medieval cities can be found in Wakita Haruko, Nihon

chusei toshiron

(Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku shuppankai, 1981).

23 Takenaka and Kawakami, Nihon shogyoshi, p. 25; and Endo Moto, Nihon chusei

toshiron

(Tokyo: Hakuyosha, 1940), pp. 108-9.

THE INITIAL CONDITIONS 357

Many port towns were also important because it was there that elites

had their own toi who engaged in shipping and even perhaps in some

trading on their behalf in exchange for stipendiary paddies or stipends

in kind.

These toi were the precursors of the toimaru (shippers who

also engaged in other activities), who will be discussed later in this

chapter. Although supporting evidence is even more scarce, there is

little doubt that market and other economic activities steadily in-

creased in the cities outside the capital trade region during the late

Heian and early Kamakura periods. The most important of such cities

was Kamakura, which grew rapidly after it became the seat of the

newly established bakufu. Yoritomo and his retainers in Kamakura

received most of the dues from the paddies of the nine surrounding

provinces, and combined with the fact that Kamakura was blessed

with an excellent harbor, commerce in that city could not but

expand - as did the population - to serve the warriors' needs. Al-

though we have no details, we do know that seven (or nine, depending

on the source) "marketplaces" were authorized by the bakufu by the

beginning of the thirteenth century to facilitate the expanding market

activities. Several za had already appeared, though little is known of

their origins and activities.

Coins must also have become an increas-

ingly prevalent medium of exchange in commercial transactions

among the merchants and warriors in Kamakura.

We should not underestimate the extent of commercial activities in

Kamakura by the early decades of the thirteenth century. After all,

this was a city in which the bakufu had to destroy as many as 32,274

sake jars when it temporarily prohibited the sale of sake in 1252. We

also know that Kamakura's population had grown so rapidly that the

city had to be subdivided into ho, as was Kyoto, beginning in 1240 and

that an earthquake in 1293 was reported to have killed 23,024 of its

inhabitants.

Throughout the twelfth century and into the early decades of the

thirteenth, virtually all other important cities outside the capital re-

gion were also port cities having access to shipping services. Some

became points of transshipping for the provincial taxes and

shoen

dues

headed to the capital region. Given that the principal means of trans-

portation, especially for agricultural products, was by water, many

cities became both important ports and centers of commerce, includ-

24 Even today, the best discussion on toimaru is still Toyoda Takeshi's Chusei Nihon

shogyoshi

kenkyu (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1952), pp. 194-263.

25 Ishii, Kamakura bakufu, pp. 472-86. 26 Ibid., p. 474.

358 THE GROWTH OF COMMERCE

ing Hakata, Hakozaki, Urado, and

few others in Kyushu and Akama-

zeki (Shimonoseki), and Yamasaki, Onomichi, Wakasa, Naoetsu, and

a dozen others in western to northern Honshu. There must have been,

as well, other smaller nodes of transportation, including provincial

capitals in which commercial activities were increasing, but no reliable

records for them exist.

Finally, it is known that following the establishment of the Ka-

makura bakufu, nearly thirty

shukuba

- towns that grew up around

inns for travelers - developed on the Tokaido, the main route for

those making the two-week journey between Kyoto and Kamakura.

Although the increased traffic on the Tokaido diminished travel on the

Sanyodo (the route connecting Kyoto and Hakato), the latter route too

is known to have had fifteen to twenty

shukuba.

Sung

coins

and trade with China

Throughout the late Heian and early Kamakura periods, trade with

the continent - Sung and Southern Sung - continued, and two results

of this trade are especially significant in the context of this chapter.

One was that trade with China offered elites many products unobtain-

able in Japan; the other was that the trade brought in a large quantity

of Sung coins. The latter was by far more important because it led to

the monetization of the Japanese economy, which in turn had pro-

found effects on the political, economic, and social history of Japan

during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.

By the late Heian period, the power of the Dazaifu to control trade

with the continent had diminished, reflecting the weakened govern-

ment in the capital. Thus, the trade, conducted primarily through

ports in northern Kyushu, was mostly private trade carried on by

elites for their own economic gains. After the Kamakura bakufu was

established, private trade continued because Yoritomo chose not to

impose restrictions on it. During this period, as well as into the second

half of the Kamakura period, Japan exported gold, pearls, mercury,

sulfur, scrolls, folding screens, fans, and other craft products and

imported several kinds of luxury cloth; numerous varieties of incense

and fragrances; writing materials (brushes, ink sticks, and ink stones);

various art objects and decorative furnishings made of ivory, gold,

27 Toyoda, Chusei Nihon

shogyoshi no

kenkyu, pp. 226-38.

28 Ishii, Kamakura bakufu, p. 459.