Central Authority and Local Autonomy in the Formation of Early Modern Japan

The history of Japan in the late sixteen and early seventeenth centuries is one of increasing political stability after a century of bloody warfare. The process of state building has been largely attributed to the successful efforts of three generals, collectively referred to as the Three Unifiers or the Three Heroes, who controlled Japan more firmly than anyone had for centuries. This book argues, instead, that the administrative and institutional initiatives leading toward social, political, and economic stability came primarily from local domain and village governments.
The author explores the evolution of local administration primarily in the context of Kaga, the single largest domain and one for which there are rich collections of administrative and land tax documents. Largely based on these documents, this study is the first to suggest an active, constructive role for villagers in the development of early modern Japanese political institutions and policies, and the first detailed Western analysis of the development of late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century land taxation, the major nexus of domain village interaction.
Among the topics covered are the means of assessing land values, the allocation of land use rights, the scope of samurai administrative rights, the development of early village and district organization, the problems and reforms of the land tax system, and the transfer of administrative authority from samurai to civilian officials during the final period of domain formation.
Even where Kaga was not typical of all Japan, events there highlight the range of patterns through which lord, retainer, and village negotiated to create a mutually tolerable, if not always easy relationship. The early modern Japanese state was not as strong as it is typically pictured, and it did not possess the means to implement major changes in the social, political, and economic structure. Only the local authorizes – the domain and the village administrations – had that capability. Because major changes were a response to local conditions and priorities rather than to central edicts, these changes took place at varying rates in different domains and generally more slowly than has heretofore been assumed.

Philip C. Brown is Assistant Professor of History at Ohio State University.

This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the original edition:
Title Central Authority and Local Autonomy in the Formation of Early Modern Japan: The Case of Kaga Domain
Author Philip C. Brown
Publisher Stanford University Press, 1993
ISBN 0804720363, 9780804720366
Length 312 pages