The Kenmu Regime in European and American historiography
https://doi.org/10.24412/2500-2872-2022-1-38-62
Abstract
The Kenmu Regime is the military and aristocratic Japanese government in 1333–1336, headed by the supporters of sovereign Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇, 1288–1339). The reign of Go-Daigo, full of contradictions, had a great impact on premodern Japanese culture and Japanese historical memory, and became one of the main narratives of medieval Japanese history. Academic discussions on the historical role of the Kenmu Regime began in the Edo period (1603–1868) and continue to this day. However, there are no specific Russian-language studies entirely devoted to the events of the 14th century and the Kenmu Regime in particular. In Russia, the works by European and American authors are usually used to describe this period. At the same time, many aspects of the discussion remain neglected. For example, Russian scholars have essentially ignored the last stages of the study of Go-Daigo’s reign. The purpose of this paper is to determine what we know and what we do not know about the Kenmu Regime, how we know it, and what we can do to deepen our knowledge. The author of the current article used as sources various academic and near-academic texts (notes, monographs, collective monographs and manuals, reviews and responses to reviews, background materials) in Portuguese, English, French, German, and Russian. The texts are considered in chronological order, i.e., each section reflects a certain stage in the study of the rule of GoDaigo. This work also examines the methodological and other influence of Japanese historians on nonJapanese scholars who study the Kenmu Regime and analyzes the prospects for further study of Go-Daigo’s reign from the point of view of different scholarly approaches and academic traditions.
About the Author
I. A. Tyulenev
National Research University "Higher School of Economics" (HSE University)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Tyulenev Ivan A., Student of the Educational Program "Asian and African Studies", Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs; President of "Himawari" Association, Head of the "Povest ob Imperatore"
21/4(5), Staraya Basmannaya st., Moscow, 105066
References
1. Gorbylyov, A.M. & Meshcheryakov, A.N. Yaponiya epokhi Muromati [Japan in the Muromachi Age]. Chas istiny [An Hour of Truth]. Retrieved February 22, 2021, from https://youtu.be/zLB1JzBcgo4 (In Russian).
2. Iskenderov, A.A. (1984). Toyotomi Hideyosi [Toyotomi Hideyoshi]. Moscow: Nauka. (In Russian).
3. Konrad, N.I. (1923). Voprosy yaponskogo feodalizma [Issues of Japanese feudalism]. Novyj Vostok [New East], 4, 349–364. (In Russian).
4. Kozhevnikov, V.V. (1998). Vinoven v izmene? Shtrikhi k portretu Asikaga Takaudzi [Guilty of Treason? Strokes to the image of Ashikaga Takauji]. Izvestiya Vostochnogo Instituta [Oriental Institute Journal], 129–140. (In Russian).
5. Polkhov, S.A. (2018). Yaponiya v epokhu srednevekov’ya [Japan in the middle ages]. In D.V. Streltsov (Ed.), Istoriya Yaponii [A History of Japan], 2nd edition (pp. 91–199). Moscow: AspektPress. (In Russian).
6. Prasol, A.F. (2020). Yaponiya v XIV veke: hroniki vlasti [Chronicles of Power: Japan in the 14th Century]. (In Russian).
7. Rai Dzio Sisei; Mendrin, V.M. (Trans.) (1910–1915). Istoriya siogunata v Yaponii [A History of Shogunate in Japan] (vol. 1–6). Izvestiya Vostochogo Instituta [A Journal of Oriental Institute]. 33, 2; 36, 1; 39, 1; 39, 2; 50; 60. (In Russian).
8. Simonova-Gudzenko, Ye.K. (1998). Kamakurskii segunat (1185–1333) [the Kamakura shogunate (1185–1333)]; Raskol imperatorskogo doma Yaponii (1334–1392) [the Division in the Imperial House of Japan (1334–1392)]. In A.Ye. Zhukov (Ed.), Istoriya Yaponii. T. 1. S drevneishikh vremen do 1868 goda [A History of Japan. Vol. 1. From Ancient Times to 1868] (pp. 222–254; 254–274). (In Russian).
9. Tyulenev I.A. (2022). Pravleniye gosudarya Go-Daigo v istoricheskikh istochnikakh i ikh perevodakh na yevropeiskiye yazyki [The Rule of Sovereign Go-Daigo in Historical Sources and Their Translations into European Languages]. In I.A. Tyulenev (Ed.), Sbornik materialov XII Konferentsii molodykh yaponovedov ―Novyi vzglyad‖ [The XII Conference of Young Japanologists ―New Perspective‖ Proceedings] (pp. 652–688). (In Russian).
10. Adolphson, M.S. (2017). From classical to medieval? Ōchō kokka, kenmon taisei and Heian court. In K.F. Friday (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History (pp. 99–115).
11. Borgen, R. (1998). Review; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. The American Historical Review, 103 (5), 1668–1669.
12. Cooper, M.J. (1965). They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543-1640. Berkley: University of California Press.
13. Goble, A.E. (1996). Kenmu: Go-Daigo’s Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center.
14. Goble, A.E. ( 2000). Response to Markus Rüttermann 's Review of Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 26 (1), 300.
15. Goble, A.E. (2007). Medieval Japan. In W.M. Tsutsui (Ed.), A Companion to Japanese History (pp. 47–66).
16. Goble, A.E. (2012). Defining ―Medieval‖; The Kamakura Shogunate and the Beginnings of Warrior Power; Go-Daigo, Takauji, and the Muromachi Shogunate. In K.F. Friday (Ed.), Japan Emerging. Premodern History to 1850 (pp. 32–41; 189–202; 213–223).
17. Goodwin, J.R. (1999). Review; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. The Historian, 61 (4), 936–937.
18. Goza Yūichi (Ed.). (2016). Nanchō kenkyū no saizensen: koko made wakatta «Kenmu seiken» kara Go-Nanchō made [Advanced studies of the Southern Court: from still understood as ―Kenmu Regime‖ to the Late Southern Court]. (In Japanese).
19. Griffis, W.M. (1876). The Mikado’s Empire: A History of Japan from the Age of Gods to the Meiji Era (660 BC - AD 1872). New York: Harper.
20. Hérail, F. (1986). Histoire du Japon – des origines à la fin de Meiji: Matériaux pour l'étude de la langue et de la civilisation japonaises [History of Japan – the Origins to the End of Meiji: Materials for the Study of Japanese Language and Civilization]. Paris: Orientalist publications from France. (In French).
21. Hérail, F. (Ed.). (2010). Histoire du Japon: des origines à nos jours [A History of Japan: From the Origins to the Present Day]. (In French).
22. Kaempfer, E. & Scheuchzer, J.G. (Trans.). (1727). The History of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire… London: Printed for the translator.
23. Kameda Toshitaka (2016). “Kenmu no shinsei” wa handōtekinanoka, shinpotekinanoka [―New Rule of Kenmu‖ is reactionary or progressive?]. In Yūichi Goza (Ed.), Nanchō kenkyū no saizensen: koko made wakatta «Kenmu seiken» kara Go-Nanchō made [Advanced studies of the Southern Court: from still understood as ―Kenmu Regime‖ to the Late Southern Court] (pp. 43–63). (In Japanese).
24. Lequin, F. (2002). Titsingh Studies, 1.
25. Mass, J.P. (1982). Court and Bakufu in Japan: Essays in Kamakura History. New Haven: Yale University Press.
26. Mass, J.P. (Ed.). (1997). The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century.
27. Mass, J.P.; Hauser, W.B. (Eds.). (1985). The Bakufu in Japanese History.
28. McCarty, M.B. (2013). Divided Loyalties and Shifting Perceptions. The Jōkyū Disturbance and Courtier-Warrior Relations in Medieval Japan. Ph.D. diss. New York: Columbia University.
29. McCullough, H.C. (1959). The Taiheiki. A Chronicle of Medieval Japan. New York: Columbia University Press.
30. Mori Shigeaki. (1997). Yami no rekishi – Go-Nanchō Go-Daigo-ryū teikō to chūsen [Darkness in History – the Resistance and the Demise of the Go-Daigo Branch of the Late Southern Court]. (In Japanese).
31. Morris, I. (1975). The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. London: Secker & Warburg.
32. Murata Masashi (1949). Nanbokuchō seitō ron no rekishi [A History of the Northern and Southern Courts Controversy]. In Masashi Murata, Murata Masashi chosakushū [Full Composition of Murata Masashi Writings] (Vol. 1). Tokyo: Chuokoronsha. (In Japanese).
33. Murdoch, J. (1910). A History of Japan. Vol. 1: From the origins to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1542 A. D. Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh.
34. Ōyama, K. (1997). The Fourteenth Century in Twentieth-Century Perspective. In J.P., Mass (Ed.), The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century (pp. 345–365).
35. Rüttermann, M. (1999). Review; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. The Journal of Japanese Studies. 25 (1), 178–185.
36. Sansom, G.B. (1931). Japan: A Short Cultural History. London: Cresset Press.
37. Sansom, G.B. (1961). A History of Japan: 1334-1615. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
38. Sansom, G.B. (1974). A History of Japan 1334-1615. Rutland & Tokyo: The Charles E. Tuttle Company Inc.
39. Sansom, G.B. (1978). Japan: A Short Cultural History. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
40. Smith, A.G.R. (1998). Review; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd series, 8 (2), 315–316.
41. Steenstrup, C. (1998). Review; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 58 (2), 614–622.
42. Titsingh, I. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon [Nihon Odai Ichiran, or the Annals of the Emperors of Japan]. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society. (In French).
43. Varley, H.P. (1971). Imperial Restoration in Medieval Japan. NY&L: Columbia University Press.
44. Varley, H.P. (1990). Cultural Life in Medieval Japan. In K. Yamamura (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3: Medieval Japan (pp. 447–499).
45. Varley, H.P. (1994). Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales.
46. Varley, H.P. (2001). Foreword to the Cornell edition. In J.W., Hall & T., Toyoda (Eds.), Japan in the Muromachi Age (pp. xi–ixx). Ithaca: East Asia Program, Cornell University.
47. Zöllner, R. (1998). Review: The Sun Also Rises. Go-Daigo in Revolt; Reviewed Work: Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution by A.E. Goble. Monumenta Nipponica, 53 (4), 517–527.
48. Zwartjes, O. (2011). Portuguese Missionary Grammars in Asia, Africa and Brazil, 1550- 1800.
Review
For citations:
Tyulenev I.A. The Kenmu Regime in European and American historiography. Japanese Studies in Russia. 2022;(1):38-62. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24412/2500-2872-2022-1-38-62
Views:
432
Email this article 