Libretto of Japanese History: Human 019 Fujiwara no Michinaga (Politics and Culture during the Regency Period)

This book deals with Fujiwara no Michinaga, a powerful figure representative of the Regency (Sekkan) period in Japanese history. In the first half, it describes his life, attempting to draw closer to a true picture of him, while the second half sheds light on some characteristics of his approach to politics and also takes up some of the cultural achievements relating to Buddhism and literature in which he played a central role. The aim is to situate Fujiwara no Michinaga and the politics and culture of the Regency period within the history of the ancient state.
 
In the past, it had been considered that Regency politics was characterized by nobles adhering only to precedents and concentrating on ceremonial etiquette and that there was no substantive politics. However, the central authority in state politics rested with the Grand Council of State (Daijōkan), and advances have been made in evidence-based research on the political system of the mid-Heian period. It has also become clear that provincial officials known as zuryō were responsible for tax collection. This book positions Fujiwara no Michinaga’s politics within the context of the state at the time.
 
Fujiwara no Michinaga is considered to have stood at the pinnacle of Regency politics, but in actual fact he served as regent for only one year, after the accession to the throne by his grandson, Emperor Go-Ichijō. He had been asked to become regent when Emperor Sanjō ascended the throne but declined, and he mainly held the positions of secretary to the emperor (nairan), who reviewed all imperial documents, and senior minister of the left, who also functioned as leader of the Grand Council of State. In terms of political history, Michinaga’s conflict with Emperor Sanjō is well known, and there is a strong image of him as having been an autocratic leader who used underhand methods to try to force Sanjō to abdicate with a view to placing Go-Ichijō on the throne. But in reality there were many problems with Emperor Sanjō, and I argue that Michinaga integrated and represented the interests of aristocratic society as a whole. During the second half of his life, he became increasingly devoted to Buddhism and had some notable achievements, including his pilgrimage to the mountain Kinpusen and, after his ordination as a monk, the construction of the temple Hosshōji, but the fact that he retained considerable political power even after becoming a monk distorted Regency politics in some respects.
 
In the realm of politics, formal meetings of court nobles to discuss various matters were important, and a distinctive feature of Michinaga’s approach to politics was that he participated in these meetings as minister of the left and guided the deliberations. These meetings were held not only to discuss important matters of state, such as changes in era-name and criminal charges, but were also held to discuss regional administration, such as matters raised by the provinces, the construction of imperial palaces, and the assessment of zuryō, i.e., matters related to control of zuryō. In particular, meetings held to assess the achievements of a zuryō after the end of his tenure had the aim of securing sources of revenue by increasing the items to be investigated in response to the reorganization of the system of taxes in kind and labour, and they were an exception in that they were convened repeatedly until a unanimous conclusion was reached. Meanwhile, court nobles of the rank of middle counsellor and higher made decisions in their capacity as senior nobles about matters submitted by government offices and provincial authorities, and as senior nobles they were also in charge of staging various events. A distinctive feature of Michinaga’s politics was that he oversaw these formal meetings and responsibilities of court nobles in his capacity as leader of the Grand Council of State and secretary to the emperor, and the fact that he built his power on top of the court nobles’ joint management of politics centred on the Grand Council of State could be viewed as the end point of the traditions of the ancient state.
 
In terms of cultural history, Michinaga made important contributions to Buddhism, spreading belief in the Lotus Sūtra and, in his later years, building the temples Muryōju’in and Hōjōji. Significant in this regard was the fact that he appointed the sculptors Kōshō and Jōchō to carve Buddhist statues, producing what might be described as the classical beauty of the Jōchō style. Michinaga himself wrote poems in Chinese and was a keen collector of books, making a great contribution to the thriving state of Sinitic literature during Ichijō’s reign. In addition, he was closely involved in the composition of The Diary of Lady Murasaki and the circulation of The Tale of Genji and brought women-centric culture such as Japanese poetry (waka) to history’s centre stage through the composition of poems added to standing screens and so on, thereby extending the base of culture.
 

(Written by OTSU Toru, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2023)