Dr. Paula R. Curtis

Historians of Japan have long grappled with the question of terminology like “medieval” or “feudalism,” in part because many of the foundational, post-war scholarship in our field was burdened with Marxist meta-narratives.

Many scholars of Japan, even as early in the 19th century, were eager to sync Japan’s historical trajectory with Europe’s, either to fulfill nationalistic claims of “We are on par with the West!” or in an attempt to conduct comparative histories.

A variety of scholars have since problematized this Eurocentric terminology (though in my personal opinion have yet to distance ourselves much from its frameworks), and sought to attempted to differentiate Japan’s “medieval” characteristics.

Jeffrey Mass, for example, cited several- decline of the old aristocratic social order, endemic warfare, peasant settlement in nucleated villages, decline of women’s power, rising independence of provincial elites, religious sectarianism, new intellectual development.

We don't want to fall into the trap of determinism in this process, either.

Are there stages of development? Sets of characteristics catalyzed by influence? Arbitrary chronological units?

With Japan, we see some overlap with European notions of the Middle Ages, but there’s no temporal synchronicity with Eurasia—McCarty suggests it’s more useful to tackle broader concepts than to agonize over transition periods. What about culture? Is there a "medieval culture"?

"Can we define medieval culture as 1) an awareness that a classical age had declined, 2) new religious traditions at odds with 'classical' heritage, 3) tension between exalting and diminishing one's own age in light of a previous cultural high point?"

To highlight notions of historical consciousness pervading society, McCarty uses “The Record of Springing Events in the Six Reigns” a text on the Jōkyū War (1221), in which Emperor Go-Toba attempted to overturn the recently established warrior government (and failed).

This was a really big deal because emperors were believed to have divine origins-- it's very destabilizing to have such a figure defeated.

It shows the notion of a “fallen times” emerging following this war, and this seems to be a common denominator of medieval culture (if, specifically, Eurasian medieval culture). A nostalgic classical past in contrast to a perceived present of decline.

At the same time, narrativizing it is a kind of celebration.