Mikael Adolphson, Kames Edward, Stacie Matsumoto, Edward Kamens - Heian Japan, Centers And Peripheries (2007).pdf

An introductory chapter lays out the volume’s four main points. The first emphasizes the importance of the early tenth century as a watershed that highlights the institutional and political transformations at court whereby provincial governors were allowed more freedom and, by extension, greater financial benefits. The second point problematizes the notion of a singular dichotomy between center and periphery in Heian Japan. The various essays suggest instead that the nexuses of power were in fact plural, and the periphery was not as peripheral as had been imagined. Thus, rather than conceiving Heian society as a static and one-dimensional formation centering on Kyoto alone, it might better be understood as a society of multiple centers and peripheries. The third point challenges the long-held view that the central government’s lessening of administrative control of the provinces meant an increasing loss of power. Rather, the abandonment of a strict administrative approach in favor of a more effective one allowed elites in the capital to strengthen their hold on the provinces, reflecting an improved integration of centers and peripheries. Fourth, the methods and means of exercising power shifted from one relying solely on official titles and procedures to one that was increasingly based on extra-governmental means, a process of "privatization" that reflected the development of multiple centers of social, political, and economic practice outside the official structures of the state.
Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries presents not only a set of new interpretations of this epochal moment in the Japanese past, but also offers a host of new questions to be addressed in future international and interdisciplinary research modeled on this exemplary volume.