Introduction

It has long been generally believed that the two most literate sectors of traditional Japanese society were the aristocrats and the clergy. This chapter takes a closer look at the skills and lack of skills of the Heian Period (794– 1185) aristocracy. The so-called ritsu-ryō state established in the early eighth century was a centralized system based on criminal and civil codes introduced into Japan from China. It was an administrative system based on written documents. From a central organ of state (Dajōkan) and eight ministries, decrees were sent out to the various provinces and written reports were sent back to the center from local offices. Because the system was based on an ideology of Confucian morality, it was necessary to have a large number of officials with knowledge of the Confucian classics and the Chinese characters (kanji) and prose (kanbun) in which they were written in order to administer the ritsu-ryō state. For that purpose, at the end of the seventh century an institution (later the daigakuryō or university) was established for the training of officials in the capital. Aristocrat and middle and lower official children were admitted to the daigakuryō and educated in the Confucian classics.

Research up to now has focused mainly on clarifying how literacy had spread during the period of the ritsu-ryō state. During the past few decades, the discovery of wooden tablets or strips (mokkan) and ink inscriptions on pottery (bokusho doki) from archaeological sites in various areas has confirmed the spread of Chinese character use in provincial areas as well. Mokkan, which appear to have been used by provincial officials as tablets for writing practice during time off from work, have been excavated from ruins of provincial offices from the seventh to the eighth centuries. Because parts of words referring to literary anthologies or to the Confucian classics, like the Analects, are inscribed on these wooden tablets, it suggests that even lower-level provincial officials were familiar with the Chinese classics. Tōno Haruyuki has written that, “From Nara [710– 784] to the early Heian, when the ritsu-ryō system was strong, was a time when the population was literate to a degree seldom seen in Japanese history.”