REKIHAKU

No.150 A Witness to History

Preparations and financial account ledgers for imperial accession ceremonies in the Middle Ages

The National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) has in its collection a large number of documents written by court nobles in the Middle Ages and old records, such as the "Manuscript Books of the Takamatsu House of the Imperial Family." In this article we introduce materials related to the preparations that took place for the accession ceremonies of emperors in the Middle Ages.

During this period, emperors, while still on the throne, named the crown prince who would become the next emperor and abdicated relatively early on in their reign. Under this Insei system, when a retired emperor, or "joko," died, officials known as "inshi" and "kinshin" (close attendants) held a funeral ceremony as part of their Insei duties.

Emperor Go-Hanazono abdicated in favor of Crown Prince Fusahito on July 19, 1464. That day, Fusahito ascended to the imperial throne by taking part in the accession ritual called "Senso" in which the imperial regalia, which are the sword (Kusanagi no Tsurugi) and the jewel (Yasakani no Magatama), were enshrined in a building within the imperial palace called the "Naishin Dokoro." Fusahito was later given the posthumous name of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado. On December 12 the following year (1465), Fusahito sent a messenger to Ise Shrine to report his accession, calling it a 'yoshinohobei' offering to the gods. An accession ceremony was held on December 27. Those responsible for administrative duties during this preparation period of one year and five months, and for organizing the accession ceremony, included Madenokoji Fuyufusa, who as the "tairei tenso" was in charge of accession-related matters, Settsu no Korechika, the "sobugyo" assigned to accession-related duties, and Mibu Asateru, who took the role of "kanmu."

Because until now there had been no surviving original documents describing medieval accession ceremonies, the preparation process or financial account ledgers, research has been based on materials found in imperial libraries dating from the Early Modern period. For example, events held at the imperial court during the latter part of the Edo period are described in "Kujiroku," kept by the Archives Division of the Imperial Household Agency, and some have been published as "Illustrated Guides to Palace Rituals." The only glimpse that researchers have been afforded of such events has been through some of these publications, such as "Plans for Abdication and the Transfer of Imperial Regalia" and "Plans for the Reading of the Proclamation of Accession."

Photo 1: 1630 copy of "Records of the 1465 Accession of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado"
Photo 2: "Bunki Accession Records" in 'Josoku Burui'	Photo 3: "Officials' Records on the 1518 Accession and 1511 Records of Echizen Province" copied by Hirata Motonao

The "Josoku Burui," which is an assortment of records related to imperial accession, are to be found among classical books and documents formerly in the Tanaka Yutaka Collection and now held at Rekihaku. These records include the "Records of the 1465 Accession of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado" (Photo 1), which cover the accession ceremony of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado on December 27, 1465, records of preparations for the accession of Emperor Go-Kashiwabara entitled "Bunki Accession Records" (Photo 2), and "Officials' Records on the 1518 Accession and 1511 Records of Echizen Province" (Photo 3). However, all of these are copies which Hirata Motonao, who worked in the imperial household treasury office in the Edo period, had others copy from the "Seike Goki" in 1630. As such, the origin and historical attributes of these documents remained unknown.

In 2007, Rekihaku added materials formerly held by the Funabashi-Kiyohara family to its collection. These materials comprise a collection of documents passed down through the Kiyohara family, whose members had served as "shonagon," or high-ranking administrative officials. In this collection there is a document that is identical to the original "Seike Goki" copied by Hirata Motonao in 1630. Rekihaku also found that seven original volumes of financial account ledgers pertaining to accession ceremonies for emperors during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods had been handed down through the Funabashi-Kiyohara family. For example, the document shown in Photo 1 corresponds to "Accession Records" (Photo 4), the document shown in Photo 2 to "Bunki No.4 Accession Records" (Photo 5), and the document in Photo 3 to "Accession Records 'Echizen 1511'" (Photo 6). The discovery of these original documents reveals that the ancient records named "Josoku Burui," which were thought to have been extracts of records categorized under different palace events, were actually "Accession Records" in the form of financial account ledgers used to record events of the imperial court. By comparing and making a critical study of both of these records it should be possible to discover the origin of these historical documents and ascertain their historical attributes, thus contributing to research on the history of court administrative systems and research on imperial finances.

Photo 4: "Accession Records" from the former collection of the Funabashi-Kiyohara family. This is an original copy of the "Records of the 1465 Accession of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado" copied by Hirata Motonao.
Photo 5: Newly discovered document, "Bunki No.4 Accession Records" (Original of document shown in Photo 2.)	Photo 6: Newly discovered document, "Accession Records" (Original of document shown in Photo 3.)

Moreover, a collection of imperial financial account ledgers related directly to the Tanaka books and the Funabashi-Kiyohara originals also exists in the classical books and documents formerly in the collection of the Hirohashi family and now held by Rekihaku. For example, there is a document titled "Records of the Accession of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado" (Photo 7) penned by Hirohashi Morimitsu. It comprises 25 articles on financial policy prepared by Madenokoji Fuyufusa, who was the "tairei tenso," or official in charge of accession-related events and activities at the time of the accession ceremony for Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado in December 1465. It was used and copied by Hirohashi Morimitsu who was the official in charge of the accession of Emperor Go-Kashiwabara in 1521. According to an inscription at the end of the document, on June 7, 1501 Yukikata, the head official in charge of events, secretly examined a book belonging to Settsu Nakatsukasa Daifu Motochika. This tells us that these records have exactly the same genealogy as the persons who produced the Bunki era records of the Tanaka books and the Funabashi-Kiyohara books.

Photo 7: "Records of the Accession of Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado" from the Hirohashii collection, penned by Hirohashi Morimitsu himself

The collection of the Hirohashi family includes twelve letters of receipt combined in a scroll with the name "Eisho Era Accession Funds Receipts" (Photo 8). These twelve original letters of receipt for funds, dating from March 17 to March 26, 1521, were preserved within the scroll and passed down to the present. Hirohashi Morimitsu, the "tenso" in charge of accession, ordered the "sobugyo" Settsu Masachika to take the letters of receipt from the court treasury to pay for the accession ceremony.

Emperor Go-Kashiwabara took part in the Senso ceremony on October 25, 1500. On April 29, 1501 he appointed Machi Hiromitsu as "tenso," the official in charge of the accession, Settsu Motochika to the position of "sobugyo" and Omiya Tokimoto as "kanmu." On October 26 the same year, new ceremonial garments were paid for from taxes received from Tango Province (Nobutane Kyoki). However, because funds to cover the preparations were inadequate, taxes from Echizen were used to cover expenses in 1511, and in 1518 as well the various officials were asked to provide the funds required to cover the accession preparations, to which Tokimoto contributed. Tokimoto died suddenly on April 11, 1520. The accession ceremony was eventually held on March 22, 1521 after a preparation period of 22 years. Since the preparations had taken such a long time and consumed considerable expenses, in the interim the role of "tenso" had been passed on to Hirohashi Morimitsu, the role of "sobugyo" to Settsu Masachika, and the role of "kanmu" to Mibu Yukitsune.

Photo 8: "Eisho Era Accession Funds Receipts" from the Hirohashi collection. It contains twelve letters of receipt for funds used for the accession ceremony held in 1521.

This examination of Hirata family documents in the classical books and documents formerly in the Tanaka Yutaka Collection, the recently collected documents of the Funabashi-Kiyohara family and classical books and documents formerly in the collection of the Hirohashi family, all now held at Rekihaku, has revealed the existence of original imperial financial account ledgers in the form of accession records that were used for both Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado and Emperor Go-Kashiwabara.

Until now, it has been generally held that due to the weakening of the emperor system in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods the imperial court relied upon the bakufu for financial support and that the bakufu administration was responsible for administering these finances. However, if this were the case it does not explain why Tokimoto and Morimitsu copied these documents and used them in the execution of their duties or why they were passed down with great care in the Funabashi-Kiyohara family. Indeed, we may conclude that in the Middle Ages court officials worked together and shared the same account ledgers by means of an integrated bureaucratic organization and a joint financial system between the bakufu and the imperial court. A study of the collection of imperial financial account ledgers should also be useful for redefining the relationship between the imperial court and the bureaucratic organization of the bakufu.

Kesao Ihara (Medieval Japanese History, Research Department)