Cover Graphics

"Folding Screen of Scenes In and Around Kyoto" (Rekihaku "A" version)
"1563 Chronicle of a Journey North"(Museum collection)
Fragments of white porcelain from Hakata burial sites (courtesy of the Fukuoka City Education Board)

During the Middle Ages, Kyoto was the largest consuming area in Japan and advances were also made in the construction of shops. This folding screen from the first half of the 16th century is said to be the oldest picture of a shopping district (refer to the article by Osamu Goto). The writing below left is part of a chronicle written during a journey north from Kyoto to the Kanto and Tohoku regions. At the end of the Middle Ages a system of paying money to take a journey had been also established in the regions (refer to the article by Michihiro Kojima). The photo below right shows a large quantity of white porcelain fragments excavated in Hakata that date back to the 12th century. In Hakata, which was a gateway for trade, the cycle of consumption was brisk (refer to the article by Yasuyuki Suzuki).

(Michihiro Kojima, Research Department, National Museum of Japanese History)

Index

Special Feature:Consumption during the Middle Ages

Society and consumption (Michihiro Kojima)

A Witness to History

A photographic introduction to items from the collection
Bird's-eye view pictures of urban centers at the end of the Early Modern period
(Jun'ichi Okubo)

Special Feature:Consumption during the Middle Ages

What value does that have? -Searching for the significance of differences in value (Eiji Sakurai)
Consumption in medieval settlements and the process of creating resource materials (Yasuyuki Suzuki)
The construction of shops as sites of consumption (Osamu Goto)
Consumption on journeys - the world of "1563 Chronicle of a Journey North" (Michihiro Kojima)

Column

Consumption in Edo - the purchases of Edo warriors on tours of duty (Reiji Iwabuchi)
Markets on provincial borders (Toru Shinohara)

The 18th Rekihaku Research Update

45th Rekihaku Forum
"Port Towns of the Middle Ages - Exchanges of People and Commodities"
(Masatoshi Ono)

Introducing Our Researchers - Part 12

Seeking reflection in a mirror (Yoshifumi Ueno)

Book Review

Takahiro Aoki's "Regional Development of the Sake Brewing Industry During the Modern Period"
Reviewed by Ryotaro Nakanishi

Book Introductions by the Authors

"Lectures on the Onmyo-do" edited by Makoto Hayashi and Jun'ichi Koike
"How did Archeologists Live? -Archeology and Society" by Hideji Harunari

From Classroom to Museum

The museum's botanical garden as a learning experience (Seiichiro Tsuji)

Rekihaku Chat (readers' page) May 30, 2004

Rekihaku News

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