Social Changes of the Late Thirteenth Century: Pressure from the Centre
During the second half of the thirteenth century, several profound changes at all levels of society contributed to the strengthening of a more authoritarian state structure that eventually would lead to increased levels of violence and social destabilisation.
This may of course seem contradictory, since many people are used to thinking of the state as the guardian of order and peace with its monopoly (or near-monopoly) on violence. However, as central powers expanded their influence into rural areas, privileges held by both elites and commoners in those areas came under renewed pressure as they did not always fit snuggly into the plans of government. Previously held rights to commons became restricted and/or subject to taxation, and local conflict patterns and extra-judicial mediation were increasingly seen as violent acts of subversion and banditry.The most obvious and dramatic changes in the second half of the thirteenth century resulted from the attempted Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, which had severe repercussions for the relationship between the shogunate in Kamakura and its provincial retainers. The wars left no spoils to be divided among the warriors fighting the invaders, which resulted in a sweep of complaints and a general dissatisfaction with the regime by many warriors.[424] The heightened level of alarm during the wars and preparations to ward off another invasion throughout the 1280s furthermore forced the regime to be ever more vigilant in suppressing local insubordination and overriding local hierarchies and social structures. Infringements of laws were punished with increasing severity, and the laws were being enforced with much greater enthusiasm by the regime than before, leading to frustration and anger at all levels.[425]
However, other changes in this period were just as influential, except they took place much more gradually over time.
While population growth had remained largely static since the early eighth century, from around the mid thirteenth century Japan experienced a slow but steady increase in population. Massive famines still hit the population of the archipelago hard in 122932 and 1257-60, but the population seems to have recovered faster from the devastations than had been the case in earlier periods. This was no doubt due to the adoption of technological improvements, especially in the central provinces near Kyoto. The proliferation of coins in this period, for example, resulted in an increase in trade at all levels of society, and both people and commodities became much more mobile.[426] The increased mobility then paved the way for the spread of new ideas and technologies that had been available for generations but had never before had the necessary social composition to take root.Iron tools became more accessible for cultivators, and new crops facilitated the implementation of double cropping, while improved techniques for using draft animals like cattle and horses made it more feasible to till larger areas, with a larger output.[427] These technological advances helped sustain a growing population, and the increasing number of people put pressure on the cultivators to become even more productive and efficient. For centuries, land had been abundant, but now it was necessary to make more out of the land available. The intensification of agricultural production necessitated a higher degree of attachment to the land, which meant that peasants were less prone to using avoidance techniques in their negotiations with estate proprietors. This in turn led to more direct confrontations between village networks and absentee proprietors and their local agents.[428] New organisational techniques had to be developed by rural societies in this new environment. While large nucleated villages surrounded by moats did not become common until the wars of the fourteenth century, more compact villages were gradually replacing the estate geography of dispersed hamlets by the second half of the Kamakura period.[429]
Simultaneously, the powerful, landholding elites set out to strengthen their control over those estates that had not already been lost to various local power holders.
In particular, estates far from the central provinces became increasingly harder to control for the capital-based landholding elites. Although some of these remote estates did continue to exist well into the fourteenth century and beyond, they became less economically important for the landholders who would only get very little revenue, if any, from them from the thirteenth century.[430] Instead the capital proprietors set out to strengthen their direct control and management over estates closer to the centre. They sent out on-the-ground custodians to oversee the performance of detailed land surveys and the assessment and payment of taxes.In this process, militias and vigilantism were still necessary means for the safekeeping of the estate and its community, but it needed to be contained more actively by the absentee estate owner. When residents overstepped their role and engaged in violence not sanctioned by the estate owner, they were vilified and accused of being bandits. This naturally poses a problem for the historian today, who is left with an abundance of narratives on banditry and rampant predation that may create a false image of chaos and uncontrolled violence.
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