Uncertain Powers: Sen'yomon-in and Landownership by Royal Women in Early Medieval Japan

Uncertain Powers is an original and much-needed analysis of female leadership in medieval Japan, challenging the traditional view of the era as dominated by male retired monarchs and a warrior government. It explores the political and economic roles of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Japanese royal women, known as nyoin, who held the title of premier royal lady and owned extensive estates. Nyoin used their wealth and human networks to build temples and organize their entourages as salons to assert religious, cultural, and political influence. The book demonstrates how nyoin struggled to transform authority into power through cooperation, persuasion, compromise, and coercion.

Format: Hardback
Length: 330 pages
Publication date: 17 December 2021
Publisher: Harvard University, Asia Center

Uncertain Powers is a groundbreaking and original analysis of female leadership in medieval Japan. By challenging the traditional view of the era as dominated by male retired monarchs and a warrior government, Sachiko Kawai explores the significant political and economic roles of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Japanese royal women. The author populates the period with royal wives and daughters who held the title of premier royal lady (nyoin) and owned extensive estates across the Japanese archipelago.

Nyoin, whose power varied according to marital status, networks, and age, used their wealth and human networks to build temples and organize their entourages as salons to assert religious, cultural, and political influence. Confronted with social factors and gender disparities, they were motivated to develop coping strategies, the workings of which Kawai masterfully teases out from the abundant primary sources.

Uncertain Powers presents a nuanced and groundbreaking study of the relationship between a nyoin's authority (her acknowledged rights) and her actual power (the ability to enforce those rights), demonstrating how, as members of political factions, as landlords, and as religious and cultural patrons, nyoin struggled to transform authority into power by means of cooperation, persuasion, compromise, and coercion.

Weight: 646g
Dimension: 160 x 237 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674260160