Historical Materials No.41
THE WOODEN TABLETS FROM THE NARA CAPITAL SITE I
English Summary
NARA,1995
PUBLICATIONS ON HISTORICAL MATER VOLUME XXXXI, SUPPLEMENTUM
THE WOODEN TABLETS EXCAVATED FROM THE NARA CAPITAL SITE I
English Summary
1.Wooden tablets and Nara capital site
Nara Capital was established in 710 and served as the capital for the next 74 years. It measured 4.8 kilometers north to south, 4.3 kilo-meters east to west and had an extension of 2.1×1.6km in the east. The total area of the city was 24.5 square km. Streets laid out along the points of the compass crisscrossed the city regularly, as in the plan for Tang Changan. Nara Palace was located in the north central section of the city, and was home to the imperial family and government offices. The rest of the city housed temples, markets, and residences of officials and commoners alike. It is estimated that the population of the capital was about 100,000.
Since the opening of serious excavations by Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute in 1955, archaeologists have investigated about 30 percent of the palace. The Palace is today owned by the Japanese government, and when an excavation is completed, archaeologists carefully cover the features and preserve the area as a park. Wooden tablets were first excavated in 1961; today archeologists have uncovered about 40,000. Some of them were published in The Wooden Tablets from the Nara Palace Site, vol. I -IV.
The rest of Nara Capital city has undergone urbanization, but has been continuously excavated since 1970 in salvage operations. Wooden tablets have been excavated from the city and have been noted in various excavation reports along with other artifacts. Henceforth, excavators decided that they would produce reports solely for wooden tablets. Particularly worthy of notice are the “Prince Nagaya’s Family Wooden Tablets” and the “Second Row Great Avenue Wooden Tablets” discovered between 1986 and 1989 in the Left Capital Third Row, Second Column and Second Row, Second Column. Together these two finds amounted to over 100,000 tablets with rich contents sure to affect research fields throughout ancient Japanese history. Until recently, Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute has published the tablets in outline form, but henceforth will produce formal excavation reports.
This excavation report focuses on the wooden tablets unearthed from the Left Capital Third Row, Second Column, the first, second, seventh, and eighth sub-blocks (tsubo; Prince Nagaya’s Residence), and from Kyuseki Garden (designated as a Special Historic Site) to the south. However, there were so many tablets from Ditch SD4750 that they could not all fit in one volume. Thus the editors divided the ditch into small grids three meters long starting from the south; each section takes up a volume. As the length of the ditch was27meters, it was divided into nine grids named TB11-TJ11. This volume deals with only the wooden tablets found in section TB11.
2.The Sites
A) Left Capital. Third Row, Second Column, Sixth Sub-block (Kyuseki Garden);
This site was in use from the early eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century; it can be subdivided into the early and later halves of the Nara period. In the first half, a winding ditch SD1525 roamed through the center of the block; in the second half, the ditch was filled in and a section was utilized for pond SG1504. This indented pond inherited its shape from the old outline of the ditch. The waterline was strewn with sand and stones; the bottom was lined with boulders. Wooden tablets were excovered from Ditch SD1525 of the early Nara period. SD1525 linked up with Ditch SD4150 detected in the seventh sub-block along the northern edge of sixth sub-block. The width of the ditch was two to four meters, the depth one meter. Ninety wooden tablets were recovered in a bunch from a bend in the ditch.
B) Left Capital. Third Row, Second Column, First, Second, Seventh, and Eighth Sub-block.
This site can be subdivided into six periods.
Period One saw the four sub-block area used as one lot from 710 to about 717. Within the lot there was an Inner area which is enclosed by fences composed of three large spaces. Around the Inner area lay the facilities of the Outer area. Ditch SD4750 in the eastern portion of the lot dates from this period. The pile of wooden tablets discovered here makes it clear that the owner of the residence in the early Nara period was Prince Nagaya.
Period Two ranged from 717 to 729,and the lot was still used as a four sub-block unit. The major buildings were also the same, but along with changes in the division of the land between Inner and Outer areas, and the number of edifices increased. The end of period Two was 729,the year when Prince Nagaya was forced to commit suicide by a conspiracy.
Period Three runs from 729 to the return of the capital to Nara in 745 from Kuni and Naniwa Capitals, and the land was still used as one unit. For the most part, the wooden fences of Inner and Outer area remained as in Period Two, but the main buildings were rebuilt. Large pits, possibly part of a ditch, were dug to the north and south of Second Row Great Avenue due north of the lot. A large bunch of wooden tablets, the “Second Row Great Avenue Wooden Tablets”, were discovered here in this period.
Period Four was a short time after the return to Nara; roads were constructed through the middle of the block, forming four lots of one sub-block each.
Period Five was the later half of the Nara period, and once again the entire block was used as one lot. But there was no fence dividing up the plot.
Period Six was the end of the Nara period, when roads were once again detected dividing up the block into four sub-block.
C) Remains producing wooden tablets;
Well SE4770 was excavated east of a wooden fence just to the south of the center of block eight. The wooden planks composing the top of the well had all been removed; all that was left was a hole 1.9m north-south, 2.3m east-west, and 1.9m deep. The dirt used to cover the hole had four layers, and wooden tablets were uncovered in a bunch from the third layer. The well seems to have been covered not long after 717, according to the dates of the wooden tablets. The 226 tablets were like those uncovered from SD4750 in date and content.
SD4750 was a pit shaped like a ditch dug in the southeast corner of block eight. The width was 2.8 - 3.7m, the depth was 0.8 - 1.0m, and the length was 27.3m. The earth in the pit was composed of four layers; over 35,000 wooden tablets were recovered from the third layer. The third layer was about 30cm in depth, and pottery and roof tiles also were recovered from this layer. It is likely that all these artifacts were thrown away at once over a short period of time.
3.The Prince Nagaya Wooden Tablets
The following section describes the wooden tablets recovered from SD 4750, the “Prince Nagaya Wooden Tablets.” According to Figure I, the total was over 35,000 tablets, with about 82% being inscriptions on shaving (kezurikuzu). They cover the years from 710 to 717. Contents of wooden tablets can be summarized as documents (monjo), tallies (tsukefuda), and so on, and the documents can be further subdivided into those that make clear the chain of command and those slips and records that do not. Tallies include tax tags attached to revenue items presented from localities to the capital, and tablets used for the preservation and handling of various items. In addition, there are many unclear wooden tablets, some of which were used for writing practice.
Documents A classic form for this type of wooden tablet is; “The bureau of Music and Dance (gagaku-ryo: 雅楽寮) reports to the household administration of Prince Nagaya.” These tablets all employ words like “report” (i: 移 or ge: 解) or “order” (fu: 符) specified for official use in the Chapter on Documentary Forms (kushiki-ryo : 公式令) in the law codes. (This is Type I ) Type II uses words similar to Type I, such as “present” (tatematsuru or shinjo: 進上), for example, “Kataoka （片岡） presents three koku (斛 “bushels”) of turnips （菁）···”
Type I records the give-and-take between offices, or offices and individuals. It is highly likely that the excavation site was the office name noted as the destination for Type I tablets. Destinations include the “Nara Office (Nara no tsukasa dokoro: 奈良務所) and Prince Nagaya’s Administrative Office” (Nagayao Keryo sho : 長屋王家令所). The former was probably the name of the area in the eighth century, while the latter was the formal appellation used for Prince Nagaya's household by the government.
Type II wooden tablets were used to signal the dispatch of items, and they make clear that Prince Nagaya possessed fields and gardens in Kataoka （片岡） , Kinoe （木上）, Yaguchi （矢口）, Saho （佐保）, Yamashiro （山背）, Oba （大庭）, Miminashi （耳梨）, and Takayasu （高安）, Such information is valuable in understanding how aristocrats held land.
Records Type III includes slips for the payment of rice, like “Two sho (升 measures) of rice for sutra transcribers （書法模人） received from Atera （当良） ···“ Type IV is composed of wooden tablets noting individual names such as official work evaluations and even transit passes marked according to the joints in a person’s finger.
Type III comprises about half of all the Prince Nagaya wooden tablets. Type III served as records of all transactions in rice, which were carried on everyday. Each slip noted one transaction; every month a summary report was made based on the slips. Many workers who lived at Nagaya’s estate received rice for their labors.
Type IV includes work evaluations for officials entrusted with overseeing Nagaya’s operations. Transit passes marked with the joints of a person’s finger came to light for the first time; they are about 10cm long with a personal name and a character specifying a finger. At three points on the tablet black marks note where the joints for that finger were. By comparing the name and the joint marks guards could tell the identity of the person and determine whether to allow him or her to pass through gates.
Tallies Type V includes tax tags of great variety. Some note the province, district, and administrative village along with the name of the taxpayer, the name of the tax, the item paid and its amount, such as the tribute tax paid in salt from Suo Province （周防国） . Others follow the form of tax tags from Heijo Palace and abbreviate the tax payer’s name or his address, as in “four to (斗 measures) of saurel from Haika Administrative Village （羽床里）.” Provinces presenting taxes include Omi （近江）, Echizen （越前）, and Suo （周防） and show a concentration, unlike tax tags recovered from Heijo Palace. These tablets will be useful in understanding the collection of taxes, especiaiiy as relates to sustenance households (fuko : 封戸).
The Wooden Tablets of Prince Nagaya We have stated that these tablets belonged to Prince Nagaya’s Family, but it is necessary to explain the basis for this assertion. Reasons are: 1) the tablet which reads the Bureau of Music and Dance reports to the administrative office of Prince Nagaya (discussed-above); 2) the recipients of rice noted in Type III; 3) two household administrations; and 4) labels that note destinations.
2) Type III records many names of nobles receiving rice, and most are Nagaya’s wives, concubines, children, or brothers, revealing that the residents of the estate were Nagaya’s relatives.
3) Wooden tablets reveal that there were two sets of household administration overseeing the estate. The first had five ranked and evaluated officials (keryo: 家令, kafu: 家扶, kaju: 家従, and dai/sho shori: 大・小書吏) appropriate to a member of the imperial family of the Second Rank; mostly this administration appeared as the sender of document tablets (Type I) dispatched to the estate. The second had only two ranked and evaluated officials (keryo, shori) and appeared usually in the rice payments of Type III. The relations between these two administrations is controversial, but it is clear that only the second administration dwelt permanently in the estate. Because there was no kafu or kaju, and because the highest official seems to have been junior Seventh Rank, Lower Grade Akasome no Toyoshima （従七位下赤染豊嶋）, the second administration was appropriate to a member of the imperial family ranked at Junior Third （従三位）. This status matches Prince Nagaya’s rank during thedates noted on the wooden tablets.
4) When one observes the destination of the labels, they include the Northern Palace （北宮）, the Palace of Prince Nagaya, and the Palace of Princess Hidaka （氷高内親王） (one reference). Since Hidaka ascended the throne as the Emperess Gensho （元正天皇） in 715, at the point the wooden tablets were disposed of, she was no longer living at the estate. The only choices that remain are Prince Nagaya and his close relative living in the Northern Palace.
Based on these points, we believe that the residents of this estate were Prince Nagaya and his family and call the wooden tablets discovered there the “Prince Nagaya’s Family wooden tablets“
CONTENTS
Preface
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations and Tablets
Index to Plates
Explanatory Notes
General Text
Chapter I Introduction
Chapter II Excavation Sites Where Wooden Tablets Were Recovered
1) Left Capital, Third Row, Second Column, Sixth Sub-block (Kyuseki Garden)
2) Left Capital, Third Row, Second Column, First, Second, Seventh, and Eighth Sub-block.
3) SD4750
Chapter III Outline of “Prince Nagaya Wooden Tablets”
Tablet Transcriptions and Interpretations
Drainage Ditch SD1525
Drainage Ditch SD4150
Disposal Pit SK2549
Well Site SE4366
Structure Site SB4430
Well Site SE4580
Drainage Ditch SD4361
Well Site SE4760
Well Site SE4770
Well Site SE5220
Well Site SE4885
Well Site SE5135
Well Site SE5140
一九九五年三月三一日 発行
平城京木簡 一 －長屋王家木簡 一－ 解説
奈良国立文化財研究所史料第四十一冊 別冊
