Japanese Legal History Workshop: Thinking Law in Medieval Japan

How did Japanese legal traditions envision the idea of law? How did this idea change throughout the centuries? And how did it relate to the notions of Western law brought in the early modern and modern periods? In the Japanese Legal History Workshop, we will listen to the most recent trends in Japanese scholarship on these and other issues. In the first session, Professor Matsuzono Jun’ichirō will deliver a talk on the different definitions of law in Japanese history, while the second session will gather four different scholars working with various topics of medieval legal history in Japan. The discussion will focus on methods, theoretical frameworks and concepts, prompting a lively and welcoming debate that aims at extrapolating the limits of traditional Japanese history and legal history.

MATSUZONO Jun’ichirō The World of Law in the Muromachi and Sengoku Periods

KOIKE Katsuya Temple and Shrine Law: Between the Sacred and the Profane

QIAN Jingyi Village Law: Local Documents and Ordinances

KAWATO Takashi Economics and the Laws: Law of Debt Cancelation (tokusei-rei) and Law of Shroffing (erizeni-rei)