Tokusei: The Causes and Motivations of Rural Unrest in Fifteenth Century Japan

This dissertation examines the origins of the popularly led tokusei revolt in Daigo, near Kyoto, in the ninth month of 1428. Described by contemporary commentators as ‘the first peasant uprising since the genesis of Japan’, the revolt culminated in commoners storming the temple of Daigoji, seizing debt records and other conveyance documents, and ceremoniously burning them while chanting for tokusei (lit. ‘virtuous governance’). Scholars have traditionally interpreted the revolt’s origins through a structurally deterministic lens, viewing it as a reaction against the exploitative practices of medieval moneylending, a response to crises brought about by natural disasters, or a movement manipulated by ambitious local power holders exploiting political instability in the capital. This dissertation, however, moves beyond such spasmodic understandings of popular history. Drawing on insights from modern social psychology and a close analysis of estate documents, temple records, and noble and monastic diaries, it shifts focus from external causes to internal motivations, exploring why participants revolted against Daigoji. The first section, Ideology, argues that tokusei held divergent meanings: for the Daigoji monks, it signified the charismatic authority of the shogunate, while for commoners, it invoked an ancient, orally transmitted tradition of cyclical time, rooted in era changes and natural catastrophes, symbolising a long-established rural social order. The 1428 revolt marked the collision of these worldviews amidst the rise of a written, cash-based economy and linear temporal frameworks. The second section, Identity, examines disputes between Daigoji and the broader religious and commoner community of Daigo in the years leading up to the revolt over landholding rights and competing interpretations of shogunal orders as acts of tokusei. The third section, Conflict, reveals that the shogunate’s unprecedented suppression of the ninth month revolt, far from deterring further uprisings, instead intensified unrest, leading to larger, more violent revolts that targeted a broader range of institutions in both the capital and Nara. The shared experience of shogunal repression fostered new subaltern alliances that transcended both regional and social boundaries, shaping the trajectory of commoner resistance in late medieval Japan.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Booth, Thomas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Adolphson, Mickey

• Commoners
• Medieval
• Microhistory
• Muromachi
• Protest
• Revolt
• Subaltern
• Tokusei

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/05c7360e-35ed-471d-9bb6-34f127c8a1cb/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.118786

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/384959