Families in Heian Japan

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Today's lecture gave us an opportunity to compare what we think about marriage in our culture to the reality of marriage in Japan over a thousand years ago.
The Heian period in Japan lasted from about 794 to about 1185.
Marital residence was either uxorilocal (The husband moves in with the wife's family), duolocal (The husband and the wife live seperately) or neolocal (The husband and the wife build a residence of their own.) Generally, the neolocal residence became the property of the wife. Never did the wife move into the family residence of the husband.
Sexual intercourse constituted the outset of a marriage and absence signified divorce. Divorces were simple since each partner retained their own property and children were automatically a part of the mother's clan.
The introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism caused a culture clash. Confucian ideals were vastly different from the normal marriage practices of the day.

We examined "The Pillow Book" of Sei Shonagon (c. 965). Her writings examined her personal beliefs and rather candidly exposed her opinions on all things romantic and courtly. Some of the more humorous observations involved pillow talk and the relationships between mothers and daughters-in-law.

After the break, we examined the book "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu. The complex family and romantic relationships in the book are almost too hard to keep up with. I know that I was confused!
Genji's tale involves the life of a young boy and his many relationships. Uh. . . I think.
Mr. Moser pointed out that this book needed to be slowly absorbed, rather than "plowed" through. Perhaps it would make a good bathroom book!

Mr. Moser concluded his lecture with his timeframe for his Japanese unit in his seventh grade language arts courses and the associated activities.

Hope this is thorough enough. Sorry about the delay getting this posted.
Party on Y'all!

[Anonymous]

I thought your report was very thorough, and it certainly helped me fill in some blanks in my own notes.

One of the things I did write down was his outline on "Themes & Primary Sources". Since I don't teach specifically about Japan, I changed it to be somewhat generic to fit the ancient civilizations for 6th graders:
1. Look at Map - What can they tell?
2. Alien Refugees - Outsiders and what they bring
3. Heroes
- earliest government documents
4. Hunting & Fishing/Agriculture/Warriors
5. Literature - from the culture and/or time period - read in groups of 4 (cooperative
learning groups)
6. Religion - Lecture/Discussion
- How does it come?
- How does it change?
- Students work in pairs, then groups of 6 or 7
- Create book (each group picks a sentences to illustrate and discuss)
7. Land - Who controls? Who has access? Who pays taxes and to whom?
8. Family Rules (House codes on Inheritance; marital residence; who owns the house
and the property; the marriage system - regulation of marriage; children, etc.)
9. War and Peace.
I think this is a great way of approaching the study of multiple cultures and civilizations, because students can clearly compare and contrast within these categories.

[Anonymous]

I was really surprised to hear how married life was really like back then. I guess the idea of commitment in a relationship can be subjective. I just find it amazing that just sleeping with someone meant that you were married and then never returning to see the spouse again meant you were divorced. Not exactly the way things work in our country and time. Can you imagine if diseases like HIV were around back then? I don't think the population would have survived very long. Surely there had to have been diseases back then, but I guess that's hard to find evidence of it considering there weren't even documentations made on marriages and children.

[Anonymous]

I was also very stricken by the marriage dynamics. The concepts of uxorlocality and duolocality. This is such a far cry from the other family dynamics that we've examined. Also, the issue of property. It was such a surprise to find out that property stayed with the wife. Also, the dissolution of marriage. It seems so loose and informal. It was a great contrast to what we think about marriages in our own society. I think it was a great idea for Mr. Moser to have us list our conceptions about marriage. It helped to really make the contrasts stand out.
Kathleen

[Anonymous]

The change in the dynamics of family and marriage in Japan was due to western influences. Japan wanted to be modern and powerful, so it adopted the practices of other cultures. When did China start to influence Japan? What countries influenced Japan with the idea of patrilineal and patrifocal families? I, too, was struck by the concept of marriage and divorce from the Heian period in Japan. I wonder what the country would be like had the practice of matrilineality not fallen. Belinda

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