3:30-4:00 Nadia Kanagawa, USC
“What Should Be In a Name: Petitioning the Sovereign to Change Names and Titles in Early Classical Japan”
Over the course of the Nara period, nearly ten thousand Yamato subjects petitioned for and received new names and titles from the sovereign. Designations were critical markers of status and belonging in the classical state, and receiving the grant of a new name or title was not only a point of direct contact with the sovereign but also an important way to maneuver for higher rank and office. While many scholars have examined name and title systems as part of the process by which Yamato sovereigns consolidated their power and configured the people of their realm, far fewer have considered how the many subjects who actively participated in these systems understood their logic and purpose. The sources for such a study are admittedly limited, but among the hundreds of records of name and title changes in the official chronicles there are a handful of entries that include the petition submitted to request the change. This paper focuses on these petitions, using a close reading of the justifications that they give to gain insight into how individual subjects interpreted and responded to state policy on designations.
古代日本の改賜姓請願の中にみる「氏姓」について
奈良時代に天皇の勅による改賜姓を受けた人々が一万人を超える。古代日本において、「姓」は身分や階級と密接に関係していた。天皇に姓を授与されることは、天皇との密接な繋がりを示し、官位の昇進のために非常に大切な事だった。これまでの多くの研究は、大和政権の政治的体制を確立していく過程における氏姓制度の意義を問題としているが、ここでは氏姓制度に自主的に参加した人民側からこの制度の目的と論理を考えてみたい。このための歴史史料は少ないが、『六国史』の多くの改賜姓記事の中ではいくつかの改賜姓請願の例も含まれている。この発表ではその改賜姓の請願の根拠に焦点を当てることによって、国家の政策に対する人民の理解と対応を明らかにしたい。