The Two Paths of Writing and Warring in Medieval Japan

Title

The Two Paths of Writing and Warring in Medieval Japan

Author

Thomas D. CONLAN

Page

85-127

DOI

Abstract

The terms "civil" bun (文) and "military" bu (武) reflect changing views of governance in Japan. Initially, only members of the court could possess both skills. Even after the rise of the Kamakura bakufu, Japan's first warrior government in 1185, scribes or chamberlains, rather than warriors, were thought to master both bun and bu. During the fourteenth century, a competing concepts of "public authority" came to describe Kamakura's successor state, the Ashikaga bakufu, while the notions of civil and military came to refer to specialized knowledge of military texts. Ultimately, the seventeenth century witnessed the resurgence of the bun and bu ideal as a metaphor for governance, albeit one where expertise in civilian and military arts became redefined as the prerogative of Tokugawa warriors.

Keyword

civil (bun) and military (bu), scribes (tegaki), chamberlains (kurōdo), warrior ideals, Public military authority (kōbu), Kamakura bakufu, Ashikaga bakufu, court

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