{"product_id":"community-and-commerce-in-late-medieval-japan-the-corporate-villages-of-tokuchinho-science-9780804719414","title":"Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan: The Corporate Villages of Tokuchin-ho (Science)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLate medieval Japan witnessed a growth in the power of the commoner  as seen in the spread of corporate villages (s) marked by collective ownership and administration and other self-governing features. This study of a community of s villages in central Japan from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries reconstructs the life of these villages by analyzing the rich and abundant communal records largely written by the villagers themselves and carefully preserved in the local shrine. The author show how these villagers founded and operated a shrine-centered organization that brought coherence  order  and prestige to the community at the same time it formalized the differences among the residents along gender and class lines. The Tokuchin-ho s was a governmental  social  and religious institution that facilitated the movement toward localism  but  the author argues  its growing collective power and organization also benefited its local proprietor  the great monastic complex of Enryakuji. Political and economic resources flowed vertically between the client-village and the patron-proprietor as they collaborated to secure internal peace and wide-reaching commercial interests. The book traces the transformation of the s as late medieval decentralization gave way to politically unified early modern society  with its enforced transfer of merchants from villages to towns  confiscation of shrine land  and the relinquishment of the ss political authority. Despite these efforts  as a powerful organization experienced in promoting communal order  the s was able to maintain its medieval legacy of self-determination  substantially preempting bureaucratic intervention in local governance. The local records allow the author to study the s from the villagers perspective  and she presents new information on the position of women in rural communities  the local mode of economic surplus accumulation  the detailed social and economic functions of a shrine  and the reaction to nationwide cadastral surveys. The book is illustrated with 21 halftones.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647898116149,"sku":"ByrdShop_0804719411","price":68.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780804719414.jpg?v=1781699465","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/community-and-commerce-in-late-medieval-japan-the-corporate-villages-of-tokuchinho-science-9780804719414","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}