In this excellent book written for both general readers and specialists, Karl F. Friday adds tremendously to our understanding of the history of Heian Japan (784–1185). As a military historian of the “new military history” persuasion, Friday focuses on how the “warrior order” came of age in the tenth century. Its members were fighting men who were privately trained and equipped, and they served as licensed enforcers for the Kyoto court. The warrior chieftain whose life makes these epochal developments particularly visible is Taira no Masakado (d. 940).
Much of the evidence for Friday's story comes from a chronicle known as the Shōmonki (literally, “The Record of Masakado”), which, fortunately, was translated into English by Judith Rabinovitch in 1986. Friday supplements a close reading of its narrative with contemporary and later sources to paint a portrait of Masakado within his world, ranging from the Kyoto capital to the eastern marches in the Kantô region around Tokyo. Far from being a rustic, Masakado spent some of his youth in the Kyoto household of the northern Fujiwara regent Tadahira (880–949), gaining lifelong status as his client. Later, after returning to his home province of Shimōsa as his father's heir, Masakado settled down as a provincial noble whose friends and enemies included provincial governors, their staff, district chieftains, and other local notables. He made his living as a livestock breeder, land opener, and landlord. He also developed fighting and military command skills in feuds with relatives and rivals. These quarrels led to worsening conflict with court officials, despite Masakado's enduring ties to the regent in Kyoto.
Friday also explains how eastern provincial elites organized themselves into small war bands wherein relations of blood, marriage, and cliency figured, but were neither straightforward nor enduring. We read of “raiding and running” tactics (p. 43), battles that were “melées of duels and brawls between small groups” (p. 68), and the primacy of mounted archery. He provides abundant details—the best to date in English, I think—concerning weapons, armor, and horses. There are helpful maps and graphics. Taken with his earlier Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992), Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan (New York: Routledge, 2004), and assorted essays, Friday's opus has now provided us with an excellent historical overview of the development of military and police institutions from the late seventh to the late twelfth century. My only complaint about the book is that it lacks a list of Chinese characters and a good glossary, serious lacuna in a work of historical scholarship.
Friday argues that we must significantly revise our understanding of the roles and objectives of tenth-century provincial military elites. Masakado and his peers were not enemies of the court, nor was their world limited to the provinces. Rather, they were “bridging figures” who moved between capital and countryside. Nor were Masakado and his fellow warrior chieftains interested in independence from the Kyoto court. They wanted to continue serving as licensed enforcers. That by 939 Masakado ended up as a condemned and defeated commander was not the result of intended rebelliousness, Friday insists, but rather of miscalculation and bad luck. And that the court's forces—which included Masakado's rivals—were victorious in 940 demonstrates the success of the court's strategy of recruiting provincial warrior nobles as enforcers. Friday's is not the only scholarly take on Masakado—other researchers paint him as a Robin Hood figure who espoused greater regional autonomy against a greedy central government, or they emphasize tensions between provincial governors and provincial elites such as Masakado—but Friday's argument here is well presented and convincingly argued. It is particularly clear, too, that the tenth century was a time when the powers and means of provincial governors were becoming increasingly militarized, a process that increased tensions, and linkages, between the capital and provinces.
As for quibbles, this reviewer wishes we knew more about the authorship and provenance of the Shōmonki, from which so much of our knowledge about Masakado comes. How contemporary to Masakado's lifetime was the chronicle (or its elements), and what can close textual analysis tell us about its possible authorship and compilation? At the same time, Friday's doubts as to the existence of the Hachiman cult in eastern Japan before the eleventh century (p. 119) seem to contradict his general insistence on good communications between center and periphery. I also think the study would have benefited from greater attention to the archaeological record, which provides additional clues as to tenth-century lifeways and material culture. Written records are not the only records that need consideration.
There were specific terms in the text that needed more attention. One is “house,” a unit that was critical to social organization at all levels. Books about its formation and changing structure have been written in Japanese, but Friday uses this complex term without discussion. There is also the word “samurai”: readers need to know more about its use in Masakado's day, and whether Masakado might have thought of himself as a “samurai.” If, as Friday says, Masakado was not “the first samurai,” then why was this chosen as the book title? And another point: was there a “warrior class” by the tenth century? Given that Friday refers early on to a “warrior order,” I initially thought he was denying the existence of a “warrior class.” But later on, he uses both “class” and “caste” to refer to the realm-wide body of warriors. Because “class” is an important historical category, some discussion of its use here was needed. And finally, Friday frequently refers to “the court,” often followed by a reference to some activity by the Council of State. But this Kyoto court was a much broader organization, detailed operation of which has not been adequately explored in the English historiography. In fact, the Council of State would not have debriefed a returning governor (pp. 106–7)—it would have evaluated a written report from him, based on which its members would have made recommendations to the throne. Had there been any actual debriefing, it would have been conducted by a controller and then reported to the council. Nor would the council have ordered fortification of the capital (p. 113). They may well have recommended such action to the tennō, who would have ordered the job done. These are small points, for sure, but understanding how such processes worked is important for interpreting and translating the sources correctly.
To conclude, The First Samurai is a must-read for those who are interested in Heian and premodern Japan's history, and it is an engaging one. I have had good luck assigning the book to students at all levels, and it is one of very few biographies in English that we have for pre-1600 Japan. I am very glad Friday has produced it for us.
