고대 일본여성의 정치적 역할과 지위 - 女帝와 女官을 중심으로 -

Women s Political Role and Status in Ancient Japan: Empress and Court Ladies

Gender issues such as the women s role and status in the society are emerging as a new perspective in the humanities and social sciences. Influenced by the gender studies the studies of Japanese women s history show a remarkable development in the fields of study, the development of issues and historical views and methodology, which can be distinguished from the previous studies. Women s history of ancient Japan begins to move from the immediate aims to solve the social problems to the efforts to reestablish the new images of ancient Japanese women by examining the women-related historical description found in the historical documents such as the Nihonshoki. This paper will trace the development of the studies on the women s political role and status by introducing the new trends in women s history of ancient Japan in general. Considering the empress of ancient Japan it is not surprising to encounter with a question why there were many empress in ancient Japan? . Many scholars tried to answer this question by suggesting that their role had been limited to the relaying role, and this view appeared in the early years of the modern period. The most serious problem involved in this view is that it is based on the assumption that the women are handicapped. The succession of the emperor is a very complicated matter. It had been influenced by the structure of the kingship and the type of the state. Even though the empress to some extent acceded to the throne to relay the kingship, there are many cases of variations. In the ninth century with the introduction of the Chinese culture represented by the confucianism the idea of male superiority emerged, and the court ladies who played a very important role in court politics began to be replaced by male servants. Previous studies see these changes as the decline of power and status of female aristocrats in ancient Japan. This view, however, should be supported by the specific case studies on the court ladies which will show what were the original function of court ladies and how they became transformed as time went by.