AS 201 Arsitocratic "Marriages" in Heian Times

Marriage in the Heian Era

During the Heian Period (794-1185), marked by the flowering of Japanese court aristocracy, there was considerable emphasis on marriage between equals. Marriage itself, as a ceremony of social importance, was not the focus of attention. It was merely the selection of mates in order to produce offspring. High-ranking men could have more than one mate. Their children did not automatically receive their father’s rank, but could also be placed at a lesser rank he was entitled to or at the rank of their mother, if her father or brother approved. Adoption into other households to achieve rank was very common, in order to allow a woman’s family to place her children onto a more prestigious path than their father could.

The husband often lived temporarily with his wife at her family’s residence, while maintaining his bachelor’s quarters elsewhere. His clothes were supplied by his wife’s household and indicated his rank. Young men and women of the Heian Period could engage in fairly permanent relationships, with their parents or guardians serving as guarantors for their fidelity. Any children of this guaranteed union were automatically recognized during their mother’s pregnancy by the formal presentation of a gift as recognition of their child, usually a sash. On the other hand, there was no understanding between the young men and women concerning other potential mates. As a result, high-ranking men and women often had several mates in their lifetimes. A powerful man of aristocratic society was not bound at any time to a single mate in monogamous marriage. He could maintain one wife in her own residence, permit another wife’s father to maintain her in his residence, and conduct relationships with other women. By building a separate residence in which he lived and to which he brought one wife, a more formal relationship was established.

As pregnancies needed recognition by a man from another household of equal status for her children to have any importance in society, women had to conduct themselves carefully. By attracting and retaining constant attention of a man from a household of slightly higher status a woman could increase her own household’s importance, an option that women from low-ranking households usually did not have. A higher-ranking child meant a higher social status for a woman’s household, as long as the child was alive and not adopted by another household. More children increased the chances of attaining a higher social status, while for men several wives increased the resources available to them, providing these resulted in the birth of children.

Among members of the imperial household, residence of children at the household of their mother led to what was in fact “governance by maternal relations”. This system of marriage politics depended upon continued ties of adoption and marriage and often involved the marriage of cousins as a means of continuing a link between households. Marriages were endogamous, which means that they took place within a group of households. It is very likely that endogamous marriage characterized all levels of Heian society; marriages to cousins or adoptive cousins were frequent; and important men of each rank were permitted to have more than one wife.

Farmers, artisans, and low-ranking warriors or attendants had less chance of building their household name through recognized relationships with higher-ranking women. They had an easier guarantee of firm status through permanent marriages with one wife, though they could change wives without difficulty if their wife’s family was not in a position to challenge their right to do so, especially if the man had been taken by his wife’s family (婿入婚 mukoirikon, matrilocal or uxorilocal residence) rather than building a residence or maintaining a residence for her.

http://www.jref.com/culture-society/marriage-japan/

 

Another website mentions that:

A woman didn't have to be an empress to have power and freedom in Heian Japan. Unlike most periods of Japanese history, in this era women were allowed to be as free-living as the men. Marriage was not the be-all and end-all for these women. In fact, many of the Empress' courtiers never married but rather had numerous affairs. Children born from these affairs were accepted socially if they were recognized by their fathers. They were often recognized since disloyalty to one's mate was not an issue. These affairs were not discouraged in any way and did not make the woman cheap or wanton in the eyes of society. In fact, a worldly woman was highly respected.

In education, the women of Heian profited also. Although it was not the practice to teach one's daughter the Chinese classics, a woman of the Heian period was expected to know the one thousand classic Japanese verses by heart. A woman's elegance was determined by her ability to quote the perfect verse for the occasion. Composing impromptu verse was also a skill that every Heian woman needed. Often the Emperor or Empress would pit their courtiers against each other to write the perfect verse about the moon or the cherry blossoms or the snow. A lady of Heian would have to constrain herself to the ancient forms while inventing new poems. References to the classic one thousand verses were prized. And a well-turned pun was the height of elegance.

We can thank the women of Heian themselves for how much we know about their daily lives. While men wrote in archaic Chinese script that is now difficult to decipher, women wrote in kana, the syllabaries used today. Therefore, women's writings from the Heian period are still highly accessible. The classic Tale of Genji, by courtier Murasaki Shikibu, intricately illustrates court life in the tenth century. Also, Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon (another courtier to the Empress) wrote diaries that not only tell us about the people of the court, but about the everyday pastimes, arguments, and opinions of the courtiers. Reading Sei Shonagon's accounts of her encounters with the men in her life, her feuds with her roommates, and her complaints about the other courtiers make us feel that not much has changed in one thousand years. However, the raucous style in which she writes shocks us as it is nothing like the subdued, self-conscious, bashful style of the Japan of later centuries. http://www.carillion.eastkingdom.org/HEIANintro.html

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