A History of Japan to 1334

In our new obsessive pursuit of reading Sansom's works on Japanese history, we finally completed A History of Japan to 1334, the first volume in a trilogy. Unlike his earlier cultural history, this offers a far more detailed social and political history of events in Japan from prehistoric cultures to the fall of the Kamakura Bakufu. Undoubtedly, he treads on some familiar territory here but with almost excessive details on various political and social conflicts, disputes, or transformations. Of course, the rise of the warrior class in the east and the decline of imported codes and land tenure systems during the Heian period receive special scrutiny. The Fujiwara Regents, and the dazzling life of Heian-era court life with its pursuit of taste and aesthetics also receive a useful overview. 

However, we would have liked to read more about the peasantry, artisans, laborers, craftsmen, traders, and merchants during the varoius eras covered in this volume. We see a glimpse of the future importance of the moneylenders and brokers in the 1200s and 1300s, but what about traders, moneylenders, and merchants prior to that? Perhaps the sources consulted by Sansom and the earlier scholarship he relied upon just wasn't very interested in that question, but it makes one think. Furthermore, it would be interesting to get more details on Japanese relations with the outside world, not just Korea or China. One could probably find this kind of information in more recent scholarship on Japanese history, but we shall continue with Sansom for a while.