Restrictions on foreign travel during the Heian period and Jojin's alleged “clandestine” journey to China

Abstract

In ancient Japan during the Heian period there were restrictions on overseas travel, called tokaisei 渡海制, which required permission from the Emperor to leave the country. In discussing these sanctions, the author of this article takes up the interesting case of the Tendai Sect monk Jojin, whose pilgrimage to Song China in 1017 (never to return) has been described as an “unauthorized (clandestine) departure” due to the desire of certain aristocratic friends of the monk to keep him from making the journey. The author raises a number of problems regarding such an interpretation, including inconclusive evidence and the mere fact that these same friends, who desired him not to leave, assisted him in his efforts to leave.
The tokaisei restrictions, which form the backdrop to Jojin's overseas departure, have been described as a ban on leaving Japan without the emperor's knowledge. However, when one reviews the actual related cases, the great majority of “unauthorized departures” were successful; while upon the return of the “stowaways”, it was close to impossible to avoid detection by the state-controlled customs and foreign trade authorities. Therefore, the reality of the tokaisei restrictions created an environment in which it may have been possible to leave Japan in violation of them, but near to impossible to reenter the country without the imperial court's eventually knowing of the journey.
Next, the article raises the problem of Jojin's “clandestine departure” being unique to all the other cases of similar behavior under the tokaisei restrictions, meaning that his case had to be “exceptional”. The evidence to date for the “clandestine” nature of Jojin's journey comes from three sources: (1)his own China travel journal, San Tendai Godaisan-Ki; (2)he diary of Jojin's mother, Jojin Ajari no Haha no Shu; and (3)a “lives of the saints” genre biographical source, Zoku Honcho Ojoden, the last of whose unhistorical content raises doubts as to its veracity concerning Jojin's activities.
The account of the journey in Source (2) has Jojin stating, “If ［when? after?］an announcement［of an imperial order; senji 宣旨］ is issued, I will sail to Song［China］”, before his actual departure. Here we have circumstantial evidence implying that Jojin's departure may have in fact been authorized, thus removing any grounds that it was at all secretive. Finally, we find in Source (1), Jojin's own words, nothing allowing one to conclusively determine that he had left Japan in secret.
Given such a lack of historiographical evidence in light of the reality of the tokaisei restrictions clarified in the article, the author concludes that in all likelihood, Jojin's departure for Song China was authorized in full accordance with those sanctions.