Document Production by Low-Rank Officials in Ancient Japan: Notes on Some Public Advisory Texts on Wooden Tablets

The paper focuses on some peculiar documents on wooden tablets, called kokuchisatsu (‘plate for public advice’), whose defining characteristic is being bigger than others (ca. 1 metre long) and containing some pieces of public advice about the loss of horses or cows. These texts trigger several questions about their production, their copyists, and their readers. Based on the analysis of some documents, also in comparison with similar texts, the paper shows that a model (official or not) for kokuchisatsu does not exist and that their producers were low-rank officials. Furthermore, it argues that, in these cases, inscribing the text essentially meant copying from other extant materials, such as previous texts on similar matters and some glossaries, and strictly following the stipulations of laws and amendments.