About
Thomas D. Conlan is a Professor of East Asian Studies and History at Princeton University. He holds a BA in History and Japanese from the University of Michigan, and both an MA and PhD in History from Stanford University. His research interests encompass warfare, political legitimacy and ritual, ethnicity, economy and trade, and social change in Japan. Conlan has published extensively on topics such as the Mongol Invasions of Japan, the wars of the fourteenth century, and the socio-political history of Japan, including nine monographs. His recent works include 'Samurai Weapons and Fighting Techniques,' 'Samurai and the Warrior Culture of Japan: A Sourcebook 471-1877,' 'Kings in All but Name: The Lost History of Ōuchi Rule in Japan 1350-1569,' and 'Kinkakuji and Kitayama: Space, Place, Monuments and Memory in Japan 1222-1994.' Currently, his research focuses on mining and the significance of precious metals as commodities in Japan and Korea from 500 to 1700. Conlan has received fellowships from prestigious organizations such as the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, Fulbright, NEH, the Japan Foundation Japanese Studies, and the Japanese Ministry of Education. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Research topics
- Political Science
- History
- Genealogy
- Ancient history
- Law
- Computer Science
- Ethnology
- Literature
- Economic history
- Philosophy
- Biology
- Archaeology
- Environmental ethics
- Art
- Geography
Selected publications
From Historical to Ancient Monuments (1517–1871)
2025-12-02
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingKinkakuji and the Culture of Authenticity (1868–1915)
2025-12-02
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingSubject Asian History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
2024-01-18
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract In the sixteenth century, the Ōuchi family were kings in all but name over much of the Japanese archipelago. Immensely wealthy, they controlled sea lanes stretching out from Japan to Korea and China, while the Ōuchi city of Yamaguchi functioned as an important regional entrepôt, with an expanding population and a host of temples and shrines. The family was unique in claiming ethnic descent from Korean kings, and—remarkably for this time—such claims were recognized in both Korea and Japan. Their position, coupled with dominance over strategic ports and mines, allowed them to facilitate trade throughout East and Southeast Asia. They played a key cultural role in disseminating Confucian texts, Buddhist sutras, ink paintings, and pottery, and in creating a distinctive, hybrid culture that fused Japanese, Korean, and Chinese beliefs, objects, and customs. This monograph reveals that Japan from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries was an ethnically diverse state, replete with extensive mines, and closely bound in trading ties to Korea and China. It focuses on the Ōuchi, a magnate family from western Japan that was overthrown shortly after the period of initial Portuguese contact. The work provides a chronological narrative of their rule, focusing on the Ōuchi rulers, and showing how rituals, policies, politics, and economics were interwoven, and that what has been thought of as a period of warfare and turmoil was actually a stable and prosperous trading state.
Ōuchi Masahiro and the Rise of Yamaguchi
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter provides a new narrative of the debilitating Ōnin War (1465–78) and recasts the struggle as one for supremacy between the Ashikaga and the Ōuchi, revealing how the war ended with the next Ōuchi lord, Masahiro, abandoning his father’s warrior government, but receiving Ashikaga recognition of his extensive rites. Furthermore, it recounts the urban expansion of Yamaguchi and explores how it, rather than the capital of Kyoto, became the center of court-based rituals of governance. It then argues that the period is best characterized not as “Warring States” but rather a dual polity, with complementary political centers at Kyoto and Yamauguchi. Likewise, the chapter explains how they initiated economic regulations concerning coinage. After showing how Masahiro rewrote the Ōuchi past, recalibrating claims of ethnicity through forging records, the chapter explains how he patronized Shinto and deified his father as a god.
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter recounts the process between 1551 and 1557 whereby Ōuchi rule collapsed, under the rule of Yoshinaga, the last lord, who hailed from the Ōtomo lands. It reveals his appeals to Ōuchi ethnicity, and early successes in governing, and defeating Amago rivals, before the cataclysmic defeat at Itsukushima, and the ensuing collapse of integrated Ōuchi rule, with the western regions falling under the control of the Ōtomo and the eastern regions the Mōri. The chapter discusses efforts of early Christian missionaries, their successes and failures in Yamaguchi, as well as enduring Myōken worship. Finally, it recounts Yoshinaga’s flight and death, the end of Ōuchi rule in western Japan, and the onset of widespread piracy after the fall of the Ōuchi.
The Triumphs and Tragedy of Ōuchi Yoshitaka (1528–51)
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter discusses the rise Ōuchi Yoshitaka, his destruction of long-standing rivals, consolidation of authority over the port of Hakata, and the islands of Tsushima, as well as his ability to contact directly to the courts of Japan and Korea through the post of Dazaifu Governor General (Dazai Daini). It also explains how his mines became the source of silver exports to the Ming. Finally, the chapter reveals an attempt to move Japan’s capital from Kyoto to Yamaguchi, and explains how these efforts spawned a coup d’état that resulted in his death, as well of that of many courtiers, the enervation of court rites, and the onset of Japan’s “Warring States” era in 1551.
Fraternal Succession, Expanding Trade, and Durable Administration
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter explores changing naming and inheritance practices, as lateral succession gave way to linear ones. It reveals Ōuchi conflicts and a weakening of their authority vis-à-vis the Ashikaga. At the same time it recounts a process of increased administrative and legal stability as governance became disassociated from the person of the Ōuchi ruler. The chapter also shows that the 1430s were a period where extensive shipping, as large trading junks allowed for large-scale trade in East Asia as Japanese shipping took off after Chinese shipping declined once the Ming admiral Zheng He’s voyages ceased. Finally, it reveals how the Ōuchi promoted worship of their newly privatized Usa Hachiman shrine.
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter explains the process whereby Ōuchi Norihiro received Korean recognition of his ethnic claims and assertion of royal descent as the scion of the Paekche kingdom. Having received wide recognition for his claims of royal ancestry, and de facto social equality with the Ashikaga shoguns, Norihiro attempted to create his own warrior government and supplant the Ashikaga regime. It also reveals how Norihiro consolidated control over a network of ports on the Japan and Inland seas and established official tally trade with Korea. Finally, the chapter recounts the deterioration of relations with the Ashikaga, the Ōuchi blockade of the Inland Sea, and the onset of civil war.
2024-01-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter reveals how Ōuchi Moriakira had the ability to defend his lands against an attack by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the powerful leader of Japan’s shogunate, and keep his people unified through religious rites and military success. It shows how he was able to profit from new modes of extraction of copper ore and expand trade with Korea, and at the same time emphasize his ethnicity through the renovation of tombs. Then it explores how Moriakira became a Zen monk and an important cultural patron and mediator. Finally, the chapter explains the process whereby national shrines were repurposed and possessed by the Ōuchi.
Frequent coauthors
- 2 shared
Titus Holliday
- 1 shared
Xipeng Yang
- 1 shared
Karl F. Friday
- 1 shared
G. Cameron Hurst
- 1 shared
貞美 鈴木
- 1 shared
Sven Saaler
Awards & honors
- John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
- Fulbright Fellowship
- NEH Fellowship
- Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship
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