Ritsuryo

Ritsuryō, or the ritsuryō system, refers to a set of legal codes and administrative regulations that formed the basis of the early Japanese state during the Asuka and Nara periods. Influenced by Chinese models, especially the Tang code, it was compiled and implemented in the 7th and 8th centuries, culminating in the Taihō (701) and Yōrō (718) codes. The term itself derives from the two components: ritsu (律), meaning statutes or criminal law, and ryō (令), meaning commands or administrative/fiscal law.

The codes established a centralized bureaucratic state centered on the imperial court and the Daijō-kan, or Great Council of State, with eight ministries responsible for governance. Local administration was organized by provinces (kuni) and districts (gun), with population and land registers used to calculate taxes and corvée labor. A census system and household registers underpinned taxation, military conscription, and governance. The legal system covered civil and criminal matters, taxes, and public works.

While the ritsuryō system created a coherent framework for governance, actual practice varied; enforcement often depended on powerful aristocrats and regional officials. Over time, it became more a constitutional ideal than a functioning set of laws. In the Heian period the state gradually decentralized, while the rising power of provincial governors, landholders, and court factions diminished central authority. Nevertheless, the ritsuryō codes influenced later legal and administrative concepts, shaping Japanese governance for centuries and informing later medieval and early modern legal ideas.