An Entrepreneurial Aristocrat: Matsugi Hisanao and the Forging of Imperial Service in Late Medieval Japan

This article examines how Matsugi Hisanao, a low-ranking courtier, reestablished imperial service relationships with artisanal metal caster organizations in the second half of the sixteenth century. Although the lives of lower nobility are seldom glimpsed in prevailing elite sources, reconstructing Hisanao's activities through diaristic and documentary evidence uncovers a narrative of entrepreneurial savvy and expert knowledge of the inner workings of the imperial bureaucracy on the part of some of its least visible figures. Matsugi Hisanao took advantage of his access to court circles: he cultivated imperial privileges, invoked the support of high-ranking allies, and forged official records, ultimately launching a transregional network exchanging goods, funds, and counterfeit documents among courtiers, warriors, and metal casters. This article traces these strategic engagements to uncover a nuanced view of operations within the court and argues for the significance of the court's lower strata for the subsistence of the imperial bureaucracy during the late medieval period.