Fragment of Household Registers of Kawanobe Village of Shima District in Chikuzen Province (Reverse side: Fragment of a List of Proofreaders for a Thousand Copies of the Lotus Sutra)

This is part of a household register from Shima District in Chikuzen Province, present day Itoshima City in Fukuoka prefecture. The Ritsuryō legal system created household registers to keep track of the population. New registers were made every six years towards such purposes as administering the collection of land taxes. Here, the names of the members of each household are listed. Their names are recorded in the order of their relation to the head of the household. The seal of Chikuzen Province is stamped repeatedly across the register. {br=>[[], []], content=>[The census register was compiled once in six years for purpose of taxing labor, recruiting of soldiers, and the distribution of agricultural plots in the Asuka period. This is a segment of the census register of Kawabe village of Shima county in Chikuzen province (today's Fukuoka prefecture), which was compiled in 702 and is one of the oldest extant census registers in Japan., One line is used for the registration of one person, and the order of the names is based on blood relationship. At the end of the section of each household, the total area of allotted agricultural field is recorded. The seal of the Chikuzen province is stamped over the written letters and parts where sheets join. The letter-style is similar to the Riku-chō style, and characters were written neatly., Kawabe village of Shima county in Chikuzen province is thought to have been located on the Itoshima peninsula. It may have been the area of today's Baba at Shima-chō of Itoshima county in Fukuoka prefecture. The reverse side of this register sheet is a segment of the \Sembu Hoke-kyō Kōchō\, dated 748.

This means that the paper of this census register had been reused later at the studio for sutra copying.]} {br=>[[], [], []], i=>[List of Proofreaders for a Thousand Copies of the Lotus Sutra], content=>[Household registers recording the members of each household were updated every six years to serve as the basis for taxation , military conscription, and state-administered land allotment. This is part of a household register for Kawanobe Village in Shima District in Chikuzen Province in Taihō 2 (702). It is one of the oldest extant household registers and was originally preserved in the Shōsō-in Repository. , One name is written per line, and each family member is listed in order of blood relationship. The total allotment of land is written at the end of each household listed. The official seal of Chikuzen Province is stamped over the characters and the seams on the back of the paper. An orderly Chinese calligraphic style from the Six Dynasties period (220–589) was used., Kawanobe Village in Shima District in Chikuzen Province is thought to be near the present-day city of Itoshima in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Itoshima Peninsula overlooking the Genkai Sea, and was where the administrative seat for Shima District was located. , Part of a , produced in Tenpyō 20 (748) is on the back of the household register, indicating the back of the paper was recycled by the scriptorium after the household register on the front no longer needed to be retained. ]}

— Museum description: Nara National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.