@article{oai:nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp:00000267,
 author = {MESHERYAKOV, Alexander N.},
 journal = {Nichibunken Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies},
 month = {Jan},
 note = {Historians agree that ritsury.ō state produced a lot of written information but they say nothing about the precise quantity of written data. That can be attributed to the fact that a generally accepted method of calculation of written data (or information) has never been worked out. In this research note, the author offers a first attempt at such a calculation. According to Sakaehara Towao’s study, the average production of a sutra copyist was about 3,800- 4,000 characters per day. As we know the number of scribes (shish.ō) in government offices, we can (under the assumption that the productivity of copyists and scribes was the same) roughly estimate the quantity (number of characters) of written data produced by ritsury.ō state. The study shows that ritsury.ō state produced more and more information. For the most part, increases of written documents were achieved by the center, not by the periphery. This suggests that the center was losing its interest in what was happening in the periphery. In the capital, the increase was different for different offices. It was greatest in the offices that worked for the emperor and the imperial family. Our data show that with the passage of time in the Heian period, ritsuryō institutions were becoming a political and cultural system without feedback.},
 pages = {187--199},
 title = {<RESEARCH NOTES>On the Quantity of Written Data Produced by the Ritsuryō State},
 volume = {15},
 year = {2003}
}