National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　The household register was made every six years as a basic account book for taxation, the requisition of soldiers and the laws of allotment (Handen Shuju) land tenure system, which were implemented on a family basis. This is a fragment of the household register of Kawanobe Village of Shima District in Chikuzen Province in Taiho 2 (702), which is one of the oldest household registries now in existence. It was originally handed down in Shoso-in or the Imperial Repository.
　One name is written on one line. All the names of a family are listed in the order of blood relationship and the total allotments of personal rice fields (kubunden) is written at the end of each family listed. On the parts on which characters are written and on the seams on the back of the paper, the stamp of the “Seal of Chikuzen Province” is affixed. The characters are written orderly in Chinese calligraphic style of the Six Dynasties period.
　Kawanobe Village of Shima District in Chikuzen Province is thought to be around present-day Itoshima City in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Itoshima Peninsula commanding the Genkainada Sea, in which the public office of the Shima District was located.
　On the back of this household register is a fragment of “The List of Division Proofreading of the Thousand Copies of Lotus Sutra (Senbu Hokekyo Kocho)” composed in Tempyo 20 (748), which is because the back of the paper was used at Scriptorium (Shakyo sho) for transcribing a sutra after the retention period of the household register had elapsed.