Estimated Annual Income of Heian Nobles
Heian-period nobles had no concept of a modern "monthly salary."
Their income instead came from a combination of land, tax revenue, and goods such as silk and cloth, granted according to their court rank and office.
Those holding Sixth Rank or below were not considered nobility (kizoku) but were instead called jigebito ("lower officials"). Compared with nobles of Fifth Rank and above, they faced a wide gap not only in social standing but also in pay and treatment.
Using academic research on the salaries paid to ritsuryō officials by court rank and office (Takashima Masanori, 2020), this page estimates annual incomes in modern yen — based on today's rice prices — to see just how large that gap really was.
This research focuses on the economics of the Nara period, but the iden and ifu systems were largely carried over into the early and middle Heian period, so it serves as a useful reference here.
Note, however, that by the late Heian period, once shōen (private estates) had spread widely, nobles' actual income was likely far more complex than these figures suggest.
Main Sources of Income for Heian Nobles
| Item | Description | Modern Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Iden | Farmland granted according to court rank | Base salary |
| Ifu | Tax revenue granted according to court rank | Base allowance |
| Shikiden | Farmland granted according to office held | Position allowance |
| Shikifu | Tax revenue granted according to office held | Operating funds for the office (not personal salary) |
| Iroku / Kiroku | Payments in silk, cloth, silk floss, and similar goods | Bonus |
Iroku was paid only to those of Fourth and Fifth Rank; iden, ifu, and similar grants were not paid to those of Sixth Rank or below.
Ifu was granted according to court rank (social standing), while shikifu was granted according to the office held (position). Because shikifu is considered primarily a financial base for running that office rather than personal income, it is not included in the total annual income figures on this page.
Both ifu and shikifu were granted in the form of "fuko" (sealed households) — households whose tax obligations to the state were redirected to the recipient instead.
Salary by Court Rank (Capital Officials)
This table lists the iden, shikiden, ifu, shikifu, iroku, kiroku, and shijin (retainers) granted by court rank, based on academic research covering officials who served in the capital (kyōkan).
Use the buttons below to switch between the raw in-kind amounts and their modern yen equivalent, calculated using the method described on this page.
The source research covers Nara-period official salaries, and no capital office corresponding to Junior Third Rank existed at the time — so Junior Third Rank is excluded from this table.
Iden, shikiden, ifu, shikifu, and shijin were not granted to those of Sixth Rank or below.
Notes
The figures shown on this page are not values recorded directly in historical sources.
The content of this page uses the provisions of the 'Engishiki', and the conversion to modern values is an estimate based on the rice-conversion method presented in Nara-period research.
- 1 chō = 380 bundles of rice per year (the noble's actual share, after subtracting 120 bundles of eiryō — mainly the farmer's share — from the 500 bundles harvested from the paddy. Farmers were left with barely 25% of the harvest.)
- 1 fuko household = 356.35 bundles (the combined rice-equivalent of the "so" tax on harvested rice, the "yō" tax paid in lieu of labor, and the "chō" tax paid in silk and local products, owed to the state by a single household.)
- Iroku and kiroku payments in kind are converted into bundles of rice.
- All bundles of rice are converted into koku at a rate of 1 koku = 20 bundles. (This ratio is not stated explicitly in the source; it was independently back-calculated from another table in the same source.)
- Conversion to modern yen assumes rice at ¥400/kg (1 koku ≈ ¥60,000), based on typical retail prices before the 2024 rice-price surge. If converted at the roughly ¥800/kg level seen as of July 2026, the figures on this page would be about twice as high. To keep a consistent basis for comparison, this page uses the ¥400/kg standard for the time being.
- Shijin (retainers — a count of people, not goods) are not included in the modern-yen total.
- Shikifu was a substantial source of tax revenue tied to an office, believed to have also funded official duties and the upkeep of keishi (staff who managed a noble's household affairs) and retainers. Since it cannot be considered straightforward personal disposable income, it has been excluded from the total annual income figures.
Why Higher Ranks Show Such Large Figures
The main reason annual income appears so extremely high at the upper ranks is ifu. Ifu is included in the total as income granted according to court rank (personal standing), but its source was tax revenue from fuko households, and in practice it was likely also used to maintain a noble's household and retainers. With this question of disposable income in mind, the table also shows a reference total that excludes ifu. The figures on this page do not correspond precisely to a "modern annual income" — please treat them as a rough guide to the economic scale of the time. When reading these figures, please also keep the following in mind:
- Senior First Rank and Junior First Rank were, in most actual cases, granted posthumously rather than during a person's lifetime — these figures were not received by any real individual over their lifetime.
- Because the modern-yen conversion is based on rice prices, the margin of error tends to widen at higher ranks — treat these figures as a rough approximation only.
References
Takashima, Masanori (2020). "On Income Disparity in the Nara Period," Keizai Kenkyū (The Economic Review), Vol. 71, No. 1, pp. 63–82. Table 9 (p. 72) was used as a reference.
Murai, Yasuhiko (1968). Heian Kizoku no Sekai (The World of the Heian Nobility). Tokuma Shoten.