The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 3: Medieval Japan

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHUGO 279

tenuous one, as the hanzei and confiscated land proved insufficient as a

source of

chigyo.

Furthermore, the kokujiris original landholdings had

not been granted by the

shugo.

Consequently, the lord-vassal relation-

ship established between the

shugo

and the kokujin was not an unbreak-

able tie, nor did all kokujin in a province become

shugo

vassals. Some

kokujin even tried to avoid becoming shugo vassals as in the case of a

kokujin league (ikki) formed in 1404 in Aki Province in order to resist

the newly appointed shugo, Yamana.

The

shugo

failed to make vassals of all the kokujin in their province,

but because the kokujin were usually much less powerful than the

shugo,

they were unable to prevent the formation of the lord-vassal

relationship. This relationship with the kokujin was the military foun-

dation of the shugo's provincial control that has been called the shugo

domainal system (shugo ryogokusei). During the Muromachi period,

many of the

shugo

came to be called great lords or daimyo, even by the

bakufu.

The shugo also extended their control over the shoen in their prov-

ince by means of provincewide levies such as tansen. The collection of

the hanzei, too, as described earlier, was made only in the lands that

the

shugo

controlled directly (honjo-ryo) and not in the holdings of the

religious establishments. In the fifteenth century, however the shugo

levied ad hoc taxes and labor corvee called

shugo

yaku, first on the

honjo-ryo

and then on the holdings of temples and shrines. The shugo

also made vassals of the shoen officials. Once this was accomplished,

the

shugo

then proposed shugo uke (literally, "shugo contract"). Rather

than the payment of a small fixed amount of tax to the central propri-

etor, the

shugo

uke gave the

shugo

complete control over the locale. One

case involved Ota-no-sho in Bingo Province, a large

shoen

of at least six

hundred cho of paddy land under the proprietorship of Koyasan, a

Buddhist monastic complex of the Shingon sect on Mount Koya. In

1402,

the

shugo,

Yamana Tokihiro, contracted to pay 1,000 koku in tax

to Koyasan. Tokihiro failed to honor the contract, however, and dur-

ing the Eikyo period (1429-41), the shugo was delinquent on the

payment of 20,600 koku.

Destruction of the shoen system was not the express purpose of the

shugo uke, but the shugo's acquisition of actual control over the shoen

greatly aided their rise to the status of daimyo. The shugo assigned

their vassal kokujin to xhes^shden on which the former held

shugo

uke,

33 Aki

no kuni kokujin

doshinjojo vol: i: 1404, no. 24, in Mdri-ke

monjo.

See also Nagahara Keiji,

Chusei nairanki

no shakai to

minshu

(Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1977), pp. 129-57.

Muromachi shogun-ke

migyosho,

vol. 1: 1402, no. 373, in Koyasan monjo.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

280 THE DECLINE OF THE SHOEN SYSTEM

giving the latter authority over the

shoen.

Although not a case oishugo

uke, members of the

shugo

clan were often installed as

daikan

shoen.

In a 1393 case involving Miwa-no-sho in Suo Province under the

proprietorship of the Toji, a Suo

shugo

retainer of the Ouchi, Hirai

Nyudo, acted as an intermediary, and another person, Kutsuya

Saemonshigemori, became daikan on the

shoen.

Kutsuya, probably a

local notable connected to the Ouchi, was granted the

daikan shiki

for

the ten-year period at a fixed salary of forty

kanmon.

This was not,

technically speaking, a case of

shugo

uke, but it constituted the same

thing.

What kind of attitude did the Muromachi bakufu adopt toward the

development of the

shugo

domainal system? From its inception, the

bakufu followed the policy inherited from its predecessor and sought

both to maintain the

shoen

system and to control the

shugo

and the

jito.

Both the

shugo

and jito chafed at this policy. Their combined demands

for greater power and more land eventually forced the bakufu to re-

treat from its original stance. It was during the Kanno disturbances in

the mid-fourteenth century that the bakufu issued the

hanzei

laws in

reaction to the growing dissatisfaction of the

shugo

and

kokujin.

Al-

though the bakufu increased its control during the Nambokucho pe-

riod, it was unable to resist by force the

shugo's

efforts to construct a

domainal system, as the

shugo

played a critical role in the bakufu's

internal politics.

PEASANTS'

PROTEST AND GROWTH

The development of the myoshu kajishi

In addition to the actions of the

shugo

and

kokujin,

the

shoen

system

was undermined by the actions of the cultivators and changes in the

structure of the village.

An important development in this regard was the establishment of

the

myoshu

kajishi.

The

myoshu kajishi

was a mid-level right to receive

income (tokubun), unrelated to the

shoen

proprietor's right to collect

nengu. In 1385, for example, Fujimatsume of Shimokuze-no-sho in

Yamashiro Province sold three tan of

myoshu

shiki to a person named

Jibukyohoin. According to the contract, the Toji's

nengu was

set at 742

sho

of rice and four hundred

mon

in cash,«and the buyer received 1.5

35 Saishoko-in-kaia hikitsuke, 1393/7/10 and 1393/4/7,111 Toji hyakugo monjo.

36 Nagahara Keiji, "Muromachi bakufu shugo ryogokusei ka no tochi seido," in Nihon chusei

shakai kozo no kenkyu, pp. 426-87.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

PEASANTS' PROTEST AND GROWTH 281

koku of rice as his myoshu kajishi.

How the myoshu kajishi that became

prevalent during the Nambokuchd period was originally established is

still unclear. As a result of rising agricultural productivity, when the

nengu

obligation and subsistence portion for the cultivators were sub-

tracted from the total yield, the surplus was set aside as the myoshu

kajishi. This was possible because the nengu remained fixed and did

not eat away the surplus. A certain amount of surplus remained under

the control of the shoen proprietor, but as that control weakened, it is

thought that the myoshu kajishi were bought and sold. The amount of

kajishi per unit of land was often the same as the nengu standard of

three to five to of rice per tan of land.

Under these conditions, well-to-do peasants often bought and accu-

mulated these myoshu kajishi rights, and peasants in strained circum-

stances often became responsible for paying the myoshu kajishi in addi-

tion to the usual nengu. In a 1407 document from the Toji's

Kamikuze-no-sho in Yamashiro Province, we see such notations as the

following: I. Heishichi-myo, one tan;

myoshu

Horindono; and (sakunin)

Yagoro; and II. Echigo-myo, one tan;

myoshu

sakunin Rokurogoro.

the first entry, Horindono, who held the myoshu kajishi right, and the

sakunin Yagoro were two different individuals. In the second entry, the

distinction seen in part I between mybhu and sakunin had not

emerged - Rokurogoro alone was responsible for the nengu to be paid

by a sakunin and myoshu.

The myoshu kajishi right was not necessarily limited to persons living

on the shoen. Wealthy peasants on neighboring shoen, religious estab-

lishments, sake brewers, and moneylenders also bought kajishi rights.

For example, it is known that a prominent sake brewer by the name of

Saikyo Umezakaya acquired in 1434 two tan of the

myoshu

kajishi right

on Shimokuze-no-sho located southwest of Kyoto.

The control of the

shoen proprietor was inevitably shaken by such transactions. Even

though it was called myoshu kajishi, if the authority to increase it

relative to the nengu was acquired by persons outside the shoen, then

the authority of these outsiders was bound to increase within the

shoen

itself.

Consequently, shoen proprietors tried to prohibit the sale of

kajishi rights outside the

shoen.

As early as the mid-fourteenth century,

the Toji proclaimed to the shoen manager (azukari-dokoro) of Kanno-

no-sho in Yamashiro Province that "the sale of lands must be strictly

37 Fujimatsume Shimokuze-no-sho nai

myoshu-shiki

baiken, 1385, me 11-19, '

Toji hyakugo

monjo.

Kamikuze-no-sho kumon

chushinjo,

1407, wo 17 and ge 18, in Toji

hyakugo

monjo.

39 Asahara kannonjijuji

keiho

moshijo,

1435, wo 16, in Toji

hyakugo

monjo.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

282 THE DECLINE OF THE SHdEN SYSTEM

forbidden without exception" and declared that the

mydden

would be

confiscated in cases in which the law was broken.

Shoen proprietors were unable to stop the transfer of

mydshu kajishi

rights by such restrictions

alone.

The

shoen

proprietors, most of whom

resided in Kyoto or Nara, maintained private administrative headquar-

ters

(mandokoro)

in order to control the

shoen

but had no military force

of their own. Thus, their power to stop the increasing sales of rights to

income from paddies was negligible. As a result, even though agricul-

tural productivity was rising, they were unable to increase the

nengu,

conduct land surveys, or exert control over outsiders who held

kajishi

rights.

The practice of

mydshu kajishi

and its transfer to persons outside the

shoen

were most widely developed on the

shoen

of the Kinai region.

The reason for this was that even though these

shoen

were more able to

control the growth of the jitd and

kokujin,

owing these

shoen's

proxim-

ity to Kyoto and Nara, an independent cultivator class developed in

this region and in larger numbers than elsewhere. As I shall describe

further later, the

shoen

proprietors, who faced opposition from cultiva-

tors in the form of disputes between the proprietors and the cultiva-

tors,

had to contend with stronger opposition from the cultivators in

the

shoen

of this region. And such opposition tended to succeed in

gaining more of the agricultural surplus for cultivators in the form of

mydshu kajishi.

The

mydshu

kajishi developed elsewhere as well, particularly in the

provinces near Kyoto. In the mid-fifteenth century the Fun'yoji, a

temple located in the Muki District of

Mino

Province, bought

five

tan

of paddy from a person named Nakanishi Hachiro. The temple re-

ceived four kanmon of

nengu

from the

sakunin

and from that amount

paid 2.913

kanmon

for what was known as

kubo nengu

- dues paid to a

high-ranking noble

(kubo)

proprietor.

' In a separate transaction, the

temple collected one koku, three to of rice in

nengu

from two tan of

paddy, from which it paid six

in the form of

kubo

nengu.*

The

kubo

nengu

was paid, but the balance remained in the hands of the Fun'yoji

in the form of

mydshu

kajishi. The seller of the kajishi right to the

Fun'yoji, Nakanishi Hachiro, was probably a

mydshu,

meaning that

well-to-do peasants and religious establishments were selling their ac-

cumulated kajishi rights. In the mid-fifteenth century, a wealthy peas-

ant by the name of Hatamura Gorozaemon conducted numerous finan-

40 Gakushu bugyo hikitsuke,

hokyo shinyu

shojo,

mu, in Tdji

hyakugd

monjo.

41 Nakanishi

Hachiro

denchi baiken, 1460, no. 50 in

Fun'yoji

monjo.

42 Ibid., no. 51.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

PEASANTS' PROTEST AND GROWTH 283

cial transactions and rapidly accumulated landholdings in the Obe-no-

sho in Harima Province, a proprietorship of the Todaiji. The purchase

myoshu

kajishi rights was an important source of this new wealth.

Thus over time, the levying and trading of rights to myoshu kajishi

became increasingly prevalent in the Kinai and neighboring provinces,

and this development raised the critical issue of how to guarantee the

collection of the kajishi and what to do in cases in which the payment of

kajishi was delinquent. Because the kajishi was anathema to the shoen

proprietors, they could not be expected to lend their authority to ensure

payment. Those who held kajishi rights were generally well-to-do peas-

ants or religious establishments who, unlike the kokujin, did not possess

the military power needed to ensure payment. As a result, it proved

difficult for the holders of kajishi rights to enforce payment. In order to

ensure collection of the myoshu kajishi, therefore, they developed an

organization for this outside the framework of the

shoen

system. Thus,

the custom of

gojichi

("debt of a village") became prevalent. This cus-

tom recognized that the debt of one villager was the responsibility of all

villagers and that creditors were allowed to seize the property of villag-

ers other than that of the delinquent debtor

himself.

These practices

and customs were not within the control of the

shoen

proprietors and so

served to weaken their control over the shoen, whose residents estab-

lished their own method of administration.

The

formation of

the

so-mura

The establishment of myoshu kajishi, in addition to nengu, was

prompted by the rise in agricultural productivity brought about by

improvements in agricultural techniques, such as the increased use of

fertilizer, the development of new strains of rice appropriate to differ-

ent natural conditions, and the more sophisticated use of land. In the

medieval period, significant efforts were made to improve the methods

of storing the water necessary to minimize the effect of drought. Agri-

cultural productivity was also spurred by the actions of individual

cultivators who sought to manage and protect their land, even though

it was also subject to myoshu kajishi, which was assessed at a rate

roughly equal to the nengu.

Konishi

Mizue,

"Harima no kuni Obe-no-shd no nomin," Nihonshi kenkyu, no. 98

(1968);

and

Konishi

Mizue,

"Kyotoku sannen no Obe-no-shd do-ikki ni

tsuite,"

Hyogo

shigaku, no.

(1976).

Concerning

gojichi,

see Katsumata

Shizuo,

Sengoku-ho

seirilsu shiron

(Tokyo:

Tokyo daigaku

shuppankai,

1979),

pp.

37-60.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

284 THE DECLINE OF THE SHdEN SYSTEM

Until these improvements had begun to be made in the thirteenth

century, land was often left uncultivated when damaged by flooding,

drought, or breaches in the irrigation system.

Under these condi-

tions,

the situation of the poorer peasants was extremely tenuous.

They borrowed foodstuffs and seed rice from the richer farmers and

were able to eke out a living by proffering their labor. If they experi-

enced a disastrous harvest, they were often forced to leave their homes

and become indentured agricultural laborers or servants

(genin)

wealthy peasants.

Agricultural productivity rose, nonetheless, and as conditions im-

proved in the fourteenth century, the number of peasants

who

accumu-

lated

myoshu

kajishi increased. Even many of the previously insecure

peasants gradually improved and strengthened their lot as indepen-

dent cultivators. That the number of independent cultivators in-

creased was evident in the petitions that the villagers signed. During

the stable years of the shoen system - the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries - appeals to the

shoen

proprietor requesting a reduction in

the tax were commonly signed by relatively small number of the

myoshu

who were responsible for collecting the tax and corvee and who

acted as the proprietor's representative. It was quite natural then that

the

myoshu

were the signatories of these appeals.

But in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these petitions came to

be signed by all resident cultivators

(sobyakusho),

not just the

myoshu.

Petitions for a reduction in tax or corvee and complaints against the

illegal actions of

shoen

officials often took the form of

sobyakusho

peti-

tions

(moshijo).

In order to determine whether the demands were in

fact those of all the peasants and to force them to take joint responsibil-

ity, the

shoen

proprietor had all concerned make

pledge and swear the

veracity of their petition before the divine. Despite the

shoen

propri-

etor's demands, this new form of petition in the fourteenth and fif-

teenth centuries indicated the growing self-reliance of the cultivators

below the

myoshu

class, that is, the small cultivators

(kobyakusho)

who

would not have been signatories in the petitions that had been submit-

ted to the

shoen

proprietor during the thirteenth century.

petition, dated

1334,

from Ota-no-sho in Wakasa Province,

hold-

45 Land was often left fallow

(nen-are)

in twelfth-century Japan. For a discussion of the amount

of land cultivated relative to the total amount of existing arable land, see Nagahara Keiji,

Nihon no chusei shakai (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1968), p. 160.

46 The cultivators of this period were frequently transients and without a permanent residential

structure. See ibid., p. 158.

47 Sato Kazuhiko, Natnbokucho nairan shiron (Tokyo: Tokyo daigaku shuppankai, 1979), pp.

13-43-

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

PEASANTS' PROTEST AND GROWTH 285

ing

the Toji, charged that

the

daikan illegally assessed

additional

labor corvee

on the

residents

for

work

on his

private lands

and

then

seized

the

myoden

the villagers.

The

beleaguered villagers drew

up a

detailed list

of the

daikan's transgressions

and

then gathered

at the

shoen's shrine where they "drank

the

divine waters

unity"

as an

indication

their sincerity.

The

names

fifty-nine sobyakusho were

affixed

the petition

and

sent

the Toji.

The

petition was headed

the names

persons with surnames, such

Oyama Sadashige; below

that were

the

seals

seven persons without surnames, such

Tojiro;

and below there were more than fifty names

abbreviated, simple

signatures.

The

former were myoshu,

and the

latter were

the kobya-

kusho class.

The

status distinctions between myoshu

and

kobyakusho

were clearly indicated

by the use or

absence

a surname

seal.

In 1367

Yano-no-sho

Harima Province, another holding

the

Toji,

the

residents demanded

reduction

in tax

from

the

shoen

official

and asserted that

their demands were

not met,

they would

let the

land revert

to an

uncultivated condition.

The

petition

was

entitled

"an

appeal submitted regarding

great loss"

and was

signed

forty-six

myoshu

led by the

myoshu

Yoshinori-myo.

Kobyakusho

and

others

participated

well,

and

this villagewide unrest

was

called

"rising

all

of the so

(village)" (sosho

ikki).

response

to the

petition,

the

daikan enlisted

the

help

of the

shugo

and

brought additional pressure

to bear

on the

petitioners.

The

daikan threatened

arrest thirty-five

myoshu

and

others involved,

but

despite

the

threat,

the

petitioners

did

not give

in and

soon succeeded

forcing

the

daikan's dismissal.

This kind

unified cultivator action appeared

early

as 1298

when

the

villagers

Tsuda

and

Okushima

in Omi

Province drew

up a

pact (kimon) that pledged their unity.

This pact involved

agree-

ment over fishing rights

Lake Biwa.

total

thirty-nine persons

from Kita-Tsuda village

and

fifty-eight from Okushima jointly signed

the agreement, pledging that they would treat those

who

broke

it as

traitors

and

that those

who

conspired with

the

enemy would

be ban-

ished from

the

shoen.

The

diversity

of the

signatories' class origins

indicated

by the

presence

kobyakusho without surnames, such

Tairagoro. This dispute

was not

directed against

the

shoen

proprietor,

but

it was an

instance

unified action

by all

levels

cultivators.

From these examples,

it is

clear that unified cultivator action devel-

oped

in the

central provinces

Wakasa, Harima,

and Omi. The

Ola-no-sho hyakusho

moshijo narabi

kishomon,

ha 116,

Toji

hyakugo

monjo.

Yano-no-sho

hyakusho

moshijo,

1367,

kei

28—37,

Toji

hyakugo

monjo.

Okushima okutsushima

monjo,

1298,

Okushima-no-sho

murabito

ichimi doshin

okibumi.

286 THE DECLINE OF THE SHOEN SYSTEM

cultivators' increased unity lent strength to their defiance of the

shorn

proprietors. This new development, in turn, reflected changes in the

villages' social structure that accompanied the social and economic

growth of the

kobyakusho,

mainly the establishment of the

so-mura

villages that overcame the political, economic, and even geographical

constraints imposed on the cultivators by the eroding

shorn

system.

The development of the

so-mura

indicated that a fundamental

change had occurred in the village structure to the extent that even the

newly emergent

kobyakusho

acquired membership in the village com-

munity.

The

so-mura

customarily held general conferences

(shuchu

dangb)

or meetings

(yoriai)

to determine the village consensus for col-

lective actions and to draft regulations

(okite)

to maintain peace in the

community. These regulations determined how fields and mountains

were to be used, prohibited gambling to preserve the peace of the

village, and prohibited the lodging of travelers, among other things.

The village meetings to draw up these regulations were often held at

the local Shinto shrine under the auspices of the various types of

"guilds" (miyaza) associated with the shrine or Shinto priests, who

were also members of the greater village community. The developing

autonomy of the greater village community was inextricably connected

to such unified cultivator actions as the submitting of petitions

{hyakusho moshijo)

to the

shoen

proprietors or

the

jitd.

These develop-

ments caused a further weakening of the

shoen

proprietors' control

over the

shoen

and their residents.

Cultivators'

protests

The emergence of the

so-mura

as a foundation for the cultivators'

action strengthened their position against the

shoen

proprietors. In the

fifteenth century, a variety of cultivator protests erupted in the central

provinces, and the strength of these protests ultimately led to the

collapse of the

shoen

system.

The demands for

nengu

reductions by the cultivators of Kamikuze-

no-sho, a holding of the Toji situated four kilometers southwest of the

temple, became more strident in the fifteenth century. In 1408, resi-

dents of the

shoen

requested a waiver of

nengu

for that year because of

drought damage to their fields. The Toji granted a reduction of 8

koku, but the residents were still dissatisfied and presented another

51 Ishida Yoshito, "Goson-sei no keisei," in Iwanami koza Nikon rekishi, vol. 8 (1963); and

Nagahara Keiji, "Chusei koki no sonraku kyodotai," in Nagahara, Chusei

nairanki no

shakai

to minshu.

PEASANTS' PROTEST AND GROWTH 287

demand. In 1419, 20 koku of tax was excused because of wind damage;

in 1420, after they thronged to the Toji, the cultivators received a tax

exemption of 12 koku because of drought. Over twenty years, the

residents of Kamikuze-no-sho demanded and received tax reductions

of various amounts: In 1423, wind and water damage resulted in a 22-

koku reduction; in 1425, 18 koku was excused when the cultivators

threatened to abandon their fields if their demands were not met; in

1426,

they received another iS-koku reduction; in 1427, a 31-koku

reduction was granted; in 1430, by daily visiting the temple with their

demands, the cultivators managed to receive a jo-koku reduction be-

cause of water damage; in 1435, the cultivators obtained a 62-koku

reduction; and in 1437, sixty myoshu and others from Kamikuze-no-

sho negotiated with the Toji and won a 60-koku reduction.

The tax

previously paid by the

shoen

amounted to nearly 230 koku, but as these

reductions generally became customary, the proprietor was unable to

collect the legally established tax.

The most important characteristic of these tax-reduction protests

was that they included both the upper-class cultivators, sometimes

called satanin, who stood at the front of the group, and the lower-class

cultivators, the kobyakusho, who strongly demonstrated their new-

found power. These tax protests, however, were not incited solely by

impoverished cultivators. They were often led by powerful individuals

in the

shoen

whom the

shoen

proprietor had no choice but to recognize.

This gave a political quality to the process. At the same time, the

direct participation of lower-class cultivators in the negotiations with

the proprietor indicated that the movement included all strata of the

cultivating population. These fifteenth-century protests encompassed

the upper-class cultivators' desire to obtain as much wealth as possible

and the lower-class cultivators' efforts to protect their newly gained

agricultural surplus.

In 1428, there was a widespread peasant uprising (tsuchi-ikki)

throughout the provinces of Omi, Yamashiro, and Yamato.

This

tsuchi-ikki was not in itself

cultivator protests against the

shorn

propri-

etor. The leaders of the insurrection were teamsters, called bashaku,

who transported rice and many other goods between Kyoto and Otsu.

The cultivators of the Kyoto region joined the teamsters and poured

For more discussion of

the

actions of

the

cultivators

Kamikuze-no-sho,

see Nagahara Keiji,

Nihon

hokensei

seiritsu

kalei

kenkyii,

pp.

422-41;

and Uejima

Tamotsu,

Keiko

shoen

sonraku

kenkyu

(Tokyo:

Hanawa

shobo,

1970),

pp.

318—34.

Concerning the Shocho do-ikki, see Nakamura Kichiji, Do-ikki kenkyu

(Tokyo:

Azekura

shobo,

1974),

p. 156.

288 THE DECLINE OF THE SHOEN SYSTEM

into Kyoto, wrecking storehouses

(doso),

destroying loan papers, re-

claiming pawned articles, and demanding that the bakufu issue a

tokuseire

- an edict abrogating debt obligations.

Because the ikki was composed of cultivators, the uprising was

called a tsuchi-ikki or do-ikki (the character meaning "land" or

"ground" can be pronounced both do and

tsuchi

in Japanese). It has

also been called a

tokusei-ikki

because it centered on the demand for an

abrogation of debts. Other such tokusei-ikki occurred repeatedly

throughout the fifteenth century. At first glance, the

tokusei-ikki

and

the cultivators' protests against the

shoen

proprietor appear unrelated,

but such was not the case.

The shoen proprietors, hard-pressed by the sharp decline in tax

receipts as a result of the cultivators' demands and the

shugo'

s and

kokujin' s incursions into the

shoen,

borrowed money from moneylend-

ers,

using the following year's tax as collateral. In order to collect the

tax, the moneylenders themselves became daikan on the mortgaged

shoen. Such daikan vigorously collected the tax and, in some cases,

treated the delinquent portion of the tax as if it were a cultivator's

personal debt.

Consequently,

highly antagonistic relationship devel-

oped between the cultivator and the moneylender, differing from the

usual creditor-debtor relationship. The

tokusei-ikki,

therefore, inter-

fered in the collection of the

shoen

taxes and took on the characteristics

of a cultivator revolt. Thus the frequent outbreak of

tokusei-ikki

threat-

ened the moneylenders

well and, by destroying the creditworthiness

of the

shoen

proprietor, threatened his already precarious economic

position. In this way, the

tokusei-ikki

represented the cultivators' pro-

tests against the

shoen

system

itself,

even though the uprising were

ostensibly directed against the moneylenders.

The incidence of the cultivators' protests and

do-ikki

also served to

strengthen the position of the upper-class cultivators in the village. As

the

shoen

system weakened, the upper-class cultivators cemented their

economic position by accumulating

myoshu kajishi

rights.

result of

the cultivators' protests, the amount of tax paid to the

shoen

propri-

etors declined, and proportionately more of the wealth remained on

the

shoen

in the hands of the well-to-do cultivators. These wealthy

cultivators, using their increased wealth, armed themselves and took

more vigorous actions against the

shoen

proprietors. They often be-

came low-level retainers of the

shugo

or kokujin and lent their assis-

54 For a discussion of the ukeoi daikan system and the doso, see Suma Chikai, "Doso ni yoru

shoen nengu no ukeoi ni tsuite," Shigaku zasshi, nos. 80-86 (1971); and Suma Chikai, "Doso

no tochi shuseki to tokusei," Shigaku zasshi, nos. 81-83

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