History 150a
Fixity & Fluidity: Estates, Commoners, and Trade
Overview
Development of shôen estates
As exceptions to the rule
As foundation of a system
Structure of shôen estates
Impact of shôen estates
Shôen estates as a means to differentiate between and control commoners
General Points
Process of peripheries changing the center
Rethinking social categories: commoners
Different ways of dividing up time
Before Shôen Estates
Ritsuryô State declared all land imperial or government property
Concern regarding re-concentration
Periodic redistribution difficult
Shôen (Tax Free Estates) as Exception
Term shôen originated from sheng yuan (noble's park or villa)
By mid-8th c., used to refer to tracts of unopened land under development by temples and elite families
Problems with this policy
743: state permitted permanent private ownership
Commendation and large land holdings
Still shôen were not the basic unit of land administration until the 11-12th centuries
11-12th c. Systemization
Under Emperor Go-Sanjô:
1068: edict regulating growth of shôen
Imperial shôen
Why Emperor Go-Sanjô (father of Shirakawa)?
Reconceptualization of public and private lands characteristic of 12th c. through the 15th c.
Shôen Estates at Their Height
"Private" centers of power with large administrative apparatus recognized as distinct from public domain
Source of rent to support small, central elite of aristocratic houses, Buddhist temples and Shintô shrines, and later the imperial household
Concentrated in central and western provinces, but found throughout main three islands
Freedom from taxes
Right to deny entrance of government officials
Variety in types of shôen
Heterogenity within shôen
Shiki (Rights)
Shiki= rights to produce from territory
Written documents to fix duties and benefits of individual or group with regard to estate
Estates and Hyakushô
"Hyakushô" long assumed to have meant "peasant" or "farmer" but in 9th c. only meant "commoner" (like kômin)
Stable resident of and rent-payer in an estate
Status of political/legal person in system
Estates and Rônin
Relation to land as basis for re-conceptualizing social hierarchy
What is the "norm" and what becomes "other"?
Legitimization of governing authority
Rônin = all commoners who are not hyakushô
Hyakushô <=> Rônin
Hyakushô and rônin not strictly separate
Movement on and off
Rônin Roles
Rônin were "outside" the shôen "norm", but provided key services to the system as a whole
Fluidity as function
Special status signified through protective taboos, licences, appearance, tax exemption
Imperial ties
Ritsuryô state had centralized functions of the be by creating official bureaucracy for such groups
As Ritsuryô state was undermined, these groups sought patronage further afield
Shôen and the Outside
Shôen never were self-sufficient
Capitol elites also never completely self-enclosed
Effects of Shôen Growth
Redefining social categories for commoners
Gradual impoverishment of central gov't.
Extensive privatization of administration
Widespread privatization of enforcement and defense
Creation of new regional networks of loyalty, service and reward
Growth of military service as route to upward mobility for regional males
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Lecture 12: Shôen Estates
