Shōen

A nihongo|"shōen"|荘園 or 庄園|"shōen" was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "zhuangyuan".

After the decay of the ritsuryō system in Japan, a feudal system of manors developed. Landowners or nameholders commended shares of the revenue produced (called "shiki") to more powerful leaders often at the court, in order to be spared of taxes and to subvert the Chinese-style "equal fields" system, whereby land was redistributed after certain periods of time. In the Kamakura period a hierarchy of nameholder, manor stewards ("jitō"), "shugo" (military provincial governor), and the shogun in Kamakura had evolved. These shoen were completely free from interference from the government, which therefore had no say or control of what occurred within the shoen's boundaries.

By the end of the Heian period virtually all Japanese land had become "shōen" and continued to be through the Ōnin War until the Sengoku period marked the defeudalization of Japanese society.

History

Shōen appeared in the eighth century and disappeared in the sixteenth century. They can be categorized by its historical age and shōen of each category had specific features in its formation and relationships with the cultivators of its field. There are two large categories of shōen although in the fact smaller and more detailed categories exist. Shōen of one category which developed in the middle of the Nara period is now called shoki-shōen (初期庄園), and shōen of the other category which continued from the middle of Heian period to the Sengoku period is called chūsei-shōen (中世荘園). Note that these names, which are present historical terms, were not used then and cannot be found in historical record.

Before ritsuryō system

"Tatokoro" or "naritokoro" (田庄) which is thought to be one of the etymology of the term 'shōen' is thought to be the original form of shōen. Before the ritsuryō system or taika reform, land were divided by powerful families historically called gōzoku (豪族) or influential Buddhist temples, and they placed facilities called "yake" (宅) in order to preside over agricultural management, armament, traffic, and trades. Tatokoro, which is seen in documents written in the same era as documents of yake, is thought to have had functions similar to yake on account of similarity of contexts that the word was used. Before long the meaning of "tatokoro" was extended and "tatokoro" came to represent not only originally indicated facilities but also whole fields located around the facilities.

Land policies in the Nara period

Among what caused the development of shōen was the policies of the central government to encourage reclamation. The land policy of the ritsuryō was called handen-shūju-sē (班田収受制) and similar to Chinese equal-field land system (均田制), but in treatment of reclaimed fields there was a difference. If someone reclaimed wasteland into a field in Japan at that time, the field would be dispossessed and he could not cultivate on the field while if someone reclaimed a field in China, he could cultivate on the field under the condition that the field was smaller than legally prescribed dimensions. Therefore little land were reclaimed although the population was steadily increasing, and the shortage of fields became a social problem. To solve this problem, in 723 the central government promulgated the law of "sanze-isshin-hō" (三世一身法) promoting reclamation. This law allowed one to cultivate the field reclaimed by one, and conditionally the fields reclaimed by one's parents or grandparents. Twenty years later, in 743 the central government again promulgated the law promoting reclamation called "konden-ēnen-shizai-hō" (墾田永年私財法) which semi-permanently allowed succession of the right to cultivate reclaimed fields. This law resulted in massive reclamation by wealthy people, and this reclamation had large influence to the formation of shōen.

hoki-shōen

One feature of shoki-shōen is its way of formation. Most shoki-shōen was formed by a Buddhist temple or a central noble gathering two kinds of paddy fields. One kind of paddy fields which constituted shoki-shōen were ones that had already existed before its owner's rule. The other kind of paddy fields are reclaimed under the order of the temple or the noble which ruled a shōen and this kind of fields characterize shoki-shōen. Accordingly shoki-shōen is sometimes called kondenchi-kē-shōen (墾田地系荘園, the meaning of term kondenchi is 'land of reclaimed field.').

Another feature of shoki-shōen is annual rental system of paddy fields. There were no inhabitant of shoki-shōen, and paddy fields of shoki-shōen did not have regular cultivators and were rented on a contract of a year to peasants inhabited in the neighborhood of the shōen. Therefore it was indispensable to gain help of some peasants who carried a lot of weight on the cultivating peasants in order to ensure stable labor force for cultivation and reclamation of new fields. An owner of shoki-shōen often utilized the local government system of "Daijō-kan", "kuni" and "kōri" to meet this need; an owner of shoki-shōen who usually had been assigned by the central government for a "kokushi" (国司, a head or officer of "kuni") appointed a chief of peasants to be a "gunji" (郡司, a head or officer of kōri).

Formation of Chūsei-shōen

Chūsei-shōen is different from shoki-shōen mainly in existence of "shōmin" (荘民, peasants living in shōen) and in the strength of the rule of shōmin by shōen owner; while shoki-shōen did not have any shōmin and the owner's rule of cultivators was weaker than that of the government, chūsei-shōen had shōmin and most of the cultivator was the shōmin, and the shōen owner's rule became more powerful than that of the government. The owner of a shōen expelled peasants who was not obedient to him from neighborhoods of the shōen area and provided new penal codes for criminal offense or treason in order to ensure the shōen owner's control on shōmin. That is to say shōen owners, who treasured a connection with the government in the Nara period, came to discard the connection with the government and to treasure a connection with peasants.

Another feature of chūsei-shōen consists in exemptions from some kinds of tax imposed by the central government. In the middle or the end of the Heian period there were two types of tax. One was the type of tax imposed as labor under the supervision of "kuni", and the other was the type of tax on farm product (about three percent of rice or other farm product). To evade these taxes, peasants wanted to be ruled and protected by the shōen owners, which was usually politically influential Buddhist temple, Shinto shrine or central noble. To achieve this protection of the shōen owners, peasants donated the nominal land ownership of fields cultivated by them. This fields, nominal ownership of which was made contribution, is historically called "kishinchi" (寄進地). Then shōen owners who received kishinchi, according to shōmin's request, negotiated with the "kokushi" or directly with the central government and achieved the exemption from tax. Most chūsei-shōen gathered vast fields in this process of receiving fields from peasants as kishinchi. In this sense, chūsei-shōen is sometimes called kishinchi-kē-shōen (寄進地系荘園).

Meanwhile there appeared shōen which gathered some fields by depriving peasants of land ownership. There were some peasants who could not pay tribute imposed by shōen owner or could not refund paddy (seeds of rice) which they rented from the shōen owner the previous year, and shōen owner who was the creditor gave up credit and deprived them of land ownership as substitution of the credit. This kind of shōen is sometimes called konden-shūseki-shōen (墾田集積荘園).

There were several kinds of chūsei-shōen, and each kind of shōen had particular process of achieving exemption from tax: ;Kanshōfu-shō (官省符荘): Kanshōfu-sho is shōen where exemption from "so" (租, a kind of tax, three percent of total harvest of rice) was allowed in official procedures. In the ritsuryō system, powerful Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples had the right to receive rice as support from the central government. Each shrines or temples were allotted particular fields to, and the rice was levied as "so" from peasants cultivating the allotted fields. In the eighth century in some shōen, semi-permanent land ownership of the fields and exemption from "so" in the fields was permitted by Daijo-kan, which administered exemption of tax, and "minbushō" notified the owner of the fields about the permission using the document called "minbushōfu" or "shōfu". Later the permission by "Daijō-kan" not for temples or shrines but for powerful noble was gradually increased. ;Kokumen-shō (国免荘): Kokumen-shō is shōen allowed exemption from "so" or other tribute in bempo or binho (便補) system. At that time "kuni" had an obligation to pay to shōen owner the benefits the amount of which was determined as to his dignity by the central government. Bempo system is a means usually used when "kuni" could not prepare the benefits since the taxation from peasants cultivating public fields did not function well; "kuni" transferred shōen owner its right of taxation from fields the dimensions of which was corresponding to the amount of the benefits. This field was usually selected, according to shōen owner's request, from fields which shōen owner had received from peasants as "kishinchi", and this means practical exemption from tax. This system was not admitted by the central government and a contract of bempo became invalid when the term of tenure of the kokushi who contracted was over. However, in most case the new kokushi could not refuse shōen owner's request of continuation of a contract because they felt sorry for accumulated debt of the delinquent benefits, which had not paid while bempo was performed as substitution of payment. Consequently these fields were established as an area exempt from "so" or other tribute imposed by the central government. In the tenth and eleventh century kokumen-shō was rapidly increased, and in 1040 the central government was not able to continue ignoring kokumen-shō and finally explicitly prohibited "kuni" 's new permission of exemption of tax. This ordinance is now called "chōkyū-shōen-sēri-rē" ("The Order for Disposal of Shōen in Chōkyū Era" in Japanese). ;Rinjizōyaku-menjo-shōen (臨時雑役免除荘園): "Rinjizōyaku" is a general term of variant labor imposed to peasants as tax by the government from the middle to the end of the Heian period, and rinjizōyaku-menjo-shōen is shōen allowed exemption of rinjizōyaku. There were two main processes of formation of rinjizōyaku-menjo-shōen. One was the process of shōen owner's negotiation with kokushi; shōen owner abandoned the right of using a part of labor force of rinjizōyaku and instead achieved exemption from rinjizōyaku of peasants living in particular area. The other is the process of bempo system. However, repeated exemption of rinjizōyaku resulted in the shortage of kishinchi of some shōen owners which was remained not exempt from rinjizōyaku. While practicing bempo, if all the kishinchi of the shōen owner was exempt from rinjizōyaku, shōen owner was provided with the right of using labor force of particular public fields. This resulted in absorption of public fields into shōen territory, and in the eleventh century new exemption from rinjizōyaku of fields which had neither exemption of "so" nor that of other tributes was prohibited.

hōen in the Kamakura period

hōen in the Muromachi period

hōen in the Sengoku period

ee also

*Ritsuryō system
*Uji system
*Fiefdom
*Serfdom

References

*" [http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~kaplan/eas201/201-15.pdf Medieval Japan's Feudal Process] " (pdf)
*ja Amino Yoshihiko et al., "Japanese Manor History Course 2 -- Formation and Possession of Shōen (講座日本荘園史第二巻 荘園の成立と領有)" (Yoshikawa-Kobunkan, February 1991), ISBN 4-642-02692-4
* Hall, John Whitney. "Terms and Concepts in Japanese Medieval History: An Inquiry into the Problems of Translation." "Journal of Japanese Studies" 9:1 (Winter, 1983), p. 29, s.v. "Shōen."