The was a peasant uprising demanding debt cancellation that occurred in 1441, the 1st year of Kakitsu, in Kyoto and surrounding areas such as Ōmi Province.

Background

In August, amidst the political chaos following the assassination in June of the 6th shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori, peasants revolted, with the

bashaku The were Japanese teamsters or cargo carriers who used horses to transport their shipments. They were chiefly active between the Heian Period and the Sengoku Period. Images of the bashaku are famously drawn on the emakimono depicting the foundin ...

of Kyoto and Sakamoto and Otsu in Ōmi Province at their core, in demand of a comprehensive debt cancellation order on the basis of "daihajime no tokusei", debt relief on the occasion of the ascension of a new shōgun. Jizamurai took the leadership of the movement and it swelled into a revolt of several tens of thousands of people. This insurrection did not spread everywhere, but rather formed a ring around Kyoto.

Rebellion

After severing communication between Kyoto and the outside world, the rebel army attacked

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

merchants, storehouse money brokers, and

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. Under the guidance of ji-samurai, the rebel force acted in an organized manner and kept a lid on wanton looting. They occupied

Tō-ji , also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 796, it was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As such it has a long history, ho ...

and

Kitano Tenmangū is a Shinto shrine in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. History The shrine was first built in 947 to appease the angry spirit of bureaucrat, scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane, who had been exiled as a result of political maneuvers of his enemi ...

and blockaded Tanbaguchi and Nishihachijou. At the beginning of the uprising Mitsutsuna Rokkaku, the

shugo , commonly translated as “(military) governor,” “protector,” or “constable,” was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the ''shōgun'' to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The pos ...

of Ōmi Province, issued his debt's cancellation order, but because Enryaku-ji opposed it, their contracted bashaku of Omi were alienated from the rebels and even opposed them as they went further in occupying

Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist temple located in eastern Kyoto, Japan. The temple is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) UNESCO World Heritage site. History Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the early Heian period. By 77 ...

. While the shogunate at first intended to get a handle on the situation by promulgating a debt relief order for peasants only, the rebels were trying to get the support of members of the establishment by demanding comprehensive debt cancellation at a flat province-wide rate that also included the

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamakur ...

and buke. Furthermore, the kanrei Mochiyuki Hosokawa had accepted a bribe of 1,000 kanmon from the storehouse money brokers before he released an order to dispatch troops for their protection, and the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' who knew about the bribe refused his order. In the case of the ''daimyō'' Mochikuni Hatakeyama, he opposed the suppression of the uprising because his own vassals were involved in it, and the situation became even more chaotic. Finally the 7th ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Ashikaga Yoshikatsu was the seventh ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1442 to 1443 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshikatsu was the son of 6th ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshinori with his concubine, Hino Shigeko (1411–1463). His childhood ...

accepted their demands and issued a comprehensive debt cancellation order, the "Yamashiro Ikkoku Heikin Tokuseirei", which included debt from land sold in perpetuity by farmers less than 20 years ago.Suzanne Marie Gay, The moneylenders of late medieval Kyoto (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001), 136. Because the shogunate released an official debt cancellation order, as opposed to their eventual refusal to do so during the Shōchō Uprising, the shogunate's authority was greatly damaged.

References

Bibliography

* Akira Imatani『足利将軍暗殺嘉吉土一揆の背景』（新人物往来社、1994年） * Akira Imatani『土民嗷々一四四一年の社会史』（東京創元社創元ライブラリ、2001年）　上著の文庫版 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kakitsu Uprising Conflicts in 1441 1440s in Japan 15th-century rebellions Rebellions in Japan Riots and civil disorder in Japan Peasant revolts Ikki