''Nanushi'' (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 名主) was a village official in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. They were village headmen, administering a village (''mura'') under a district magistrate (''gun-dai''), the ''

daikan ''Daikan'' (代官) was an official in Japan that acted on behalf of a ruling monarch or a lord at the post they had been appointed to. Since the Middle Ages, ''daikan'' were in charge of their territory and territorial tax collection. In the Edo ...

'' of a district governor (''gunji''). Their duties included tax collection and serving as the most local administrator of a rural village in direct contact with the villagers. The term ''nanushi'' was used in Kantō, while a village head was called ''shōya'' (庄屋) in

Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...

and ''kimoiri'' (肝煎) in Tōhoku and Hokuriku.

Overview

The duties of ''nanushi'' included tax collection, general village administration, management of public natural resources (such as mountain, field, river and ocean) of the village called ''iriai'', as well as negotiating with the territorial lord as the representative of the villagers. The post was typically monopolized by one or more powerful peasant families, the ''

gōnō ''Gōnō'' (豪農) were the upper-class peasantry in the late Edo period and early Meiji era Japan. They held considerable wealth and power in local communities, and aside from being major landowners, some owned small rural industries or served a ...

'', through hereditary succession, though nominally appointed by the territorial lord who paid salary to the ''nanushi''. The post was sometimes sold to the highest bidder, but was typically only given to a qualified person. In castle towns (''

jōkamachi The term refers to a type of urban structures in Japan in which the city surrounds a feudal lord's castle. These cities did not necessarily form around castles after the Edo period; some are known as Jin'yamachi, cities that have evolved around J ...

''), there were town heads called ''machi-nanushi''. In contrast to the ''nanushi'' of a village who served under a district magistrate (''gun-dai''), the ''machi-nanushi'' served under a town magistrate (''

machi-bugyō were ''samurai'' officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan, this was amongst the senior administrative posts open to those who were not ''daimyō''.Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–186 ...

'') or a ward head (''machidoshiyori''). A ''machi-nanushi'' was a townsman (''

chōnin was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. In the social hierarchy, it was considered subordinate to the samurai warrior class. Social Class The ''chōnin'' emerged in ''joka-machi'' or castle ...

'').

History

Both the terms ''nanushi'' and ''shōya'', meaning a village head, derive from medieval terms. In the Middle Ages, ''nanushi'' (名主) was read as ''myōshu'' and referred to feudal lords of territorial fields (''myōden'') who were divided into petty lords (''shōmyō'') and magnates (''

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 ...

''), and ''shōya'' (庄屋) referred to the manor building of a

manorial estate Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...

. In the

, a new system of village administration was established, with three types of village officials appointed in each village: ''nanushi'', ''kumigashira'' (組頭), and ''hyakushōdai'' (百姓代). For each village there was one ''nanushi'', a number of ''kumigashira'', and one or more ''hyakushōdai''. While the ''nanushi'' was the village head, the ''kumigashira'' were his advisors or assistants, and the ''hyakushōdai'' was the representative of village peasants who surveyed the work of village administrators. These offices were generally established between 1688 and 1704.

References

{{reflist Officials of the Tokugawa shogunate Government of feudal Japan

Overview

History

See also

References