The is an archaeological site consisting of the ruins of a

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one ...

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle betwee ...

shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the private, ...

'' located on the island of Yugeshima in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

, Japan. Administratively, the area is now part of the town of

Kamijima, Ehime 270px, Kamijima Town Hall 270px, Iwaki port is a town located in Ochi District, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,332 in 3780 households and a population density of 210 persons per km2. The total area of the ...

. The site been protected as a National Historic Site since 2021. This manor is particularly famous because salt was the annual tribute, and it provided important materials for the study of the medieval salt industry.

Overview

Yugejima is a small island in the

Geiyo Islands The are a group of islands in the Seto Inland Sea, under the administration of Hiroshima Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture. Some of the largest islands in archipelago are connected by the Nishiseto Expressway bridge system connecting Honshu and Shi ...

in between Ehime and

Hiroshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...

s. In the 12th century, a ''shōen'' was established on the island by retired Emperor Go-Toba. The estate was later inherited by Emperor Go-Shirakawa and afterwards became the property of the temple of Tō-ji in Kyoto. The ''shōen'' or landed estates were private, tax-free, and autonomous feudal manors which arose with the decline of the '' ritsuryō'' system. The earliest ''shōen'' developed in the Nara period to encourage

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

and provided for the succession of the right to cultivate reclaimed fields in perpetuity. Later ''shōen'' developed from land tracts assigned to officially sanctioned Shintō shrines or

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

s or granted by the emperor as gifts to the Imperial relatives, nobles, or officials as tax-free grants. In either case, as these estates grew, they became independent of the civil administrative system and contributed to the rise of a local military class. At first, the hereditary steward of the estate ('' jitō'') paid a portion of his revenues to the nominal "owner" in Kyoto for continued protection from taxes or other interference from the government, but by the

, even this nominal relationship faded away. The Yugeshima ''shōen'' is unusual in that its primary production was sea salt, and that detailed taxation documents have survived, including the names of the 22 families settled on the island and their allotment of fields for farms and section of the coast for salt pans. At the end of the 13th century, during the Shōō era (1288–93), Tōji was involved in a conflict with its ''jitō'', the Komiya clan, over ownership of Yugejima ''shōen''. The plaintiffs brought a lawsuit to the

Shogun , 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 ...

's court in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, but the litigation took several years until a verdict was handed down. The cost of the lawsuit was therefore enormous for both parties, and written records the remittances between Kyoto and Kamakura are noteworthy as an early example of money transfer. The lawsuit was finally settled with a division of the estate, with two-thirds going to Tōji and one-third to the Komiya clan. However, from the middle of the 14th century onwards, the estate was seized by the Kobayakawa clan and disappears from history. The National Historic Site designation encompasses seven separate locations on the island which correspond to sites listed in a Kamakura period map of the estate.

References

External links

Kamijima Town home page
{{in lang, ja Kamijima, Ehime History of Ehime Prefecture Historic Sites of Japan Iyo Province

Overview

See also

References

External links