The were lords of smaller rural domains in
feudal Japan
The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inven ...
.
[Harold Britho, 'The Han', in John Whitney Hall, ed., ''The Cambridge History of Japan, volume 4: Early Modern Period'' (Cambridge UP, 1988), 183–234, ] They often used their relatively small plots of land for intensive and diversified forms of agriculture.
One of the primary causes for the rise in the number of smaller land holders was a decline in the custom of
primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
. Towards the end of the
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 betw ...
, inheritance began to be split among a lord's sons, making each heir's holdings, and thus their power, smaller.
Over time, many of these smaller fiefs came to be dominated by 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 ...
'', constables who were administrators appointed by the shogunate to oversee the provinces. Resentful and mistrustful of the interference of government officials, people under their control banded together into leagues called ''ikki''. The uprisings that resulted, particularly when the ''shugo'' tried to seize control of entire provinces, were also called ''ikki''; some of the largest and most famous took place in
Wakasa Province
was a province of Japan in the area that is today the southwestern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Wakasa''" in . Wakasa bordered on Echizen, Ōmi, Tanba, Tango, and Yamash ...
in the 1350s.
See also
*
Gentry
Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past.
Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies
''Gentry'', in its widest c ...
*
Yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...
References
{{Reflist
Japanese historical terms
Government of feudal Japan
Titles