THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

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#13
13. WILL OF SHIBUYA JO-SHIN, 1245
(Iriki-in docs.; also KK, I, and SK, III.)
IN this document we for the first time meet a lord of the Iriki-in family. Shibuya Jo-Shin was to
become two years hence the first chief of this illustrious line of warriors.
As has been shown in the Introduction, the Shibuya were of the great Taira stock, which de-
scended from the Emperor Kwanmu, who reigned between 781 and 806. His great-grandson, Prince
Takamochi, had several sons. One of them was progenitor of the picturesque warrior-statesman,
Taira no Kiyomori, who in 1167 rose to the premiership of Japan and gave his house a short span
of glory, and also of the Hojo regents who were real rulers of feudal Japan for more than a
hundred years till 1333. Descendants of anther of the prince's sons ramified into the families of
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Muraoka, Miura, Chiba, Hatakeyama, Shibuya, and others, all adorning the annals of the feudal
ages with valorous deeds of their members.
The first Shibuya, Taira no Shigekuni, took his family-name from the sho of Shibuya, near
Kamakura, in the kuni of Sagami, in which he held a shiki, serving the sho-gun as his immediate
vassal. His eldest son, Mitsushige, seems to have controlled shiki in Satsuma, in addition to those
in Sagami, Kotsuke, Ise, and Mimasaka.¹ The times had then changed. Yoritomo had been dead
nearly a half-century, and twenty years after his death the last scion of his house was assassinated,
and, under the nominal rule of the princes and the civil nobles whom they invited from Kyoto to
assume the title of sho-gun, the Hojo regents at Kamakura had succeeded in gathering all political
powers into their hands. Apprehensive that the latter might perhaps encompass the ruin of his
house, says the tradition, as they had done that of others, Shibuya Mitsushige persuaded the
authorities to permit his younger children to migrate to distant Satsuma and settle there as advance
guards of Kamakura. Leaving his eldest son, Shigenao, at Shibuya, Mitsushige sent south, in 1247
or 1248, his five younger sons and their families and retainers, and distributed-as in those days
family properties were as a rule divided amongst children-his ji-to shiki in central Satsuma as
follows:
the second son Saneshige received Togo;
the third son Shigeyasu received Keto in;
the fourth son Shigemoro received Tsuruda;
the fifth son Jo-Shin² received Iriki in; and
the sixth son Shigesada received Taki kori,
each taking the name of the locality as his family-name.³ So began the settlement, on the rich
sedimentary soil along the lower course of the river Sendai, of the five vigorous offshoots of the
Shibuya family. We may imagine what a stir this sudden descent of eastern warriors all united in
blood must have caused among the local chieftains, and what a sense of uneasiness it must have
struck into the hearts of the Shimadzu. The event did not bode well for them.
It should be noted that the document given below is dated 1245; Jo-Shin was still in Sagami, and
his later possessions at Iriki could not therefore figure in this devise.
The devise itself reveals a highly interesting state of the family and social institutions which
obtained among the feudal classes of this period. The family had for many ages been agnatic; the
sons generally received through the devise hereditary interests in land, but the widow and the
daughters, usually only life interests. The family had long been also patriarchal, but the power of
its chief heir over the clan, as distinguished from his power over his immediate family, was limited:
the eldest son after succession consulted and acted together with his younger brothers who had
established their own households, on all important family affairs. One would note particularly the
fact that the interest of the feudal organization of society had not yet produced a state of primo-
geniture. The father freely made a testament, and revised and revoked it at will, dividing his estate
into unequal parts and distributing them among his children, and subsequently redistributing them
as he thought best;⁴ and it would appear that this privilege was often exercised by the vassal
without a formal sanction by the lord prior to the act, so long as the feudal service the former
owed the latter was unimpaired by the division; the younger co-heirs would render their respective
shares of the service, the daughters through proxies, under the general direction of the chief heir. It
should not be supposed that this was a division either by "parage" or by subinfeudation of the
younger members-per paragium or per homagium: the co-heirs were individually considered by the
suzerain as his go ke-nin, and their holdings under the devise were separately recognized by his
letters of confirmation (cf. Nos.21, 23, etc.); the chief heir merely received a little larger share of
the father's estate than the others, and exercised a mild supervisory power over them, who were not
his vassals, but his peers before the suzerain. Clearly, this was not even a parage general as obtained
in Normandy (see Summa de legibus Normannie, ed.Tardif, c.28 and 34), still less parage particu-
lier, that is, parage with homage, as was described by Beaumanoir (Coutumes de Beauvaisis, ed.
Salmon, c.464 and 465), but rather like the condition which was contemplated by Philip Augustus's
law of 1209 abolishing parage in the royal domains (Ordonnances des roys de France, I, 29).
The editor thinks that the chief reasons for the comparative freedom in these respects of the
vassal in regard to his lord, and of the co-heirs in regard to the chief heir, must be sought (1) in
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the singularly uncontrolled state which characterized the conveyance of landed shiki during the
pre-feudal period;⁵ (2) in the freedom of making wills allowed in the Chinese law of the T'ang
period which was adopted in Japan from the early eighth century;⁶ and (3) in the delay in the
general recognition of the need of the principle of primogeniture, to which we have alluded. This
principle would be evolved sooner or later, as may be traced through some of our documents, under
the impact of social unrest and warfare which was intensified in the following ages. The state
revealed by the present document was transitional. It is to be noted that, in feudal Japan, the
direction of evolution was not, as in France after the twelfth century, from a more restricted
to a freer law of primogeniture, but, on the contrary, from comparative freedom in succession to
the more rigorous principle of primogeniture. This is one of the several important aspects of
Japanese feudalism which, owing largely to the lateness in her history of the advent of a prolonged
and intensive civil war, pursued a course of development reverse to that in French feudalism, but
nearer to that in the German.

[Marginal note]: "[This] letter of devise to Saburo, Shiro, Goro, and Zhiro-Saburo, is by another's
hand.⁷ ((Jo-Shin's monogram.)"

"SETTLEMENT concerning the obligations^7a and, also, other matters which the sons
should know.
"The extent of the ta [burdened] with obligations(ku-zhi):^7a
"Distributed [also] in Kawae go, [Mimasaka kuni⁸]: the original extent, thirty-
one cho two tan.^8a
"Saburo's⁹ share: seventeen cho [four tan],¹⁰ at Kawae.
"Ta with obligation,^7a ten cho.
"Also at Orui, [Kotsuke¹¹ kuni], nine cho,
besides Uchi-mojiri, [Sagami],¹² three cho.
"Shiro's¹³ share: four cho three tan, at Kawae.
"Ta with obligations,^7a four cho three tan.
"Dai-ku-den, [Ise],¹⁴ ten cho four tan.
"Goro's¹⁵ share: four cho at Kawae.
"Ta with obligations,^7a one cho six tan.
"Zhiro-Saburo's¹⁶ share: seven cho five tan, at Kawae.
"Ta with obligations,^7a three cho five tan.
"North Uchi-mojiri, [Sagami], three cho.
The above ta aggregating 56 cho 6 tan.
"However, the ta with obligations^7a which the late lord nyu-do granted [to Jo-Shin]
was nineteen cho 4 tan; wherefore the various obligations^7a have for these years
been rendered with [proceeds from] these ta. Therefore, I have examined and
apportioned the said ta.
"The Grand Guard¹⁷ service at Kyoto shall be performed by the four sons according
to the capacity of their [shares of the] ta [burdened] with obligations.^7a
"It should be Saburo's sole care to send toneri¹⁸ to the religious festival¹⁹ at Kama-
kura.
"When laborers²⁰ are called for from Kamakura, they should be taken from Uchi-
mojiri,¹² Fukaya,¹² and Fuji-gokoro,¹² in due proportion to the homesteads,²¹ ta, and
hata [comprised therein]. If many laborers are required, they may be levied on the
daughter's shares as well. At two in every three [assessments], the laborers should be
forwarded from Uchi-mojiri.
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"The o-yuka²² service should, twice in every five times, be performed by Saburo,
and the other three times, by the other three. Men of Ochiai¹² should cooperate.
"When the fuel²³ for the great court²⁴ is demanded, one hundred mon²⁶ shall be
levied on all the peasant-homesteads²⁵ in Fukaya and Fuji-gokoro without exception,
and, added to the two hundred mon for Ochiai and Lower Fukaya, the time of the
laborers should be commuted for with these three hundred mon. This should be borne
in mind.
"At the festivals of the five temples,²⁷ or when there are repairs to be made there,
precedents shall be examined and the services shared according to capacity without
negligence.
"The residence²⁸ at Kamakura is granted to Saburo. However, lodging shall be
given to the brothers against whom he has no cause for ill-will. It is often observed
that one refuses lodging to his brothers, while he allows it to others. Such conduct
would be contrary to the father's command. If a refusal be stringent, the matter shall
be reported to the authorities.²⁹
"Regarding the servants,³⁰ instructions have already been given. Also, concerning
what little common chattel³¹ there is, the widow-nun³² shall be consulted and her
direction be followed.
"As regards the peasant-homesteads²⁵ and ta and hata that are divided to a
daughter,³³ if the said daughter should [be reported to have] committed an outrageous
wrong, the sons should together carefully examine whether it was true, and, if true,
the sons should, without [the formality of] reporting to the authorities,²⁹ take the
homestead of said [daughter], and divide and hold it; it should never be given to the
daughter's children.
"If any of the sons, no matter what might happen, should depend upon one on whom
he should not depend,³⁴ and conduct himself shamelessly, the other brothers should,
of one mind, divide and hold the said [brother's] homestead, without [the formality
of] reporting to the authorities.²⁹
"It should never take place that one³⁵ who has well served the parents³⁶ and is
faithful should, after their death, be at some time or other found fault with and then
be treated with great harshness.
"[Children] should not, under the pretext of performing Buddhist rites for [the
welfare of the soul of] a parent, exact things from persons without fault and perform
the rites therewith; [such act] would not constitute a (religious) merit.
"If any of the sons or grandsons should stake his homestead in gambling, the others
should, consulting, for once restore the property and make him declare in writing,
under oath, that he would not repeat such act; if he still liked [to gamble] and went
wild, [the others] should, with the statement that they were following the parents'
instructions, divide and hold his homestead.
"Besides the above, there is little to be said. All persons high and low should refrain
from transgressing this letter. Never on a single matter should [the directions of this
letter] be disobeyed.
"Kwan-gen 3y., kinoto-mi,³⁷ 5m. 11d. [6 June 1245]. Priest,³⁸ (Jo-Shin's mono-
gram)."
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¹ Inferring from our documents.
² Jo-Shin was the Buddhist name of this son. His former name doubtless had "shige" as its part,
as most of the men of the family did, but does not appear in any of the documents, and has been
forgotten.
³ From Shibuya kei-fu; Satsuma shi, III; etc.
⁴ See the later wills in this volume.
⁵ This point is discussed in general terms in the editor's articles, "Some aspects," "Agriculture,"
"The early sho"; see Bibliography.
⁶ The Ryo no gi-ge, last clauses of c. viii, 23, and c. xxvi, 13. See the Ryo no shu-ge, x (edition
1912, I, 323-324).
⁷ Ta-hitsu, that is, not holographic. This statement would seem to reveal the state of culture of
the writer.
^7a Ku-zhi (literally, public matters), obligations, in this instance, owed to the sho-gun. Further
see No.142, n.2.
⁸ Kawae is a region situated in the extreme south of Agata kori, Mimasaka kuni, just beyond the
border of Bizen kuni. The place is generally so mountainous that rice was cultivated only in small
and sparsely scattered plots, and the hamlets were few; in some places, tea was raised instead, and
in some others paper was made.
Of the fifteen villages of which Kawae consisted in later ages, Miyaji, Yokogawa, and North
(Kita) and South(Minami) mura, lying mostly on both sides of the river Taki-gawa, were called
Zhitcho(Ten Cho); this is the part that was held by the Shibuya, although traditions about them
remained also in Koda mura further west. (See To-Saku shi 364-431.)
For a hundred years hence, Kawae, judging from our documents (Nos.13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24,
30, 35, 38, 41-44, 46, and 93), continued to be a "public domain," that is, was not converted into a
private domain, for it is mentioned as a go, not a sho: go was in this period a public administrative
unit. In documents dated between 1334 and 1490, the last year in which the place figures among the
holdings of the Iriki-in families, Kawae is designated a sho (Nos.77A, 79, 93, 97, 114, and 138);
it is unknown how the region had fallen into private hands or who were its successive domanial
lords.
^8a This is obscure, but it is meant that, although the "obligations"(ku-zhi) to the sho-gun were
formerly borne by the domains at Dai-ku-den and Orui (cf. No.17), they are now distributed in
part among the lands at Kawae.
⁹ Saburo was the chief heir Akishige.
¹⁰ Omission by error.
¹¹ Orui, east of the present town of Takasaki, Kotsuke kuni; in this vicinity were many warriors
of the Kodama party. According to the Adzuma-kagami (iii, Kikkawa text, I, 91), Shibuya Mit-
sushige, uncle of Jo-Shin, was in 1184 holding Kurokawa go, in Kotsuke kuni. This may be in the
so-called Kurokawa valley near the eastern boundary of the kuni along the upper Watarase River,
some forty miles northeast of Orui. If Kotsuke is an error for Shimotsuke, then the Kurokawa go
in the latter kuni was at its northeast corner and quite far from Orui. The domanial lord of neither
Orui nor Kurokawa is known.
¹² Uchi-mojiri, Fukaya, Ochiai,-these were all between the rivers Sagami and Sakai, in Shibuya
sho proper, the chief domain of the Shibuya family, as described in the Introduction. Uchi-mojiri
the editor assumes to be the same as the modern Uchi-modori; Ochiai and Fukaya are to the
northeast of the latter. Fuji-gokoro cannot be identified, but may likely have also been in this
general region.
It is of interest to note that, so far as the present document is concerned, the obligations(ku-zhi)
that are enumerated as due to the sho-gun from Jo-Shin and his children as go ke-nin were rendered
for parts of their holdings in Shibuya sho, and not for their domains held in the more remote
Kotsuke, Ise, and Mimasaka.
¹³ Shiro, or Goro-Shiro, Shigetsune, the ancestor of the Terao branch,
¹⁴ Dai-ku-den, Ise kuni, was, according to No.14, in the domain(mi-kuriya) at Mida, Kawage
kori, mentioned in the Zhin-po sho, the catalogue of the domains of the Great Temples of Ise
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compiled early in the Kamakura period. (See Go-rei i-kyo, part of Kawakuma kori, iii, pp. 33-36;
San-goku chi-shi, by Todo Gen-po, XX, 1763,-ed. 1916, I, p. 108.)
Early in the thirteenth century, one Shibuya Zen-zaemon was ji-to of a domain under the
courtier-poet Fijuwara no Sada-ie (Tei-ka), at Ko Asaka, Ichisi kori, Ise kuni. (See Adzuma-
kagami, xx,-Kikkawa text, II, 97; and Mei-gestu sho, Sada-ie's diary, viii, xvi, and xliv.) Since
Ko Asaka also was a mi-kuriya of the Great Temples (according to the Zhin-po sho), the temples
were probably its hon-ke, and Sada-ie its ryo-ke. The relation of the ji-to Shibuya Zen-zemon to
the house of Mitsushige and Jo-Shin is not clear.
¹⁵ Goro Shigekata, the ancestor of the Shimomura branch.
¹⁶ Zhiro-Saburo Shigezumi, older than Saburo, but child by a secondary consort.
¹⁷ O ban, literally, grand rotation, was the guardsman's service at the imperial city and palace at
Kyoto. This service, public in its original character, devolved upon the go ke-nin from the pre-
feudal ages, when it was done by rotation by able-bodied free male citizens of age. Yoritomo made
the service incumbent upon all his go ke-nin, but changed its duration to six months in the year
from the older term of three consecutive years. Later, it was further abridged to three months, and
was suspended a while in the second half of the thirteenth century when warrios were detailed to
guard frontiers against the Mongol invaders. In 1264, as at the time of this document, the term still
remained six months. SK, IV and V; Hishizhima mon-zho, II.
¹⁸ Servants assisting at the festival.
¹⁹ The annual festival of Tsuru-ga-oka Hachiman, the guardian temple of the sho-gun's house.
²⁰ Nin-bu.
²¹ Ya-shiki, residence of a warrior. Often some hata or ta is included in the meaning of the term,
and hence the word "homestead" has been chosen as representing buildings plus adjoining land;
see No.7, and No.104, n.22. Cf. capitale masnagium in the Tres ancien coutumier de Normandie,
c.79, etc.
²² O-yuka, literally, great floor or veranda, referring to that of a warrior-lord's residence. The
o-yuka service probably is that service of attendance at the sho-gun's court done by his go ke-nin,
which was limited to one month.
²³ Maki, wood for fuel.
²⁴ O-ba or o-niwa. Is it the sho-gun's court?
²⁵ Zai-ke, literally, rural house, was the term applied to the peasant's dwelling with its appur-
tenances and the little land beside it which belonged to it. The zai-ke as peasant homestead was
essentially the same in economic structure, except in size and importance, as the ya-shiki, ie., the
warrior's homestead (n.21, above). It should be borne in mind, however, that these terms were
not always rigidly differentiated in their application to the homesteads of the two respective classes
of people; indeed, the classes themselves had not yet been totally differentiated. Nor should it be
forgotten that these terms could mean merely houses, which was their literal signification, if no
piece of land accompanied them. At any event, both yashiki and zai-ke were, regardless of their
differences in magnitude, important concrete units in the fiscal arrangement of all feudal ages.
Further see No.7, and No.104, n.22.
²⁶ Mon, a copper coin, the lowest unit in the monetary system, 1,000 mon making one kwan. See
No.50, n.4.
²⁷ The reference is not clear.
²⁸ Ya-chi, residence. Important go ke-nin who attended frequently at the sho-gun's court had
their houses at Kamakura.
²⁹ Kami; probably the sho-gun's governmnet is meant.
³⁰ Ge-nin literally, low men.
³¹ Se-ken no gu-soku. Gu-soku, literally, complete outfit, in later ages meant armor. Here the
term would seem to refer to the movable property acquired by servants; if so, then the clause may
be said to reveal the personal status of the servants designated ge-nin.
³² Wife of the testator. He is writing in anticipation of the time after his death.
³³ Jo-Shin had three daughters.
³⁴ That is, change his allegiance to another lord.
³⁵ A servitor. Is it a ge-nin (nn.30 and 31) or a hereditary vassal?
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³⁶ The testator himself and his wife.
³⁷ The forty-second year in the sexagenary cycle of Chinese origin.
³⁸ Jo-Shin is a Buddhist name; its owner had taken a Buddhist vow and shaved his head.
Though he called himself priest(so), he presumably was, like many another man in this period, a
mere nyu-do, that is, did not forsake society and seclude himself in a church or monastery, but still
lived a secular life, and continued to transact worldly business.