#45
45. THE SHO-GUN'S ORDERS DISTRIBUTING REWARDS FOR
SERVICE, 1288
(Iriki-in and Takemitsu docs.; also KK, II and XI, and SK, VII.)
THE Mongol rulers of China extended their arms of conquest to Japan, invading her in great forces
in 1274 and 1281 and continuing occasional raids well on to the fourteenth century. Independent
existence would certainly have been lost to the nation but for the feudal warriors who gallantly
defended the coast of northern Kyu-shu. In this protracted war of national defense, men of all
feudal Japan participated, but its burden fell chiefly on the valiant go ke-nin of Kyu-shu. In 1274,
when the invaders crossed the sea in more than four hundred vessels, ravaged the islands of Iki and
Tsushima, and attacked the coast of north Kyu-shu, the warriors of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hiuga,
fighting under Shimadzu Sukenaga, successfully aided in the repulsion of the enemy. From this time
on, Hakata was continuously defended, Shimadzu Hisatsune never leaving that garrison till the
second great invasion of 1281. The Mongol forces in that year came in a vast fleet of war vessels
which covered the face of the sea, but were so stoutly resisted by the defense that they failed to gain
a foothold on Kyu-shu. Many desultory encounters took place on the water, when, on 16(?)
August, a terrific storm arose, and shattered the enemy fleet; the Satsuma and other forces pursued
the fleeing foes in their battered ships, and cut them down.1 Hisatsune died at Hakata in 1284, but
his work was continued by his son Tadamune, and the rigor of defense was not relaxed for nearly
thirty years,2 or full thirty-five years from the first invasion.3
The defensive work consisted in the construction of nearly sixty miles of stone ramparts stretch-
ing along the coast, and in maintaining local warriors by rotation at the garrison at Hakata. Men of
Satsuma shared in both works, as is testified by authentic documents: the building and repairing of
the ramparts were apportioned among the greater chieftains, and the guard service was done for
three or four months at a time, and in some years six months.
That the Shibuya warriors took a prominent part in war and council in this critical period may
be judged from the single fact that, in 1299, Taki Shigesato was appointed as one of the twenty-four
great men in Kyu-shu whose duty it was to assist the sho-gun's deputy at Hakata in his administra-
tion of civil justice among local warriors.4 It has already been said more than once that Iriki-in
Arishige and his younger brothers Muneshige and Shigenao died of arrow wounds on sea in the
war of 1281.5 For these merits, Arishige's relatives received a comparatively large reward from the
suzerain (see A), a proof of his distinguished service. Arishige had served as proxy for his elder
brother Kimishige, the chief of Iriki.
As reward for the services that the greater go ke-nin had rendered in saving Japan from a possible
foreign conquest, the feudal government at Kamakura granted them various shiki relative to terri-
tories in the northern third of the island. A list, dated early in 1287, of men so rewarded and of the
shiki they received, is found in the Hishizhima mon-zho, IV; in it again appears the name of Taki
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Shigesato as the recipient of the ji-to shiki at Imahara, Chikuzen. The following orders from Kama-
kura set forth in detail the lands and homesteads whose ji-to shiki were allotted in 1288 to the
family of the late Iriki-in Arishige and to Takemitsu (Tomo) Morokane. Similar orders of the same
date assigning to other warriors or their families shiki in the same general locality appear in the
Kokubun zhi mon-zho (quoted in SK, VII), the shiga mon-zho, I and VI, the Nezhime uji mon-
zho, and others.
That Arishige's younger brother Muneshige, who also fell in battle in 1281, was granted ten cho
of land, or a shiki regarding it, at Lower Nagao, Chikuzen, may be gathered from No. 46 below.
From the institutional point of view, the grants for service(kun-ko sho) which meritorious
warriors received should be carefully distinguished from the domains which they had inherited from
their fathers and for which they had received the sho-gun's writs of reinvestiture at their succession
to the estates. The latter were their "original domains"(hon-ryo); the former were "new favors"
(shin-on) or "lands by favor"(on-chi). The holders enjoyed less restricted rights of disposition over
the inherited lands than over the granted, and the sho-gun's government exercised correspondingly
greater interference over the second than over the first. Grants were both inheritable and subin-
feudable, but did not admit of mortgage and sale, which were conditionally allowed only for
"original" domains; and the same restrictions attached to the "favors" even after inheritance and
division.
It will be noted that the following rewards are stated to have been assigned by lot(kuzhi). This
must mean that the sho-gun's council had carefully listed lands and homesteads in northern Kyu-shu
whose shiki were available for distribution; grouped them in sets of graded magnitudes; and then
assigned by lot to each recipient a set of the grade which the quality of his service merited.
#45-A
A
"Assignment of the ji-to shiki of Hii go, Sawara kori, Chikuzen kuni, the reward6 for
meritorious services rendered in the Mongol war, in Ko-an 4th year [1281].
"One man, [the late] Shibuya Hei-shiro Arishige ho-shi's surviving [relatives,
namely,] grandsons Kame-wo and Kame-tsuru,7 and the adopted son Hie-zhi Kimi-
shige ho-shi's8 widow:
"Ta and other lands, 10 cho:-
"Yukitake myo:
"One place, Yoko-makura,1 1/2 tan;
"One place, Matsumoto, 9 tan;
"One place, Sono, 90 bu;
"One place, Tsukida, 3 tan;
"One place, Shimo Kawarada, 2 2/3 tan;
"One place, Kakida, 1 cho 1 tan;
"One place, Sakamoto, 5 1/2 tan;
"One place, To-shita, 2 2/3 tan;
"One place, Uchigoe, north, 1/2 tan;
"One place, Uchigoe, 3 tan;
"One place, Tsukinoe, 50 bu;
"One place, Imagawa nyu-do's sono,9 60 bu.
"In Wakakuni myo:-
"One place, Uchigoe, 3 tan;
"One place, the same, 300 bu;
"One place, Furuya, 1/3 tan;
"One place, Yakata-ga-ura, 4 tan;
"One place, the same, 1 1/3 tan;
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"One place, Nasoe, 1/2 tan;
"One place, Kihana, 2 tan;
"One place, Kakisoe, 1/2 tan;
"One place, Kadota, 2 tan;
"One place, Kawarada, 3 tan;
"One place, Sakamoto, 6 tam;
"One place, Furukawa, 1/3 tan;
"One place, Futsuhara, 69 bu;
"One place, Okumoto,10 1 1/3 tan;
"One place, Tsuki-ga-shita, 1 cho 3 tan;
"One place, Naka Osada, 8 tan;
"One place, Ishizaki, 3 tan;
"One place, Haruda, 2 1/2 tan;
"One place, Nishi Muda, 3 tan;
"One place, Mugita, 3 tan;
"One place, Yanagita, 8 1/2 tan, of which 2 tan 300 bu,eastern side.
"4 homesteads:-
"In Yukitake myo:
"One house, So ken-gyo11 nyu-do;12
"One house, Rokuro.12
"In Nagabuchi sho:
"One house, Iya-to-zo,12 Yonemitsu13 myo;
"One house, own myo.14
"Hata:-1 cho 8 tan;
"In Wakakuni myo:
"One place, Nakashima, 4 tan;
"One place, Yakata-ga-ura, 2 tan;
"In Nagabuchi sho:
"One place, Minamida,15 7 tan 1 jo, of the original 8 tan, western side; Kin-
maru;15
"One place, 4 tan 4 jo, of the original 1 cho, eastern side; originally shimo-
gawara.15
"This assignment is made by lot. It is hereby ordered that the customary Buddhist
and Shinto services and the domanial lords'16 annual dues [be rendered] in accordance
with the precedents and without negligence.
"Sho-o 1 y. 10 m. 3 d. [29 October 1288]. Shami,17 (monogram).
Shami,17 (monogram)."
[IMAGE]@@[JP-#228]
#45-B
B
"Assignment of the ji-to shiki of Nanakuma18 go, Sawara kori, Chikuzen kuni,
the reward6 for meritorious services rendered in the Mongol war, in Ko-an 4th
year.
"One man, Takemitsu19 Saburo Morokane, of Satsuma kuni.
"Ta and other lands, 3 cho:-
"In the present go:
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"One place, Shimo Hakamo, 72/3 tan, of which 6 tan, eastern side;
"One place, Hashidzume, 81/2 tan;
"One place, 1 cho;
"One place, 81/3 tan, of which 51/2 tan, western side.
"2 homesteads:-
"In Kami Otowo-Maru myo, Hii go: one house, Ren-Zho bo.20
"In Inoue myo, Minaki sho: one house, Iya-hei-zo.20
"Hata, 6 tan:-
"In Nanakuma go:
"One place, Takekiyo, 3 tan 2 jo.
"In Nagabuji sho:
"One place, Seto-guchi,21 1 tan: Yasuyo.22
"One place, Kamiza-machi,21 1 tan 3 jo, of the original 3 tan 4 jo, south side:
Tomitake.22
"This assignment is made by lot. It is hereby ordered that the customary Buddhist
and Shinto services and the domanial lords'16 annual dues [be rendered] in accordance
with the precedents and without negligence.
"Sho-o 1 y. 10 m. 3 d. [29 October 1288]. Shami,17 (monogram).
Shami,17 (monogram)."
1See No. 25.
2Between 1277 and 1306, Hishizhima mon-zho, I, III, and IV.
3Between 1275 and 1301, ibid., I-IV, and SK, VII and VIII.
4Ei-nin 7 y. 10 m. 4 d., in SK, VII. Cf. our Introduction, p. 23.
5A local legend says that when Arishige, on his expedition to Hakata in 1281, went as far as
Naka-no-hara in Iriki, he shot two arrows eastward, and left word that, to repose his spirit after
death, a Buddhist church and a Shinto temple should be erected at the spots where the arrows fell.
Zhi-kwo zhi was accordingly built at the first point, and at the second the ghosts of Arishige and
Muneshige were deified as Wakamiya myo-zhin. They were both in Ura-no-myo mura, in Kiyo-
shiki. San-goku mei-sho dzu-ye,]U, 5 and 9.
6Sho, literally, prize.
7These grandchildren do not appear in the Iriki-in genealogy.
8Arishige's elder brother.
9Sono, upland fields where mulberry trees (for the silk culture), fruit trees, or vegetables were
planted. The word was often used interchangeably with hata.
10The first of the two characters here is written wrong and not legible.
11Ken-gyo meant, at one time at least, an executive agent; the adjective so indicated that the
bearer of the title was chief among several ken-gyo.
12These three names stand for persons. 13The character yone may be an error for sue.
14This expression seems to mean that the myo bore the same name as the sho itself. Cf. No. 7,
n.1.
15It would appear that Kin-maru and Shimo-gawara were myo, and Minamida, an azana.
16Hon-ke.
17Probably Hojo Nobutoki, the Co-signer, and Hojo Sadatoki, the Regent.
18Nanakuma go, like Hii go,saw its ji-to shiki divided among several persons.
19The Takemitsu was a branch of the Tomo family, and prospered mostly in Taki kori. See No.
47. Later many a Takemitsu became a vassal of Iriki-in lords, and hence his documents came in
possession of the latter's family.
20Personal names. 21These may be aza-na.
22These may be myo names.
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