THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

#136
136.SHIMADZU HARUHISA'S GRANTS AND OATHS, 1462 AND 1466
(Iriki-in docs.; also KK, IV.)
DURING the lordship of Shimadzu Tadakuni (1425-1470), successor to Hisatoyo, the three kuni
again fell into a state of great disorder. In 1442, Iriki-in Shigenaga and Yoshida Wakasa no
kami were charged by thesho-gun's government to aid Tadakuni against his rebellious brother
Mochihisa.¹ In the following documents A and B, Haruhisa, the heir of tadakuni, renewed for
Iriki-in Shigetoyo his predecessors' grants to the Iriki-in of Kwan-do and Nagatoshi, and of the
Yamada fortress at the latter place, and swore his trust in Shigetoyo's pledge of fidelity. Another
oath was given four years later (C),as an accompanying note says, in response to one sworn by
Shigetoyo to prove his innocence of the false rumor of his unfaithful intention which had been cir-
culated. From these examples it may be inferred that oaths of fidelity and support were reciprocal.
Compare the following oaths with those of 1404 and 1423 given above (Nos.127 and 132), and
note the difference in their character. What we see below is the lord's oaths of trust and support
sworn in response to the vassal's oath of fidelity.
The custom of giving a written oath seems to have been introduced into Japan with Buddhism,
and is traceable back to the eighth century. But the early oaths do not appear to have been reciprocal.
Also,the deities were invoked in a different way: they would punish any third person who should
commit an act contrary to the import of the pledge, not, as in the later oaths, the first person if
he falsified his statements under oath.² The earlier from gradually passed into the later, with inter-
mediate forms sometimes seen in the Kamakura Period. Oaths were neither limited in their appli-
cation to the swearing of fealty and support between lord and vassal, nor always reciprocal when
they were used in other relations. Nor can it be said that the relations of vassalage were always
confirmed by means of written oaths, though the custom obtained naturally at places like south
Kyu-shu where infidelity among new, reluctant vassals was frequent. Even at such places, the prac-
tice appears to have been recent in origin and not always customary. In the Kamakura period, a
written oath of fealty was probably unknown, while the act of homage consisted in the vassal's
paying personal respects to the lord, which act was called gen-zan(audience). The lord, in acknowl-
edging the relationship, confirmed it by granting to the vassal a writ of investiture or of confirma-
tion of a domain. It was during the period of civil war, especially after the middle of the
16th
century, that the new custom of exchanging written oaths of fealty and trust gained a degree of
currency. Then, simultaneously, a custom arose of scratching with a knife back of the fourth
finger of the left hand and pressing the little blood thus obtained on the sheet containing the oath,
below the signature or monogram; this keppan(blood-seal), also, might be employed with oaths of
any kind. When the civil war subsided and Japan passed into the peaceful age of the Tokugawa
shogunate, the formality of initiating the relation of vassalage largely reverted to the simpler mode
of the Kamakura period; and the act ofgen-zan was often followed by the gift by the lord of a
sword, and then he and the vassal drank each a cupful of sake. This last act was sometimes popu-
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larly called "the confirmation of vassalage for three lives"(shu-zhu san-ze no katame). For cus-
toms attending the acts of homage, see the Iriki-in and Terao genealogies at the end of this volume.

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#136-A
A
"KWAN-DO, Naga-toshi, and the Yamada fortress, in the Satsuma part of Shi-
madzu sho, are vested (ade okonau) in you. You shall forthwith possess(ryo-chi)
them in accordance with precedents, and there shall be no disturbance. Stated thus.
"Kwan-sho 3 y. 3 m. 24 d.[23April 1462]. Haruhisa, monogram.
"Iriki-in³ dono."

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#136-B
B
"Pledge.
"Since [Haruhisa] acknowledges [your oath] that, whatever changes may occur
in the world, you will serve him with single devotion, he also on his part will rely im-
plicitly upon you, even unto children's children. If there should arise calumnious or
evil persons [between you and him, he] would hear a complete avowal of your mind.
"If these statements be false, the punishments of
the Ten-sho Dai-zhin Gu, of Ise,⁴
the Great Gon-gen at the three places of Kumano,
the Great Bodhisattva Niita Hachiman,
the Ten-man Dai Zhi-zai Ten-zhin, and
the Great Myo-zhin Upper and Lower Suwa,
would be visited upon [Haruhisa].
"Kwan-sho 3 y. 3 m. 24 d. [23Apyil 1462]. Haruhisa, (monogram).
"Iriki-in³ dono."

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#136-C
C
"Your courteous renewed [oath] has been received through Zhuro-zaemon. Since
[Haruhisa] receive your previous [oath], he has not entertained the least suspicion
of you. Now that he acknowledges [your oath] that [as heretofore] you will hence-
forth [serve him with] single devotion, he will not be unmindful of you.
"If these statements be false, the punishments of
the Ten-sho Dai-zhin Gu, of Ise,⁴
the Great Gon-gen at the three places of Kumano,
the Great Bodhisattva Niita Hachiman,
the Great Myo-zhin Upper and Lower Suwa,
the Great Bodhisattva Sho Hachiman, and
the Great Gon-gen of the three places of Kirishima,
would be visited upon [Haruhisa].
"Kwan-sho 7 y. 4 m. 16 d. [30 May 1466]. Haruhisa, (monogram).
"Iriki-in³ dono."

¹ Shimadzu koku-shi, x, 7. ²Koku-shi dai zhi-ten, 717-719.
³ Shigctoyo. In these documents, we see for the first time the family-name Iriki-in in actual use,
though for the sake of simplicity we have been employing this appellation throughout the volume
in our references to the family. It has been already explained (No. 63 n. 15; also see the preface
to the Iriki-in genealogy) that feudal families at will adopted informally the names of their domains
as family-names, and that, as the family and its estate were divided and subdivided through suc-
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sessive generations the ramifying branches adopted the means of their shares of the original domain.
The result was that, as division progressed, the branch families were known by the names of smaller
and smaller localities; this condition is shown clearly in No. 144. As for the principal family of the
original stock, it would either retain the name of the whole domain in spite of its division, or else
take the name of the part which it had reserved for itself. In the present instance, the main stock
had chosen the latter way of designation and was known as the Kiyoshiki family, Kiyoshiki being
the seat of its residence and fortress, (see Nos. 118C, 121F, G, H, 123and 130-132). The fact that
the family was now called by the name of the whole of the in of Iriki is significant. Formerly, the
chiefs of many branch families were direct vassals of the sho-gun, and not of the head of the main
family, and, moreover, thein contained domains held by other families not of the Shibuya stock;
with the progress, however, of the law of primogeniture, with the simultaneous advance of the
feudal organization of the entire clan under its chief, with the gradual annexation of the domains
of other clans within the in, and with increasing subjection of the entire region and its lord to
the Shimadzu baron in relations of vassalage, it had become perfectly natural to call the lord of
the in by the name of the region as a whole. The united local control of Iriki in had come to form
a part of the provincial feudal hierarchy under the baron. Cf. Nos 138 and 144.
⁴ It is noteworthy that no such titles betraying Buddhist influence as Bodhisattva,myo-zhin ,
and go-gen, were used in connection with the Great Temples (Dai zhin-gu) of Ise, whose chief
deity is the ancestress of the imperial family. These temples have always been regarded as apart
from all others, and were comparatively, though by no means completely, free from the prevailing
belief that Shinto deities were re-incarnations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.