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21. THE SHO-GUN'S CONFIRMATION OF TERAO SHIGETSUNE'S
                             INHERITED HOLDINGS,1 1255
                   (A copy in Terao docs.; also KK, VIII, and SK, IV.)
THE following document is typical of the sho-gun's formal confirmation of the inherited holdings of
his vassals. Such official acts of recognition were called an-do, literally, the establishing in
peace of a person on his land,-a term rarely used at a fresh grant of land, but usually at the
sanction of a holding or, as in the present example, at re-investiture on succession(cf. No. 12, n. 15).
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   Again, this letter is a typical individual, not collective, recognition of a divided holding. It has
been seen (in our preface to No. 13) that, so long as the services owed by a vassal to his lord did
not suffer a diminution, the former was permitted to devise his domains to children by means of a
will. A similar spirit of freedom is revealed in this manner of the lord's recognition ofthe succession
of an heir of a vassal to a divided estate of his father. The confirmation(an-do) was granted as a
matter of course, since the will that legitimized the divided succession had been permitted or con-
doned; and was not accompanied by any oath of fealty said or any act of homage done by the
succeeding vassal. He would pay his respects in person to the lord at Kamakura when a proper occa-
sion came, and, after the confirmation, always perform his share of his deceased father's service, if
he was not the main heir, under the direction of the heir-general. Nor did the successor owe his
lord a regular "relief." A feudatory lord sometimes exacted an uke-ryo, acceptance fee, from his
vassal when the took over a domain by inheritance, by purchase, or otherwise, but a sho-gun is not
known to have done the same from his go ke-nin at his succession to an estate. The latter may have,
as was customary with barons of later ages, made to the suzerain formal presents of a relatively
inconsiderable value; but even this slight offering cannot be proven to have been a regular obliga-
tion during the Kamakura period.
   The office from which the order of recognition emanated was, in this instance, the sho-gun's
man-dokoro,2 his central office of general administration. His governmental machinery at Kama-
kura, collectively called baku-fu, ("government in tent," so designated in modesty), was, as the
name suggested, characteristically simple, with its three main divisions: the political man-dokoro,
the judicial mon-ju sho, and the military samurai-dokoro.
   [Marginal note]: "The writ (kudashi-bumi) of an-do granted to Shibuya Goro-Shiro nyu-do."
"THE sho-gun's man-dokoro decrees to                                                   Taira no Shigetsune,
   "That he shall forthwith hold(ryo-chi) the ji-to shiki at Terao mura, in Yoshida
   upper sho, *called Shibuya,* in Sagami kuni; at Dai-ku-den at Mida, in Ise kuni,
   *excepting one cho belonging to the daughter Oto;* north of the river at Zhitcho
   mura, in Kawae go, in Mimasaka kuni; and at To-no-hara go, in Iriki in, in Sat-
suma kuni; *the boundaries on the four sides of the aforesaid places being stated in
   the letters of devise.*
"It is commanded [by the sho-gun] that the aforesaid [Shigetsune], in accordance
with his late father Goro bo3 Jo-Shin's letters of devise dated Kwan-gen 4th year 3rd
month 29th day [16 April 1246]4 and Ken-cho 3rd year 8th month 24th day [10
September 1251]5 shall, as [holder of] the said shiki, administer6 [the affairs of the
said domains] in pursuance of precedents.
   "Ken-cho 7 y. 6 m. 5 d. [10 July 1255]. An-su7 Kiyowara.
                                                                                   Chi-ke-zhi,7 Kiyowara.
"Rei,7 Saemon no sho-zho, Fujiwara.
Betto,7 Mutsu no kami, Taira no Ason, monogram.
                                                   Sagami no kami, Taira no Ason, monogram."





   *         *The parts here enclosed between the asterisks are written in small characters in the
original text.
   1See Nos. 14 and 19 above.                                               2Cf. No. 1, n. 4.
   3Bo indicates that the person had shaved his'head according to Buddhist rites.
   4No.14 above.
   5No.19 above.
   6Sa-da, to deal with, manage.
   7An-su, chi-ke-zhi, rei, and betto, were official positions in the man-dokoro, their order of rank
being reversed here from low to high. The chiefs, betto, were, respectively, Hojo Shigetoki and Hojo
Tokiyori, the latter the regent.






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