THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

#6
6.APPOINTMENTS OF SHIMADZU TADAHISA, 1185-1187
(Copies in Shimadzu docs.; SK I.)
Two events of prime importance need to be recorded of the years 1186 and 1187, which respectively
mark a new era in the history of Japan in general and of Iriki in particular-the first establishment
of a feudal rule in Japan under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1186, and the alleged installation in the
following year of his immediate vassal, Shimadzu Tadahisa, as military commissioner of southern
Kyu-shu.
Yoritomo, who had in 1185 earned real control of only limited portions of Japan, succeeded early
in the next year in moving the imperial government to permit him to appoint, from among his own
vassals, new "protectors," or military governors, shu-go, in all the kuni, or provinces, and new
stewards, ji-to, in all the taxable areas, whether public districts or private domains, in the country
(see Introduction, 7-8). The appointments then made were probably not complete, and in fact
some domains were later relieved of the unwelcome ji-to who had been imposed upon them and
whom they had been compelled to support. Nevertheless, it was a fact that the political situation in all
of the kuni and most of the districts and domains into which they were parcelled, had now at least
fallen under the supervision of persons owing direct allegiance to the suzerain(sho-gun) at Kama-
kura. It was thus that feudal rule forced its entering wedge into the government of the whole of
Japan. A way was now opened for partial interference in the affairs of the civil government of the
provinces and of the financial administration of non-feudal estates, by a military chieftain whose
own domains were relatively limited. This was, for most of the domains which were not really
possessed by Yoritomo and his vassals, an obnoxious intrusion. Friction occurred continually be-
tween shu-go and civil governors in kuni and between ji-to and residents or officials of shoand
other domains.
If we turn to the kuni of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hiuga, we find their political condition as com-
plicated as in many another section of Japan in this period.
In 1187 the mechanism of the government of Kyu-shu typified the lack of unity that character-
ized the rule of the whole nation. (1) There still lingered the old government-general, Da-zai fu,
now much attenuated and merely holding its ancient title. (2) There remained some of the regular
official posts in the civil government of the kuni, but the political power of their holders had
steadily receded before the advancing encroachment by private domains and their lords; in fact, the
historic titles now usually signified hereditary estates with which they had become identified, rather
than indicating, as of old, real administrative functions. (3) Nominally under these titular rulers
there lived men bearing the time-honored office gun-zhi, that is, magistrates of kori; according to
law, they should be public civil servants, but in reality had become, like their nominal superiors in
the kuni government, hereditary warriors possessing lands, deriving revenues from them, and dis-
posing of their offices as shiki. There were variants of this title such as in-shi,go-shi, and the like-
all originally created by public authority, but alike become private shiki. (4) In a similar state
were officials, bearing diverse titles, like ben-zai shi and others, who lived upon the areas of land
which had been made partially immune from public taxation in behalf of some private domanial
lords. The creation of these areas, so anomalous and transitional in nature, indicated the successful
eclipsing of public districts by (5) private domains; these, themselves immune in whole or in part,
were gradually expanding by absorbing men and land in their neighborhood. And they were largely
autonomous, as well as immune, under the domanial lords, who were either royal personages or
court nobles of high rank, religious institutions of influence, or, latterly, great warrior chiefs. It was
in these private or half-private domains and public districts that Yoritomo, from 1186, placed
beside their officials his own vassals as ji-to, and in the kuni as wholes that he likewise appointed
shu-go, without displacing the old civil governors. Nor did he hesitate to utilize and distribute
among his men some of the other diverse titles which he found there. On the whole, thus, it may
be seen that Yoritomo did little to simplify or supersede the incongruous systems of administration
which, here as in all parts of Japan, had grown up gradually to subserve heterogeneous interests;
and that, on the contrary, he added thereto a mechanism controlled directly by him, which was at
once a partial copy and an effective counterpoise of the old machinery.
The complexity of the situation was aggravated by the fact that Yoritomo, as soon as his rivals,
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the partisans of the Taira, had fallen invited the local chieftains of Kyu-shu who had followed
them to accept him as their liege.¹ These formed the bulk of the very warriors who controlled shiki
in all kuni and sho, and held in their hands the sole power either to maintain peace or to create
disorder. Upon them Yoritomo now imposed shu-go and ji-to with limited authorities. The anomaly
of the arrangement was that, while, as shiki-holders, those men were subordinate to the new offi-
cials, they stood on a parity with them as immediate vassals of the sho-gun. How could these
vigorous warriors be expected always meekly to uphold the authority of the intruders who were at
once their chiefs and their peers? Troubles immediately arose, and followed in an unbroken suc-
cession. It was largely in view of this difficulty that the suzerain at first appointed, following his-
toric precedents, a general deputy over the whole island, a sort of an overseer of all its shu-go,
ji-to, and other direct vassals;² and then, realizing the excessive magnitude of the charge, divided
Kyu-shu int three circuits, and placed over each a great vassal, in the capacity of either a com-
missioner or a general shu-go.³ Characteristically to feudal politics, these great posts became heredi-
tary with the families of the three initial incumbents: the Shoni in the north, the Otomo in the
middle, and the Shimadzu in the south part of Kyu-shu.
Much of what has been said above of the whole island of Kyu-shu applies to its three southern
kuni, except in one important respect, that is, the enormous extent of one of the sho in the latter.
Among the larger private domains in the provinces may be mentioned: Kutomi sho under the
princess Hachijo-In, Shimadzu sho under the successive heads of the Konoe branch of the Fuji-
wara family, and Arata and other domains belonging to the Shinto temple, Sho Hachiman. Besides
these, there were smaller areas marked out as under the control of the Tenman temple (and the
church An-raku zhi) at Da-zai Fu, Hachiman temple (and Mi-roku zhi) at Usa, Niita Hachiman
temple (and Go-dai in) at Midzuhiki, and others. Of these, by far the most important, both in
size and in power, was naturally the sho of Shimadzu. Its core, called hon-sho, or the original sho,
which apparently was largely autonomous and completely immune, was situated in the southwestern
part of Hiuga, and at this period probably measured some 2,020 cho. The sho had, however, already
assimilated to itself in the three kuni domains covering an aggregate extent of 3,400 cho To this
totally immune area had also been added half-public and partially immune cultivated lands, called
yose-gori, or "added," or "contributed districts," to the extent of over 4,700 cho. The magnitude of
these areas may be realized when we note that the wholly immune parts alone exceeded the entire
cultivated land in the kuni of Osumi by nearly 400 cho; that the yose-gori together were larger by
700 cho than all the arable land in Satsuma kuni; and that the whole territories composing the
great sho of Shimadzu more than equalled the tilled land in the large Hiuga kuni, were twice as
large as that in Satsuma, and in fact formed nearly fifty-four per cent of that of three kuni put
together.⁴ And behind this vast domain and its steady expansion one should recognize the driving
power carried by the name of the puissant head of the Fujiwara family. It supplied the state with
prime ministers and imperial consorts, all but monopolized the high civil officers of government, and
lorded over numerous sho and their armed inhabitants in all parts of the country.
A sho so immense as Shimadzu naturally comprised within it cultivated areas of diverse origins
and tenures, for it had become what it was by a gradual process of accretion in the course of a
century and a half since its creation. Many of the old possessors of the lands that they had com-
mended to the sho were allowed to retain in hereditary succession the positions they had held
therein; and sometimes by their side were appointed agents of the domanial lord, most of whom
also must have been residents in the localities or their vicinity. Both classes of officials bore titles
of considerable diversity, for it is a fact that often posts were made for men and titles given them
whom it was politic for one reason or another to maintain with part of the fruit of the land. So
these holders of shiki gradually multiplied, causing friction among themselves. Still in addition to
these the suzerain appointed in some places ji-to and other officials. It is true that relatively few of
these were despatched hither from Kamakura, for a sufficient number of his immediate vassls(go
ke-nin) resided in the three kuni from among whom appointments could be made, and many of
whom had in fact been holding similar posts under the domanial lord. None the less were increased,
through the advent of the ji-to, the confusion and friction which had already been in evidence. It
was at this juncture that Tadahisa was appointed the jito-general and an agent in the sho of its
domanial lord.
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We are little concerned here with the much debated question regarding Shimadzu Tadahisa's
parentage, which the editor hopes to examine elsewhere.⁵ We may merely observe that the weight
of evidence seems somewhat in favor of the view that the Shimadzu are a branch of the Koremune.⁶
The latter descended from a Chinese fugitive naturalized in Japan in ancient times.⁷ If this be
correct, then the Shimadzu were remotely related to the Shuin,⁸ the Kokubun,⁹ and the Ichiku,¹⁰
all derived from the same Koremune family.
The authenticity of the documents that follow, which is otherwise doubtful, may perhaps be
conceded by some, only if the supporters of the orthodox story of Tadahisa's life are willing to
forgo their assertion that he was born on 28 January 1180, that is, the last day of the third lunar
year of Ji-sho,¹¹ for that would make him hardly six years old when he received so important posts
as are said to have been assigned to him by the following orders.

#6-A
A¹²
"(Yoritomo's monogram.)
"ORDERED to the officials of the sho of Shimadzu
"That forthwith, in accordance with the order of the ryo-ke,¹³ Tai-fu san-mi,¹⁴ Kore-
mune Tadahisa, sa hyo-e sho-zho,¹⁵ shall be appointed the ge-shi shiki¹⁶ and man-
age¹⁷ the affairs¹⁸ of the sho.
"It is hereby ordered that, as regards the aforementioned ge-shi shiki of the said sho,
Tadahisa shall, in accordance with the order of the ryo-ke, be appointed to that shiki,
and manage¹⁷ the affairs¹⁸ of the sho. The officials of the sho shall know this and shall
not be remiss. Wherefore, [this] order.
"Gen-ryaku¹⁹ 2y. 8m. 17d. [13 September 1185]."

#6-B
B
"ORDERED²⁰ to the officials of the sho Shimadzu
"That forthwith, in accordance with the order of Kamakura, Koremune Tadahisa,
sa hyo-e no zho, shall be appointed ge-shi shiki and administer²¹ [the affairs of the
sho].
"The aforementioned person shall, in accordance with the import of the order of
Kamakura,²² be appointed ge-shi shiki and manage the affairs of the sho. It is ordered
thus. Wherefore, [this] order.
"Bun-ji 1y. 11m. 18d. [7 December 1185]."

#6-C
C
"(Yoritomo's monogram.)
"ORDERED to the sho of Shimadzu
"That forthwith others shall cease to commit outrages and shall obey the commands
of the ji-to Koremune Tadahisa, and he shall give security to the inhabitants of the
sho, and administer its annual taxes and other affairs.
"The control of the ji-to in the various kuni and the various sho is within the powers
of Kamakura.²² Therefore, the aforementioned Tadahisa was at a recent date²³ ap-
pointed to the said shiki.²⁴ Now, since the Premier has changed,²⁵ there is no ryo-ke
[of Shimadzu sho];²⁶ but, as regards Tadahisa's ji-to shiki, it is to be entirely undis-
turbed. He shall give security to the people, and without negligence administer the
annual taxes. Moreover, it is reported that bu-shi²⁷ and kuniudo²⁸ commit wilful out-
rages, obstructing [the collection of] the annual taxes, or disobeying Tadahisa's com-
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mands and yearly refusing [their own payments of the taxes]. These are exceedingly
wrong acts. Henceforth their outrages shall be stopped, the inhabitants shall be given
security, and Tadahisa's administration shall not be contravened. It is commanded
thus. Wherefore, [this] order.
"Bun-ji 2y. 4m. 3d. [23 April 1186]."

#6-D
D
"(Yoritomo's monogram.)
"ORDERED to Shimadzu sho
"That forthwith the intrusion of envoys of To-nai Min-bu Tokage²⁹ shall be stopped,
and Tadahisa, the moku-dai³⁰ of the sho, shall be made o-ryo shi³¹ and act accord-
ingly.
"It is reported that, claiming order of Tokage, the so tsui-ho shi,³² his envoys have
been let loose, and have maltreated officials of the sho. If this is true, it is exceedingly
unreasonable. Henceforth, the entry of Tokage's envoys shall be stopped, and the
aforesaid Tadahisa be appointed o-ryo shi and be made to act in that capacity. It is
commanded thus. Wherefore, [this] order.³³
"Bun-ji 3y. 9m. 9d. [12 October 1187]."

On the same day, according to the official history of his family,³⁴ Tadahisa was made the mili-
tary commissioner, shu-go, of the three kuni of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hiuga. Though no document
confirming this important appointment exists, it is certain that it really took place sometime before
1203.³⁵
If we are to consider these various appointments of Tadahisa-not necessarily the copies of docu-
ments cited in their support-as genuine, as subsequent developments would seem to indicate that
they were, we observe that he thereby combined in himself several different capacities, each having
its own status. (1) As an official of the sho, he represented its domanial lord, and was accountable
to him. (2) As chief ji-to of the sho, he was responsible to the same lord only so far as his duty of
collecting his dues from such parts of the domain as were in his charge was concerned; even in this
respect, if the ji-to was at any default, the lord could only complain of it to the sho-gun, who ap-
pointed the ji-to and who alone had judicial control over him. (3) As o-ryo shi of the sho, Tada-
hisa was a police commissioner serving at least nominally under his chief Amano Tokage, but really
amenable to the shu-go, who was himself. (4) For Tadahisa was the military governor of all of the
three kuni over which the domains of the great sho extended. The first capacity was private in char-
acter, the third and fourth public, and the second half private and half public. And, in all these
capacities, Tadahisa was the sho-gun's own "man," direct vassal, paying homage to him alone,-a
peer of Amano, and beyond the immediate reach of the Konoe lord.
It may be readily seen how the sum of these multiple conditions made Tadahisa's position singu-
larly strong. An immediate vassal and favorite of the feudal overlord of all Japan, and a repre-
sentative of the sovereign's regent in the largest of his great domains, Tadahisa compelled the respect
of all his peers in the kuni, of whom he was president as shu-go, though equal as a vassal. Besides,
Tadahisa's sphere of influence lay far from the center, free from its direct control and supervision.
Here he could wield the many weapons which had been placed in his hands in such wise as to make
one reinforce the effectiveness of another. So we find in later ages that Tadahisa's descendants had
assumed the family-name Shimadzu after the sho, and grown so great as to have overshadowed the
influence of the domanial lord at Kyoto; that they had become so strongly entrenched in the three
kuni that the very sho-gun feared their power; and that, still ungratified, they were continually
striving from their vantage ground as shu-go to subdue their political rivals in this region, so as to
reduce them from peers to vassals. This last phase of the struggle was beset with difficulties so
immense that, by 1587, when the power of the Shimadzu swayed the widest area in their history,
their success still remained incomplete. It was, in fact, these rivals of the Shimadzu lord-his peers
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as the sho-gun's direct vassals-that formed the chief obstacle to the realization of his high hopes.
And his contest with them was, as will be seen in later documents, bitter and prolonged.

¹ See Adzuma-kagami, iv, Bun-ji 1y. 1m. 6d., and 7.m. 22d.
² First, Yoritomo's brother Noriyori; then, two of his vassals the one after the other.
³ About 1191 Muto (Shoni) Sukeyori was made the deputy in Chikuzen, and in 1223 Otomo
Yoshinao was appointed commissioner in Bungo. The installation of Shimadzu Tadahisa as shu-go
of the three kuni in South Kyu-shu is shown in the text.
⁴ These figures are based upon the cadastral reports of the three kuni of 1197. See No.9.
⁵ The question will be discussed in the editor's forthcoming work on the feudal regime of South
Kyu-shu.
⁶ The Yoshimi genealogy in Zoku gun-zho rui-zhu, V, 438; Ji-moku tai-sei sho documents of
the first generations of the Shimadzu relating to the sho.
⁷ The Koremune descended from the Hata whose ancestor was a Chinese prince, who came to
Japan and claimed that he was a descendant in the fifth generation of the "First Emperor" of Ts'in.
⁸ See the prefaces to Nos.3 and 50.
⁹ See the preface to No.50.
¹⁰ The Ichiku and Kawakami genealogies.
¹¹ The date of Tadahisa's birth, according to the chronology of his orthodox biographers, is 28
January 1180, but he is found in the Ji-moku tai-sei sho to have been made a local official in 1155.
The official date of his death is 19 April 1226, but the Adzuma-kagami, a contemporary and highly
trustworthy work, gives the date 1 August 1227.
¹² The original copies of this and the following documents, if they exist, have not been shown by
the Shimadzu.
¹³ Ryo-ke, literally, the possessing house, meant the domanial lord of a sho. Of the ryo-ke, mem-
bers of the imperial house, nobles of high rank, or religious institutions of influence, might be
specially called hon-ke (see No.3, n.9), but the domanial lord of all private domains could be
called ryo-ke, in distinction from the koku-shi, civil governors of the public districts.
When used in a narrower sense, a ryo-ke was a person who held an intermediate position between
the hon-ke and the officials of a sho, and had a more immediate control than the hon-ke over the
actual exploitation of the land. In this usage, the term ryo-ke stood in distinction from hon-ke. It
was not all sho that had ryo-ke in this sense. And the prevailing tendency was for such ryo-ke shiki
to become merely a fixed income from the sho.
It would seem that the term is used in this document in the narrower sense as defined above.
¹⁴ If the term ryo-ke is taken in the narrow sense, we must infer that this noble person (san-mi
meaning the third rank) held the post of ryo-ke under the hon-ke Konoe Motomichi. A note in SK
suggests that this person probably was Takakura san-mi tsubone, sister of Motomichi's mother and
mother of Prince Mochihito. (The use of the word tai-fu in this connection is not altogether clear.)
Whoever the person was, this is the only place where we are compelled to surmise the existence of
a ryo-ke of Shimadzu sho under its hon-ke.
If, on the contrary, we took ryo-ke in the wider sense, and so identified it with the domanial
lord, we should then have to suppose that the san-mi issued an order in behalf of the domanial lord.
¹⁵ Sa hyo-e was one of the left guards of the imperial palace, and sho-zho a lower post in the
organization. The title, however, was honorary in this period.
¹⁶ Ge-shi literally, lower official. In the face of the great diversity that generally prevailed of the
titles and the functions of the domanial officials of this period, we can only try to infer from our
documents what was the nature of the ge-shi office of the particular sho of Shimadzu alone. It had
to do with the administration, probably mainly financial, of the sho, and was therefore of important
responsibility. It will be seen below that the new incumbent was presently made the ji-to of the
greater part of the vast estate.
¹⁷ Itasu, to do.
¹⁸ Mu, affairs; sho-mu, affairs of the sho. They referred largely to financial affairs. See No.115,
n.10.
¹⁹ The year-period had been changed by the Kyoto governmnet to Bun-ji three days before this
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date. The official history of Shimadzu suggests that the news had not yet reached Kamakura
(Shimadzu koku-shi, I,1).
²⁰ The domanial lord's order, though the copy of the document does not, as an order should, bear
his monogram or his agent's name.
²¹ Sa-da wo itasu to do the [business of] managing.
²² That is, the sho-gun, who resided at Kamakura.
²³ This is the first intimation in the extant documents of Tadahisa's appointment as the ji-to of
the sho. In Hishizhima mon-zho, I and IV, occurs an order dated 1213 whereby the sho-gun's
government renewed its appointment of Tadahisa to the same post.
²⁴ The ji-to shiki.
²⁵ Yoritomo had recently succeeded in having Konoe (Fujiwara) Motomichi, the domanial lord
of the sho, replaced as regent(Sessho) by Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane. This is not a place to narrate
the circumstances of this change.
²⁶ Shimadzu sho was one of the hereditary domains of the premiers, and it had been necessary
that their lord should be the actual regent or grand councillor(Kwan-paku). Yoritomo considered,
but Motomichi would hardly agree, that with the latter's loss of office his lordship of these domains
also lapsed. Motomichi held on to them, and Yoritomo's effort to make him surrender some of them
to the new premier was opposed by Motomichi and his patron, the ex-Emperor Go-Shirakawa.
²⁷ Bu-shi, warriors, armed gentry.
²⁸ Kuniudo, literally, "men of the kuni"; they were the more distinguished among the resident
warriors. They had nearly all come themselves or in former generations from regions further east,
and, being settled in Satsuma, had become chiefs of warriors (cf. No.8). We have already met with
a few of them in earlier documents, such as men of the Tomo and the Okura families. In fact, the
Iriki-in warriors, after their advent in 1247, proved to be among the kuniudo most to be feared by
the Shimadzu lord.
²⁹ Amano Tokage, the well-known vassal of Yoritomo, was made general commissioner of Kyu-
shu, on 21 Janauary 1187. Adzuma-kagami, vi.
³⁰ Probably moku-dai(deputy) was not an official title but rather general in its meaning as the
domanial lord's representative.
³¹ Constable.
³² Constable-general.
³³ This was a singular order: it did not purport to disturb Amano Tokage's authority as chief
constable of the whole of Kyu-shu, but withdrew from his power the sho of Shimadzu, in which
Tadahisa was made constable; the sphere of the subordinate was made immune from the visitation
of his chief. Strange as it may seem, such an arrangement was in conformity with the spirit of a
feudal age.
³⁴ Shimadzu koku-si, I; Shimadzu sei-to kei-dzu, I. The date given in the Yoshimi genealogy,
13 September 1185, is clearly a confusion with the appointment to the ge-shi shiki already cited.
³⁵ Adzuma-kagami, xvi (text Kikkawa, I, 519), records the fact that in that year Tadahisa was
for a brief space suspended from the office.