Nanushi

Nanushi (Japanese: 名主) was a village official in the Edo period. They were village headmen, administering a village (mura) under a district magistrate (gun-dai), the daikan of a district governor (gunji). Their duties included tax collection and serving as the most local administrator of a rural village in direct contact with the villagers. The term nanushi was used in Kantō, while a village head was called shōya (庄屋) in Kansai and kimoiri (肝煎) in Tōhoku and Hokuriku.[1]

The house of a nanushi, the Nishie House in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture

Overview

The duties of nanushi included tax collection, general village administration, management of public natural resources (such as mountain, field, river and ocean) of the village called iriai, as well as negotiating with the territorial lord as the representative of the villagers.[1]

The post was typically monopolized by one or more powerful peasant families, the gōnō, through hereditary succession, though nominally appointed by the territorial lord who paid salary to the nanushi. The post was sometimes sold to the highest bidder, but was typically only given to a qualified person.[1]

In castle towns (jōkamachi), there were town heads called machi-nanushi. In contrast to the nanushi of a village who served under a district magistrate (gun-dai), the machi-nanushi served under a town magistrate (machi-bugyō) or a ward head (machidoshiyori).[2] A machi-nanushi was a townsman (chōnin).[3]

History

Both the terms nanushi and shōya, meaning a village head, derive from medieval terms. In the Middle Ages, nanushi (名主) was read as myōshu and referred to feudal lords of territorial fields (myōden) who were divided into petty lords (shōmyō) and magnates (daimyō), and shōya (庄屋) referred to the manor building of a manorial estate.[4]

In the Edo period, a new system of village administration was established, with three types of village officials appointed in each village: nanushi, kumigashira (組頭), and hyakushōdai (百姓代). For each village there was one nanushi, a number of kumigashira, and one or more hyakushōdai. While the nanushi was the village head, the kumigashira were his advisors or assistants, and the hyakushōdai was the representative of village peasants who surveyed the work of village administrators. These offices were generally established between 1688 and 1704.[5]

See also

References
  1. Hyakkajiten Maipedia 百科事典マイペディア. Heibonsha 平凡社. 1996. 庄屋. ISBN 978-4582096316.
  2. Dejitaru Daijisen デジタル大辞泉. Shogakukan 小学館. 1995. なぬし・名主. ISBN 9784095012117.
  3. Shinmura, Izuru; 新村, 出 (1983). Kojien 広辞苑. Iwanami shoten 岩波書店. pp. 町名主. ISBN 978-4000800013.
  4. Sekai daihyakkajiten 2 世界大百科事典 第2版. Heibonsha 平凡社. 2006. なぬし・名主. ISBN 978-4582041019.
  5. Obunsha Nihonshi jiten ed. 3 旺文社日本史事典 三訂版. Obunsha 旺文社. 2000. 地方三役. ISBN 9784010353134.
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