Abstract
This article examine ie and group, the characteristics of which are revealed by the use of documents known as respectively “Shumon Aratame-cho” and “Nayose-cho”. Additionally, I would like to consider one aspect of land possession in early modern Japan.
In Kamishiojiri Village, a lot of landowners were newly produced by dividing and being given land from Honke. However, these landowners did not divide unit in “Shumon Aratame-cho” up immediately. They had belonged to units in his former unit for a certain period. And so units with two or more landowners came into being. After that, they had divided up the units with according to the situation of each unit and ie, and the social and economic position of each landowner. A great many landowners were active in dividing up their units in the period 1798 to 1834 in particular. This tendency to divide up units seems to stop in the period between 1834 and 1852 and the number of units with two or more landowners increases again. Therefore, the unit described in “Shumon Aratame-cho” of the Kamishiojiri Village at the end of the 18th century was not a ie, a family or a household. It could more accurately be described as a ie group which consisted of two or more landowners or a few ie of the “Gonin-gumi”.
In addition, what we have learnt is that when the inheritance of land held in a ie group became difficult, the land was managed by the master of the ie group, Honke and Kin- Dozoku and the land remained in their hands. They sought to revive the ie. The consequence of this was that ie groups maintained influence and power over the internal land and these groups guaranteed the continuance of the ie and ensured the inheritance of land.
