Some Aspects of the Temple Settlements in Medieval Omi

Abstract

In recent years, within the field of urban history a reevaluation of the history of the city in Japan has begun. This reevaluation has proposed that the ancient capitals (palaces) and early modern castle towns should be seen as "traditional cities" in contrast to modern urban centers. Against this background, this paper uses results from actual archaeological excavations to analyze an urban form peculiar to Japan that cannot be classified as a capital or a castle town: the medieval "religious city". It is argued that the "religious cities" or "Koto type" medieval temple settlements of Omi district should be seen as a type of medieval city that, together with the Sengoku (Warring States) and Nobunaga-Hideyoshi type castle towns, fused and evolved into the early modern castle town of the Tokugawa period.
Using the perspective of "urban archaeology", the temple settlements of medieval Omi are analyzed using three of the ten characteristics of cities proposed by V.G. Childe: (1) a concentrated population, (2) the presence of craftsmen and other specialists who do not directly produce food, and (4) the presence of monuments or public facilities-in this case straight roads. As a result, it was possible to identify a type of settlement with a group of defining features including planned, straight roads built down from the mountainside with artificial terraces on both sides. These settlements were called"Koto type" medieval temple settlements and were interpreted as "religious cities". Based primarily on the results of excavations at the Binmanji site in Shiga Prefecture, four developmental stages were identified using changes in mountain beliefs and temples and their surrounding settlements. The establishment of straight roads corresponds to the type II-a of the three directional model previously proposed by the author.
Of the four stages, stage III is argued to be that of the typical "Koto type" medieval temple settlement. In order to examine the historical significance of these settlements, this paper looks at their formation, development, and spread to other regions. As a result, it is proposed that the technology and philosophy behind these urban settlements may have been used in the temple compound towns of the Hokuriku, the medieval castles of Omi, and even at Ando castle. From the examples of Sasaki Rokkaku's Kannonji castle and Kyogoku's Joheiji castle, it can be suggested that these settlements were established at almost the same time as the warrior class began building mountainside sacred precincts known as "Sanjo Goten".
This paper proposes the "religious city" as one type of medieval town in Japanese urban history. The "Koto type" medieval temple settlement is of particular importance as one distinctive "religious city" because it can be hypothesized that these settlements had a strong influence on the urban plans of not just the castles of the Warring States era, but also the defensive layout of Ando castle and the urban plan of the Yoshizaki temple compound town, both of which were connected to the later castle towns of the early modern period.