東寺に伝来した室町院遺領相論関連文書について

抄録

Litigation over property inheritance of the Muromachi-in brought by the royal family is an important subject of research in the political history of the late Kamakura period. This essay is a fundamental examination of two groups of documents which from the basic source materials for research on this litigation. They are: (a) a series of records concerning the Kamakura bakufu's arbitration in the litigation, and (b) a memorandum of the details of the litigation. Both groups of documents were handed down by Toji Temple. Until now, the relation between the two groups of documents, and the reason why Toji transmitted them have not been clarified. The result of the author's examination shows that during the Nanbokucho period Toji collected the documents from the person involved in the litigation over the property of the Muromachi-in as the grounds for its claim before the Muromachi bakufu to legal possession of Kamikatsura-no-sho. Group (a) is a collection of important documents that Toji Temple selected from the records sent by the person concerned. Memorandum (b) is supplementary information supplied by those involved to advance their argument. Toji's assertion was that the Bakufu should apply nenki-noho (statute of Iimitataion) to the arbitration of the ongoing litigation. However, because nenki-no-ho was primarily a legal concept of warrior class customary law, the plaintiff Toji andits possession in dispute was excluded from its application. However, Toji interpreted the precedent of the suit over the inheritance of Muromachi-in as an example of the application of nenki-no-ho to the possessions of aristocrat families and insisted that it should be applied to its own case. The author concludes that it is important to know how these two groups of documents were drawn up and handed down in order to improve our knowledge concerning litigation in Japanese medieval society.