Abstract

This article examines the activities of Toji 東寺 Temple's Zoeikata 造営方 (Office of Repairs) and how its organization influenced Toji during the Muromachi period. The research to data has described the Zoeikata as a large financial organization that lent money to entities within and without Toji, thus making it an important institution in the Temple's management. According to the research done to date on lending during the mid-fifteenth century, a change occurred in the way money was lent to the Goho 五方, intermediary in negotiations the temple carried on with the Muromachi Bakufu and the Court, from lenders charging usurious interest rates during the 1450s to interest-free loans from the Zoeikata from the 1460s on. Although the image of the Zoeikata has been formed based such activities, no one has bothered to investigate concretely why such a change occurred. The purpose of the present article is to look more deeply into what happened and try to place it within the context of political and social trends of the time, while clarifying the background to the relative stability achieved by Toji. The author's conclusions are as follows. First, the Zoeikata was able to begin providing interest-free loans thanks to the revenue accruing from a special land tax (tansen 段銭) levied in 1455 on Echizen Province through the provincial constable's (shugo 守護) office. Immediately prior to the levy, during the 10th month of the previous year, a debt immunity (tokusei 徳政) order was issued, enabling Toji to free itself from the debt it owed usurers operating outside the Temple and begin lending directly from the Zoeikata. This means that the image of the Zoeikata builded up by the research to date is extremely limited in terms of its over-all history. Secondly, based on the assumption that the Zoeikata continued to lend money to organizations in and out of the Temple complex until the end of the fifteenth century, the author concludes that such activity must have helped stabilize the Temple financial-ly and played an important role in its survival and transition into the following the Edo period.