戦国相良氏の三郡支配

抄録

Why did Sagara move from his home base at Hitoyoshi, in Kuma district (gun 郡), to the newly subjugated area of Yatsushiro district? The usual explanation is that Yatsushiro district was controlled by a particularly strong private military group of local bushi landlords (kokujin 国人), the Yatsushiro-shu. The standing theory is that all of the three districts of the Sagara territory, Kuma, Yatsushiro, and Ashikita, had similar bushi military federations. The authority structure of these federations had three characteristics ; 1)the group of Elders (Otona 老者) of each of the three districts were independent ; 2)the Elders were the leaders of their own federations ; and 3)the Council of the federations, i.e., each group in consultation, regulated the Sagara. However, an investigation of historical documents shows that all of the above assumptions of the accepted theory are incorrect. That is, 1)group of Elders existed only in Sagara's home district at Hitoyoshi, and in his secondary headquarters at Yatsushiro ; 2)the Elders also served as officials of the Sagara, i.e., they held appointments in the daimyo's government ; and 3)the councils of these federations could not regulate the Sagara. In fact, the Yatsushiro federation (Yatsushiro-shu) was not a group of independent bushi, but an organization formed by the Sagara in a deliberate policy of placing the military at strategically-located castle towns (jokamachi 城下町). It is clear that the organization was composed of bushi, directly under Sagara control, who had been separated from their own lands. There had been many bushi landlords (kokujin 国人) with strong control of their own lands within Sagara's domain. Sagara intended to force them to move to castle towns away from their private lands to facilitate military mobilization. The Sagara gave special status to the military federations stationed in the castle towns, the Yatsushiro-shu and the Hitoyoshi-shu. One of their privileges was the right to request legislation (hosshiki oseidashi 法式仰出), one function of direct participation in the political activity of the Sagara power structure. Sagara's move to Yatsushiro, a subjugated district away from his home base, Kuma, necessitated strengthening his policy to separate bushi landlords from their local strong-holds. Sagara's strategy succeeded for a time, but in the end it could not be realized because an internal disorder forced him to evacuate Yatsushiro and return to Hitoyoshi.