The Fujiwara Magistrates of Takada-gun and the Commendation of its Proprietorship

Abstract

The Fujiwara Magistrates of Takada-gun (高田郡) in the Province of Aki (安芸国) have been considered as a classic example indicating the movements of early period lords-in-residence (在地領主) ; and for this reason they have been studied extensively from many different angles. The present essay is a re-evaluation of this body of research in the light of the recent introduction by Goto Toshihiko of the Documents of Itsukushima (厳島文書) contained in the Choko-zassho (徴古雑抄) (cf. 『史学雑誌』88編11, 12号). Probably the greatest significance of introducing this document collection is that now we have a clear picture of the complete Fujiwara Magistrates of Takada-gun-related documents handed down by the Itsukushima Shrine to the beginning of the Meiji period, and therefore, we can now examine these documents in a more wholistic manner. In this essay the author examines the processes of three proprietorship commendations (所領寄進) which resulted in the Fujiwara Magistrates effectively relegating landholdings to the Itsukushima Shrine ; and, in so doing, identifies two separate lines of documents. Moreover, as a result of a separate examination of the line of documents which were involved in the first commendation, and were kept in the hands of the Fujiwara Magistrates, the author makes clear that the four most important items in this line were forgeries quite expertly composed in the late Heian period. Next, the author attempts to concisely reconstruct from the remaining items of both document lines the goings-on in the Fujiwara Magistrate holdings before and after the first and second commendations took place ; and thereby to ascertain not only when exactly the four forgeries were composed but also by what motive, in what background, and by whose order they were forged -all this in order to give an interpretation as to the meaning of the procedure of proprietorship commendation in the late Heian period.