This paper attempts to clarify the sengoku daimyo Mori (毛利) family's success in strengthening its base of power by building a new system of rule based on military strength and local control of locally situated small scale landlords (在地小領主) who were made into Mori retainers. The starting point for building this new system of rule was a strengthening by the Mori of its hold on local situations through the execution of land surveys. By this process, locally situated small scale landlords formed with the daimyo feudal relationships which included their hyakusho (百姓)-type right to surplus product being changed into a feudal stipend. As a result, a clear difference in social status came about between this newly feudalized stratum of village based stipend holders (在村給人) and the general peasantry. At the same time, this new local stipend holding class experienced severe limitations to their personal subsumption of direct producers due to the hold gained on these producers by the daimyo. In this way, this new stratum was forced to place itself in a class position at the very bottom of the daimyo political machine, and thus became the fundamental "bearers" of that system of control. As retainers these local stipend holders were placed in direct service to the daimyo. That is to say, fief allotments and military command was carried out directly by the Mori family. On the other hand, in terms of retainer group organization, this stratum was entrusted to a yorioya (寄親) as groups called isshoshu (一所衆). However, the yorioya's duties were restricted to merely military leadership and the transmission of petitions to the daimyo, which prohibited any strong personal ties from occurring between local stipend holders and their yorioya. As one fundamental aspect of this yorioya-isshoshu relationship, those who became yorioya were usually at the same time daikan (代官) who were administratively responsible for control of villages in which their entrusted isshoshu groups resided. In other words, these local stipend holders were organized into a military power closely tied to the daimyo's local system of rule; but, because of certain relationships within particular family groups as to the allocation of duties, this yorioya-led military could also be put to use for long distance campaigns. From an administrative viewpoint as well, these local stipend holders had an important role to play. A system made up of daikan and sanji (散使) came into being for the purpose of strengthening territorial control, especially managing very small scattered fiefs held by non-village resident stipend holders. Appointed as sanji, the actually functionaries of this system, were those stipend holders who held power in the villages and who knew thoroughly conditions of local land ownership relations. These sanji, regardless of whether the land was kurairichi (蔵入地) (land directly held by the daimyo) or kyuchi (給地) (land held by his retainers), carried out such administrative functions as transfer of fief lands, harvest collection, tax calculation and corvee exaction. In this way, village based stipend holders were given an important role as a regulatory power vis-a-vis both peasants and non-village resident stipend holders, not only within stratified land ownership relations, but also within village level systems of control made necessary by such relations. It is in the above sense that village stipend holders should be considered as the fundamental "bearers", that is, the power base, of a system of control built anew by the sengoku daimyo.

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