Regarding the problem of where and by whom children were raised, our general belief is that they were usually brought up by there own parents after ie 家 system was established in the medieval era. In fact, however, many were entrusted to foster parents as satogo 里子, which meant that lords committed their children to the care of their servants, both male (menoto 乳父) and female (menoto 乳母). These children were called yashinaigimi 養君. Satogo was different from the same term used for the custom from the early modern era on, when children were adopted by farmers living in suburban areas. This article aims to examine the overall ideas about upbringing and guardianship of children in the medieval era. Children who became yashinaigimi were those born of mistresses, those who could not expect to inherit the household, and those who had no caretakers or guardians for reason that their fathers had died or that their maternal relatives were not in power in the case of the Imperial family. These children were discriminated against and ill-treated, and lived lives evidently different from the legitimate children who were brought up in the house holds of their fathers and were privileged in many ways. Male and female menoto guarded and supported yashinaigimi instead of their parents, or their maternal relatives in the case of the Imperial family. Yashinaigimi lived with their menoto until the age between eleven and thirteen, at which time they were considered adults and thus expected to live independently. Male yashinaigimi usually became priests and many of the females became nyobo 女房. What should be noted as a political feature of this system is that some yashinaigimi, who were basically eliminated in the nomination for succession to the throne, were suddenly enthroned in time of war or by the sudden death of an Emperor. In such cases, the familles of their menoto played the role of guardians in place of maternal relatives. Such a custom, which was established in the early 12th century in parallel with the systematization of ie inherited by the legitimate children, became more prevalent in the late medieval era during which the ie system was firmly established, and was finally transformed into the adoption system of the kinsei era.
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