Medieval wars of japan. Medieval Japan. Modern history of Japan

Japanese proverb

Before trying to outline the social structure of medieval Japanese society, let's define the basic concepts.

Social structure is a stable connection of elements in a social system. The main elements of the social structure of society are individuals holding certain positions (status) and performing certain social functions (roles), uniting these individuals on the basis of their status characteristics into groups, socio-territorial, ethnic and other communities, etc. The social structure expresses the objective division of society into communities, classes, strata, groups, etc., indicating the different position of people in relation to each other according to numerous criteria. Each of the elements of the social structure, in turn, is a complex social system with many subsystems and connections. Social structure in the narrow sense is a set of interrelated and interacting with each other classes, social strata and groups.

To describe the social structure of medieval Japan, we take the estate system as a basis shi-no-ko-syo established in Japan at shogunate(military dictatorship) Tokugawa, tk. it is the period of the shogunate's rule (1192-1867) that is considered the classic feudalism of Japan. Si- was presented samurai(military class), but- the peasantry, to- artisans, that- merchants.

At the top of the social pyramid of Japan was the deified emperor (tenno), who had formal power and performed mainly religious and ceremonial functions.

Ancestral nobility followed immediately - kuge, which did not have (by the 17th century) land, received support from the shogun - the highest rank of the samurai class, the military ruler of Japan, who had real power in Japan. The shogun owned the largest amount of land in Japan - considered state-owned.

The next step was occupied by buke (samurai) - actually being the upper class in feudal Japan. They were divided in turn into princes ( daimyo), who had private land holdings, and on bushi- ordinary samurai, daimyo vassals, who, as a rule, did not have land holdings. The daimyo did not pay taxes to the shogun.

Although Shinto priests and Buddhist monks did not constitute an official estate, their social status was higher than that of peasants, artisans and merchants.

Followed below peasants, mostly dependent. The peasants united in communities that had great independence by the 17th century.

Below the peasants in the social hierarchy were artisans who lived by the 17th century. mostly in cities and united in workshops.

The artisans were followed traders (merchants), united in merchant guilds.

This is where the estate hierarchy ends. All other classes and strata are outside it and belong to the lower strata of the population. These included: etb ("untouchables", burakamin), ronin, ninja, geisha, hermits (yamabushi, etc.), vagabonds, pirates and robbers, actors of folk theaters (kabuki), indigenous peoples of certain Japanese islands (Ainu), etc. ...

Having described in general terms the strata of the population that existed in medieval Japan, we will move on to describing them in more detail, revealing, if possible, the history of their emergence and features, for which sometimes we will have to touch upon the issues of the economic development of Japan in the medieval period. But first, let's reveal the key concept of the classic Japanese Middle Ages - "samurai".

Samurai are the dominant military class in medieval Japan.

There were three sources for the formation of the samurai class. The bulk of the samurai emerged from the peasant elite, the wealthy peasantry, as a result of the deepening process of social differentiation.

The second way is to provide land to domestic servants. Belonging to a family group, but not being in kinship or inherent relations with its head, they initially worked for rice stew and, in case of military necessity, with weapons in their hands, defended the land holdings of this family. Due to the lack of material incentives for the conduct of hostilities, their combat effectiveness was low, which especially affected the northeast, where the ancestors of the modern Ainu made continuous raids. Then the heads of family groups began to endow the servants with land, which immediately affected the increase in their combat capability, because now they fought not for grub, but for their own land that belonged to them personally.

Thirdly, the top of the samurai class was replenished at the expense of the governors, who, enriching themselves on the basis of the shoenov(estates), turned into large feudal owners. (Local landowners to ensure the security of their property ( shoena) commented their lands to the governor, stipulating for themselves either the position of clerk or manager on the lands previously owned by them. The governor, in turn, often commended this land either to a representative of the court aristocracy, or to the emperor himself. With this double commendation, the governor became the owner, and the superior became the patron, patron of the shoen).

According to other sources, samurai originated in the 8th century. in the east and northeast of Japan. The basis of the early military squads (samurai) was a middle and low-ranking aristocracy that specialized in military affairs (fighting the Ainu in the east, pirates and robbers, etc.), hunters, fishermen, etc., not employed in agriculture, although there were enough natives and from the peasants. The formation of a special military class was facilitated by the strengthening of the agricultural orientation of the entire economy, and the spread of the prohibition of killing all living things (at the entrance to the capital, the soldiers performed a special ceremony of purification).

The first samurai squads did not yet have the conditions for an independent existence, they entered into a relationship of dependence on the capital feudal lords, officials of the provincial administrations.

In the X-XII centuries. in the process of unabated feudal strife, the sovereign samurai clans finally took shape, led by squads that were only nominally listed in the imperial service.

Samurai united in detachments ( then) and into larger groups ( Dan). These formations consisted of blood relatives, in-laws, their vassals and were led either by the head of the family group, or by the eldest of the most influential samurai family in the district. Samurai units sided with the warring feudal groups, seeking to enlist the support of the largest number of samurai, on the combat capability and number of which the success or defeat in internecine wars depended. Later, with the weakening of the influence of the heads of large family groups and with the simultaneous strengthening of small families, there is a separation from the composition of samurai associations ( then) rebel leagues ( ikki). They consisted of younger sons, who were hired first to one, then to another feudal lord. The success or defeat of the parties in internecine wars for land, for power, for the sole right of the feudal lord to exploit the peasants often depended on the support of such leagues.

The ideology of the samurai class was reflected in the military epics, the largest of which were "The Tale of the House of Taira" and "The Tale of the Great World." The first narrated about the rivalry between the two samurai groups Taira and Minamoto, the second - about the struggle for power between the western and eastern feudal lords.

Military epics were formed on the basis of folk oral legends, set forth by itinerant blind storytellers. By the X-XII century. the foundations of the unwritten moral code of the samurai "The Way of the Bow and the Horse" ("Kyuba no Michi"), which later turned into the famous code of the samurai estate "The Way of the Warrior" ( bushido).

As the norms of samurai behavior, the Bushido code glorified the vassal's loyalty to his master, courage, modesty, self-sacrifice, sincerity, politeness, the priority of duty over feeling was affirmed (the same qualities that were glorified by chivalry in medieval Europe).

In the "Warrior's Way" there was a synthesis of three ideological trends: the Japanese Shinto with his idea of ​​patriotism, reaching the level of loyalty; Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism with the concept of self-control and self-control, developing a psychological attitude through self-concentration (meditation) and entering the state of "above the fight" in the face of mortal danger; Confucianism with the preaching of fidelity to duty, obedience to the master, moral improvement, contempt for productive work.

The influence of the "Bushido" code remains in Japan today, mainly in the army.

Later, when the ideology of samurai took deep roots, the "true samurai", going on a campaign, made three vows: to forget forever his home, forget about his wife and children, forget about his own life. The suicide of a vassal (ripping open the stomach) after the death of the overlord has become a tradition. It is noteworthy that the term “ hara-kiri"Has an ironic connotation for the Japanese in relation to a samurai who unsuccessfully" ripped open his stomach. " The true social meaning of this action is defined as a demonstration of the vassal's boundless loyalty to the master and is associated with the term “ seppuku"- the hieroglyphs are the same as in" hara-kiri ", but" ennobled "by the reading in Chinese. It should be mentioned here that the samurai wore two swords (which was a sign of his belonging to the samurai class), one of them was short, which was used to perform seppuku... In general, the sword was the soul of a samurai, it occupied a special place in his house, a stranger could not even touch the sword.

In 1716, eleven volumes of the book "Hidden in the Foliage" (" Hagakure"), Which became the" holy scripture "of the samurai. This piece belonged to Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a monk and former samurai of the Saga clan on the southern island of Kyushu. Hagakure is a hymn to death. "Hidden in the Foliage" puts death at the center of all ideas about the honor and duty of a samurai:

“The path of a warrior means death. In an either-or situation, don't hesitate to choose death. It is not hard. Be determined and act ...

Following the Path of sincerity means living every day as if you had already died ...

When your thought constantly revolves around death, your life path will be straight and simple. Your will will do its duty, your shield will turn into a steel shield. "

The test of the principles of samurai morality was the protracted war between the Taira and Minamoto clans, which ended in the 12th century. the extermination of most of the samurai of House Taira. In the civil war of the XII century. the prerequisites for establishing shogunate- the reign of the samurai estate with the supreme military leader ( shogun) at the head.

Shogun is a title of military dictators who ruled Japan from 1192 to 1867, excluding the Kemmu period (1333-1336), when the ex-Emperor Godaigo tried to restore the political power of the imperial house.

The term "shogun" is short for seiyi thai shogun(in Japanese "generalissimo of the conquered barbarians"), was first used during the Nara period (early 8th century). This title was given to generals sent to conquer the tribes in the northeast of the island of Honshu. According to other sources, in 413, Jingu (the widow of King Chuai) sent an embassy to China in order to achieve recognition of her son Ojin as “King of Wa” (Japan). Similar embassies were sent with tribute under Odzin in 425 and under his younger brother Hanse in 438 to receive investiture from China and the title of commander-in-chief for the peace of the East. The Chinese emperor granted Hanse, and then other Japanese kings, the rank of general, rather than commander-in-chief (“ jiang juan" in Chinese, " shogun" in Japanese). This title, apparently, is associated with the identification of the Japanese and Chinese local rulers, who were complained of a similar rank of general.

Either way, the title “shogun” was not used until 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo adopted it, defeating the rival Taira samurai clan in an internecine war. During the war with the Taira clan, Minamoto was created in the east of the country in the village of Kamakura, which later grew into a city, the military government of the bakufu, consisting of the Samurai department ( samuraidokoro, 1180), Administrative Department ( kumonjo, later - mandokoro, 1184), the Judicial Department ( montyujo, 1184).

Having pacified some, bribing others and earning the disinterested loyalty of others, Yoritomo arbitrarily appointed and dismissed government officials, distributed fiefs (land for service), paid support to vigilantes in rice rations, and even controlled the conclusion of marriage unions. The administration of feudal houses was extended to the entire nobility. The country is ruled shogunate.

The shogun's rule reached its climax during the Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo period: 1603-1867). The official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate was that the shogun ruled on the basis of the "mandate of Heaven" he received, was the supreme ruler of the country, the object of a "great moral duty" on the part of his subjects. In the established Tokugawa estate system shi-no-ko-syo ( si was represented by samurai, but- crescentism, to- artisans and that- merchants) samurai occupied the highest rung of society. but si was heterogeneous - its top was made up of the shogun and his immediate entourage. The emperor, who lived in the old capital of Kyoto (the new capital since 1603 was Edo (modern Tokyo)), performed only religious and ceremonial functions, all power was concentrated in the hands of the shogun.

Although the emperor - tenno(whale " tian huang"- heavenly ruler) - is the logical pinnacle of the social structure of Japan, he did not have real power in the country in the Middle Ages.

In the first annals of Japan: "Notes on the deeds of antiquity" ("Kojiki", 712) and "Annals of Japan" ("Nihon seki", abbreviated "Nihongi", 720), the emperors are depicted as descendants of the gods, especially the sun goddess Amaterasu- the main deity of the Shinto pantheon. The beginning of the imperial dynasty was dated to 660 BC, although in fact it appeared several centuries later.

From the VII to the middle of the VIII century. there was an autocratic rule of deified emperors, relying on an extensive bureaucratic system of the Chinese model, based on ranks and government positions. (The latter were not formally hereditary). Throughout the subsequent history of Japan (with rare exceptions), the emperor's power was either limited or formal.

Since 729, power in the country has been concentrated in the hands of the Fujiwara priestly group. Since ancient times, this group has been associated with the Shinto religious cult and therefore enjoyed great influence. In 858, Fujiwara achieved the post of regent under the minor emperor, and when he grew up, they seized the post of chancellor. The policy of the Fujiwara regents and chancellors resulted in the emperors losing their political influence, which manifested itself in the disappearance of the very term "emperor" from the sources ( tenno), replaced by "the abdicated emperor" ( in). The emperor abdicated the throne in favor of his young son and was tonsured a monk. But not burdened with any restrictions, the abdicated emperor, using the support of the samurai (Japanese nobility), provincial officials and the church, acquired full power, weakening the influence of Fujiwara. Therefore, the period of Japanese history from 1068 to 1167 is called the reign of ex-emperors (Insei). The practice of self-condemnation of emperors as monks also existed later, when ex-emperors opposed the rule of the samurai (shogunate) and sought to regain full power.

Despite his formal power, the emperor, as a descendant of Amaterasu, is a sacred and inviolable person. It is clear that without enlisting his support, one could not count on real power in the country. Therefore, all the actual rulers of the country from the regents-chancellors ( sekkan) Fujiwara and Hojo before the shoguns Minamoto, Ashikaga and Tokugawa respected the emperor and always tried to get him recognition of their power.

Thus, the originality of Japan's feudal relations was reflected in the dual structure of power: the emperor - the "living god" - reigned, but did not rule, his veneration was associated with a religious cult - Shinto, while the shogun had real power.

Immediately below the emperor, on the social ladder under the Tokugawa shogunate, stood the kuge - the Kyoto (capital) court aristocracy - relatives of the emperor and descendants of the clan aristocracy during the formation of the Japanese state (III-VI centuries). This social class was closely intertwined with the central government. The kuge took part in detailed palace ceremonies that took up all of their free time. The Kuge did not have land and, therefore, did not have economic and political power. They received a salary of rice from the shogun and were completely dependent on his actions.

The kuge nominally constituted the highest rank of the feudal nobility ( si), the rest of it was classified as buke (military houses), which represented the ruling class of the military feudal nobility in the country.

From the second half of the XI-XII century. the main social unit of the ruling class was the "house", in which non-blood ties played an important role, as in the previous patronymia uji(a group of related or small families with a certain economic and social unity), and marriage and property. Houses were based on private ownership of land and property, they were inherited through the male line, the role of the head of the family in charge of the property increased.

Buke were divided into sovereign princes ( daimyo) and ordinary nobles ( bushi), who, as a rule, did not have land holdings. The sovereign princes, who were overwhelmingly dependent on the Tokugawa house, were divided into categories according to income - according to the amount of rice collected in their possessions (rice was the main measure of values). The topmost layer of daimyo was simpan related to the shogun's house by family ties. The rest, depending on their support in the war during the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, were divided into two categories: fudai-daimyo and tozama-daimyo... Fudai are direct vassals of the shogun, over 150 princes associated with the Tokugawa even before he came to power. Of these, the highest government bodies were made up, the vacancies of governors in the provinces were filled. The Tozama daimyo were a disgraced group of the upper nobility. The 80 feudal princes, richer and stronger than the Fudai, and not inferior in economic strength to the Shogun house, were viewed by the Tokugawa as constant and dangerous rivals. Tozama was not allowed to hold government posts; highest government bodies, government posts; in remote areas of Kyushu, Shikoku and southern Honshu, where the possessions of Tozama were located, the government built castles, transferred individual principalities (Nagasaki, etc.) to the central government in order to make it difficult to create coalitions against bakufu(military government).

The hostage system allowed very active pressure on daimyo ( sankinkotai). It was officially introduced by the third shogun Iemitsu in 1634, but its initial stage can be attributed to the years of the Ashikaga shoguns (15th century) and Hideyoshi, who obliged the families of all daimyo to live not in the principalities, but under constant supervision in Osaka and Fushimi - official residences of a powerful dictator.

Tokugawa at the beginning of his reign sought to force the Tozama daimyo to come to Edo, seeking a demonstration of their recognition of the supreme power of the Shogun house. After 1634, conditions became more complicated - all the princes were obliged to come to the capital with their families and retinue a year later. After a year, the daimyo returned to the principality, his wife and children remained at the shogun's court as hostages. Disobedience, an attempt to create an anti-government coalition caused immediate reprisals against members of the daimyo family. In addition, sankinkotai placed an additional financial burden on the princes: constant travel, living in the capital, building and maintaining their own palaces there weakened the principality, while enriching and decorating Edo.

The shogunate did not tax the feudal principalities, but periodically, according to the established custom, the princes presented the shogun with "gifts" - gold and silver coins (from several hundred to several thousand - the "gift" of the largest tozam Maeda Tosie)

Despite the existing supreme control of the bakufu, the prince had great independence, especially with regard to his relationships with representatives of other social strata - peasants, townspeople, merchants and artisans. The lower layer of the military-feudal nobility was hatamoto- direct vassals of the shogun and appanage princes. They had no land plots and received a salary in rice terms. They formed the bureaucracy of the state apparatus, an extensive system of investigation and supervision, the shogunian army was recruited. Officials occupied a special place metsuke(overseers) whose activities were aimed at identifying violations of the shogun's interests. Being independent from officials and combining the functions of police and prosecutorial supervision, metsuke carried out secret and overt surveillance not only of the service samurai of the central and local apparatus, but above all of the princes.

Compared to the other three classes of "commoners" - peasants, artisans and traders - samurai enjoyed tremendous privileges. On the other hand, their practical activity in the conditions of the long-term peace that was established during the Edo period was limited only to carrying out guard duty or, at best, to participation in parade processions, since according to the code of samurai honor, a Japanese nobleman had no right to do anything in life except military affairs. The princes no longer needed strong and numerous squads, and in addition, the decrees of the shogunate prescribed a significant reduction in them. Thus, losing the overlord, samurai of lower ranks went bankrupt, became ronin("Wave man", a wandering samurai), whose ranks were joined by the impoverished samurai who left the prince because they were no longer satisfied with the size of the rice ration. At the same time, the growth of productive forces in connection with the development of manufacturing production and the strengthening of the urban bourgeoisie led to a gradual economic degeneration of the samurai. More and more servicemen bushi and even influential daimyo fell into debt dependence on usurers. Yesterday's nobles renounced their class privileges and became people of free professions - teachers, doctors, artists, petty employees.

Peasants, artisans and merchants, who made up separate estates, constituted the category of commoners - Bongae.

During the early Middle Ages, all land was considered the property of the state, therefore both peasants and feudal lords (clan aristocracy) received land for temporary use. The peasants received allotments depending on the number of family members, and the feudal lords received shoen(mostly on virgin lands) depending on social status (nobility of the clan).

Since the main occupation of the peasants is the cultivation of the land, the division of the peasants into classes took place according to the types of land ownership.

Initially, in the early Middle Ages, peasants could be divided into allotments and assigned ones. Allotment peasants cultivated land owned by the state ( koryo), they received an allotment for temporary use, for which they had to pay the state grain tax and a tax with handicrafts, mainly fabrics. In addition to the food rent, the peasants performed corvee - they worked for the benefit of the state and its local authorities. Attributed peasants cultivated the land of the feudal lords (clan nobility), to whom the state allocated allotments ( shoen) depending on their ranks, positions and merit. The assigned peasants had to give half of the grain tax to the treasury, and the other half to the feudal lord. Submitting and working duty went entirely to the feudal lord. In the shoen, the main taxation unit was a relatively wealthy peasant ( tato). The most common land cultivation system in tato was a contract when an annual agreement for land ownership was usually concluded. Tato sought to turn the contract land into their own field that they manage. As a result of the established practice of annual renewal of the contract, the managed land tended to turn into the property of the contractor, into the so-called named field, and its owner into the “named owner”.

The allotment farming system was economically weak because In addition to the heavy national tax, the peasants were exploited by officials, and when officials were replaced, land redistribution was often carried out, i.e. the position of the peasantry was difficult and unstable. Allotment peasants sought to move to the shoeny, which further eroded the system of allotment land use, which disintegrated with the weakening of the emperor's power.

With the development of the commendational type of shoen, when the shoen were sacrificed (commended) by local feudal lords in favor of an aristocrat in exchange for his patronage and protection, the shoen system reached its zenith. At this time, several types of feudal property can be distinguished (respectively, the classes of peasants can be distinguished):

1. Property of the official metropolitan aristocracy (patrimonial). It arose as a result of the division of state land ownership between the powerful capital houses and existed under the protection of state bodies. The peasants of such estates were considered hereditary personally-free holders of the land.

2. Property of small and middle feudal nobility. It had the same feudal character, but arose not from above, but from below as a result of direct seizure, purchase, alienation of peasant plots for debts. Personally dependent peasants were usually attached to such land holdings ( genin, shoju).

3.Not guaranteed by feudal law, the land property of ignorant owners, which arose by buying up the wasteland from the peasants, - jinushiteki shoyu("Landownership"). Its peculiarity was that there was no formal relationship of direct personal subordination of the peasant to the landowner. The exploitation of the peasants was carried out in the form of leasing the land, while the landowner himself was considered a dependent peasant and paid the rent to the feudal lord. Rent marching jinushi, of course, usually exceeded the rent he had to pay for the same land. This type of property dates back to the law of 743 on the hereditary ownership of the developed wasteland, and in the XIV-XV centuries. its spread accelerated during the collapse of large farms myoshu and the isolation of small peasant farms that were in patriarchal relations with them. This property was not of a feudal-estate character; it was owned by feudal lords, monks, townspeople, and peasants. Of course, under the conditions of feudalism, this property was not absolute; it demanded recognition from the feudal lords and the community.

In the XIII century. the erosion of the main tax-paying unit began in the shoen - "named owners" - this intermediate social stratum, at one pole of which "new names" were formed - small feudal lords and samurai who settled on the land, and on the other - small peasantry. This marked the development of the process of social delimitation of the estates of peasants and nobles (samurai). The long existence of the intermediate strata, which combined the features of the exploiter and the exploited, suggests that the classes of feudal lords and peasants had not yet fully formed until the 16th century. Only after the disappearance of the category myoshu(large peasant farms that combined the position of the exploiter and the exploited) by the 16th century. clearly established classes-estates of feudal lords and peasants. In Japan, during the entire period of development of feudalism, the borders between the nobility and the common people remained open. From the second half of the XIII century. there is a process of social stratification of myoshu, when part of the layer myoshu passed into the ranks of the peasantry, into the category of middle peasants who cultivate their plots with the labor of their family. To this layer in the XIV-XV centuries. owned the vast majority of peasants - 80-85%, 5% were myoshu and 5-10% - for personally dependent peasants. (In general, the imbalance of the social structure of the medieval period is evidenced by the fact that 95% of the country's population fed and served 5% of the elite - the ruling class).

Peasants in Japan, as well as in other countries, united in communities. In the X-XIII centuries. the rural community was weak. In a village called Shoen, officials were appointed mainly from the center to collect taxes and duties from the peasants. The peasants of this period were very mobile, there was a strong patchwork of plots belonging to many supreme owners (the feudal lord received allotments in different regions of the country). Such villages, in essence, disintegrated into separate farmsteads isolated from each other, which were united only formally during the period of the prevailing domination of "named owners". Of course, where the production process required the collective efforts of a significant number of people (for irrigation, fishing, seafaring), the social ties of the rural community were stronger. There was no self-government in the community of this period. Shogun administrator - "land head" ( jito) administered the court and supervised the performance of duties and tax collection. A certain initiative was shown by wealthy peasants who entered into tax contracts with the feudal lords and the administration so that the tax would not be revised annually. Since the XIV century. in connection with the spread of small independent peasant farms, the strengthening of the neighboring community ( with, yoriai).

The rural community of Japan reaches its heyday in the 15th-16th centuries, the bulk of which was made up of middle peasants. Under the leadership of the rich peasantry and small feudal lords, she received significant rights of self-government. This community actively resisted the owners of estates (shoen) and patrimonial chiefs, sought to weaken taxation and abolish labor service, assumed obligations to pay a certain amount of tax, receiving in return the right to full control of its internal affairs (from the middle of the 13th century), as well as orders known part of the surplus product. The general meeting of the community decided such issues as the distribution of water through irrigation facilities, the use of farmland, the allocation of labor service and taxes. The right to vote, previously held only by wealthy peasants, is given to all peasants if they have land. Community rules are beginning to be created governing the use of lands belonging to the community as a whole, fields (early communal lands ( sanya) were still the property of the feudal lord), the presence of outsiders in the community, prohibiting gambling, etc. Community associations were created at different levels - in villages within the shoen, within the entire shoen, if necessary, territorial unions of peasant associations of various holdings arose.

With the development of the productive forces and the strengthening of the peasant community, the shoen ceased to meet the requirements of the time, representing scattered plots of land, which made it difficult to manage the shoen. Since the XIV century. the process of refusal of local village feudal lords from the possession of positions and sources of income (which was previously considered the main form of ownership) in the shoen scattered throughout the country begins, and a process of transition to the creation of single territorial-land complexes - principalities, in many cases - on the territory of the former shoen begins. There is a tendency towards the concentration of rights and income from land in the hands of one owner - the prince (daimyo).

In the Edo era (Tokugawa shogunate), the lands in Japan were both state (the shogun's domain) and private (the property of princes, temples and monasteries). The peasants attached to the land plots in the principalities led an independent economy on the basis of hereditary holding. A characteristic feature of the feudal relations of production in Japan was the absence of open forms of serfdom. The feudal lord could not sell or buy a peasant, although there was a personal dependence - attachment to a plot of land determined by the feudal authorities.

The main form of land use was rent, and the main form of obligations was rice rent ( nengu); sometimes the feudal lord levied a tax in money. Corvee did not become widespread in Tokugawa Japan, since for the most part the feudal lord did not run his own economy. Only in certain regions of Japan on the lands of the samurai-lenniks (vassals of the prince who received land for service) did corvée exist. But even so, it was not a form of direct agricultural production. Earning rent played an auxiliary role here. This was the service of the personal needs of the feudal lord: repair of premises, procurement of fuel, feed for animals, as well as the performance of public works, which were imputed to the head of the principality by officials bakufu, - construction and repair of roads, bridges, etc.

The feudal authorities of the Tokugawa period tried to impose broad administrative and political control in the countryside, which made it possible to regulate all aspects of the life of the peasantry. Regulations prohibited farmers from eating rice, spending it on flat cakes (which were considered wasted rice), and sake(on non-holidays, food was prepared from mugi: oats, barley, millet), wear silk clothing (it was prescribed to use cotton and linen fabrics). The cut and color of the clothes were also precisely defined. It was strictly forbidden to exceed the established size of dwellings, to decorate them, and such entertainments as theatrical performances and pompous ceremonies were also prohibited. Weddings, funerals, and other events were to be arranged with "dignified modesty."

An important element of the village management system during the Tokugawa period was the mutual guarantee, introduced by government agencies everywhere. For the convenience of supervision, tax collection and control over the implementation of government orders, the village was divided into five-courtyards. Pyatidvorka was responsible for the activities of all its members, at its head was the headman, usually appointed by the authorities from the wealthy peasants. In extreme cases, for example, when a peasant escaped, the headman distributed the taxes of the escaped to the rest of the five-yard members.

The social status of the peasants was lower than the artisans.

The X-XIII centuries were characterized in Japan by a relatively high level of social division of labor, an indicator of which was the separation of handicrafts from agriculture, the emergence of feudal cities, or the transformation on feudal principles of early feudal or ancient ones. The functions of the city as an administrative and political center are weakened, and corporate ownership of small independent producers appears.

In Japan, the X-XIII centuries were a time of transition from dependent forms of craft to more free ones. If at the stage of the early Middle Ages, artisans were subordinated to state workshops, and then divided between the imperial court, state institutions, aristocratic houses and temples, then in the X-XI centuries. small producers in a city, for example, in Kyoto, acquire significant independence. Craftsmen already had their own workshops, tools, and to some extent were engaged in commodity production for the market, in contrast to the previous period, when they worked only for the owner, mainly the state.

A characteristic sign of the acquisition of a medieval character by craft was the organization from the end of the XI-XII century. craft workshops ( dza). In dza in period of its origin, the artisan and the merchant were one person: trade at that time had not yet separated from handicraft production. The term "dza" (to sit) first denoted a place in the market where artisans of one specialty sold their products, then associations of persons of the same profession, who had a monopoly on the production and sale of their products. They were divided into official ones, created to perform certain services in favor of feudal lords and state institutions (an early type of craft associations, these included dza artists, painters, blacksmiths, etc.), and production, the purpose of which was primarily to obtain privileges and protect the relevant craft and artisan. Over time, service dza replaced by production or, accordingly, expanded their functions.

Early workshops of the XII-XIII centuries were weak, were often built not on a territorial or industrial, but on a religious basis, in most cases they could perform their guild functions only by entering under the patronage of powerful feudal patrons.

Kyoto and Nara X-XIII centuries although they performed city trade and craft functions, they were under the complete control of the feudal lords, craft corporations did not participate in city administration. In the X-XIII centuries. the process of formation of trade and craft districts was already under way, which in the future became the administrative units of the city.

This stage in the development of urban craft and cities corresponded to the indivisibility of crafts and agriculture in the countryside, where rural artisans received plots of land from the owners of estates or local feudal lords to maintain their existence, since the market was narrow and there were not enough orders. This practice lasted until the end of the 13th century. These artisans did not necessarily become professional. Many of them eventually specialized in agriculture.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the process of separating handicrafts from agriculture was further developed. The number of craft workshops grew, which covered all new types of crafts, arose not only in the capital region, but also on the periphery. As before, they entered into patronage relations with the Kyoto aristocracy, members of the imperial family and monasteries. However, if in the previous period the service or production for the patron was the main one, and hired labor or production for the market was secondary, now the opposite is true. If earlier patronage consisted of providing fields for maintaining existence, now the patronage of powerful houses included guarantees of special, monopoly rights when engaging in a certain type of production activity, and the workshops, in turn, were required to pay certain sums of money. Guilds are becoming an important financial source of support for the imperial court and the court aristocracy, an important social support for them. Since the XIV century. the workshops sometimes already represented the armed formations.

Rural artisans are moving from a wandering lifestyle to a sedentary one, rural areas are emerging, whose inhabitants specialize in one of the types of craft. The artisans may have retained the former formal status of the dependent people of the temple or other patron, but in fact their artisan organizations were independent. Urban and rural centers for the production of silk fabrics, paper, china, and pottery arose. In Kyoto, a specialized production of sake developed (in the 15th century it was produced in 342 houses), in the city of Oyamazaki - the production of vegetable oil. Thus, the shop of butter mills, which had the status of a client of the Hachimangu temple, the bakufu guaranteed special rights to purchase raw materials and sell goods throughout the central part of the country. In the vicinity of the capital, for example, there were numerous village workshops engaged in the processing of agricultural products. Craftsmen were also concentrated in the headquarters of military governors, in the estates of provincial feudal lords.

Production leads to the market in the 17th century. to the fact that in different parts of the country there are regions specializing in a certain type of product. Merchant capital, helping to strengthen ties between individual regions, gradually begins to interfere in handicraft production. The merchant-buyer supplied the artisans with raw materials and bought up finished products. Acting as an intermediary between the artisan and the market, he dictated the type, quality and quantity of products. Buying, for example, cotton for Kyushu, he distributed it to spinning mills in Osaka, passed the finished yarn to dyes, weavers, etc. Thus, artisans specialized in a separate production process of a particular product, more and more subordinate to the merchant, who became a capitalist entrepreneur.

In the XVII century. in some branches of Japanese production the first manufactories arose, and the initial forms of capitalist entrepreneurship were born.

However, the number of manufactories at this time (mainly textile and food-producing) was very small. The predominant form of production remained work at home, subordinate to the buyer-trader, which had the character of a scattered manufacture.

The position of artisans was strictly regulated and controlled. The artisans were organized into workshops, which had a monopoly of production, had a clear hierarchy and heredity of the craft. The government granted the workshops certain privileges and protected their monopoly. At the same time, it actively pursued a policy of pressure - introduced various restrictions and their activities, carried out scrupulous supervision over the products manufactured and their entry into the market.

During the Edo period (Tokugawa period), artisans were divided into 3 categories, which in turn had their own divisions:

Craftsmen who had their own shop;

Craftsmen performing work on site;

Wandering artisans (who had their own ranks depending on the reasons for their "wandering").

Merchants, like artisans, are an urban class. Merchants were in the class hierarchy of Japan below the peasants and artisans. This was due to the later separation of trade as a kind of occupation, and with the fact that merchants, not producing anything, profited from other people's labor.

In the IX-X centuries. During the period of the domination of natural economy, trade was mainly carried out by the luxury goods delivered by Chinese and Korean merchants and exotic goods obtained from the Ainu, the buyers were the courtyard, aristocracy and temples, and the transactions were carried out by officials, but in the middle of the 11th-13th centuries. there have been significant changes. A widespread trade in consumer goods began, which began to be dealt with not by officials, but by merchants, who came primarily from artisans and other professional groups. From the middle of the XI century. and Japanese traders began to actively export goods to the continent (to China).

Foreign trade accelerated the development of domestic. In the XII century. rarely, and in the XIII century. patrimonial markets are already beginning to appear more often, since from the XI-XII centuries. the share of surplus agricultural and handicraft products remaining with local feudal lords and wealthy peasants is increasing. All of them enter the patrimonial markets created by local feudal lords near their estates. The emergence of a surplus product in the peasant economy, an increase in the amount of rent received by feudal lords, and the development of crafts stimulated the growth of trade. Since the XIII century. city ​​merchants were taxed.

The presence of local markets made it possible to switch rent (from in kind to money). Shoen owners are increasingly becoming dependent on peripheral markets, since officials of their estates bought in these markets those products and goods that they could not get in their estates, and by selling the products of the estates, they received the necessary money. Wholesalers appear ( toimaru), specialized in storing and shipping tax-collected products to the capital. From the second half of the XII century. usurers are active, since the end of the XII century. bills of exchange appear.

Since the beginning of the XIV century. there is an increase in the scale of trade. If in the previous period the craft workshops were simultaneously engaged in trading activities, now there are specialized trading guilds ( kabunakama). At the same time, craft workshops continued to be engaged in trade. The activities of moneylenders, who were often simultaneously engaged in the production of sake, began to flourish, the bakufu used the warehouses of such moneylenders as storage facilities for the rice received from the tax. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the owners of the shoen in collecting the tax, the usurers took the latter at the mercy, paying in advance the amount of the expected tax, and then with the help of the military governors and local feudal lords, they extorted taxes from the peasants. Specialized in the transport of tax-paid products, merchants toimaru significantly expand the scope of their activities, gradually turning into intermediary traders engaged in the sale and transportation of various goods, usurious activities. The cities located on the coast, which combined the functions of territorial markets and transshipment points, become the base of their operations. acting as intermediaries between the center and the periphery. If before the XIV century. markets were places of temporary gathering of merchants, then in the XIV-XV centuries. merchants already lived in the territory of markets and permanent houses-shops. The owners of such shops were descended from settled wandering traders, artisans and carters, who previously lived in provincial administrations and in shoen, peasants.

As already mentioned, with the development of production and trade by the 17th century, merchants-buyers appeared, who eventually became capitalist entrepreneurs. Commercial capital was gaining more and more solid positions in the life of the city. Especially great influence was enjoyed by the guilds of wholesalers in any one type of goods or monopolizing trade operations in a certain part of the country.

Regulations of the Tokugawa government, declaring a "fight against luxury" and extending to the merchants, as well as to other townspeople, prohibited the wearing of silk clothing, gold and silver jewelry, and the construction of spacious houses. In reality, the merchants concentrated in their hands significant capital and rare luxury items. The Osaka merchants (Osaka), bypassing the regulations regarding residential premises, even created a special type of building - "Osaka goshi", in which the regulated width of the facade (9 m) was strictly observed, but in the depth of the block the house was four times longer. In addition, in order not to pay tax on windows, they made a completely blind facade with one narrow door, closed like a window with a wooden lattice and letting light into the room. The modesty and artlessness of the facade was made up for by the richness and luxury of the interior.

The government, receiving loans from the merchants, in very rare cases tried to prevent the concentration of wealth in its hands. Therefore, the position of the merchants was distinguished by less strict regulations than the position of artisans and peasants. They, like the rest of the estates, had a strict division into categories / categories. But unlike peasants and artisans, who were categorized “from above” (military government), merchants were categorized according to their own rules.

The merchants in their activities were guided by the general rules / regulations, which ordered to work hard and avoid certain things. For example, a merchant was not supposed to sponsor charity wrestling tournaments, travel to Kyoto, gamble, practice poetry, enter into friendly relations with members of the lower classes (geisha, Kabuki theater actors, etc.), take lessons in iai-yutsu (the art of quick drawing) and swordsmanship.

Although the priests and monks did not stand out in the hotel class, they had great influence in Japan. The traditional Japanese religion is Shinto. Since the 6th century, Buddhism has penetrated Japan from China. For centuries, religions have existed in parallel, interpenetrating each other (for example, Shinto deities are identified in Buddhism with the incarnations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas). One or the other religion becomes dominant in the country, receiving support from the government. Both Shinto and Buddhist rituals are included in the everyday life of the common man.

Shinto temples and Buddhist monasteries have significant rights and property arising from donations from both commoners and feudal lords. They have their own lands, which are cultivated both by the monks themselves (in monasteries) and by the dependent peasantry.

The life of monks and priests is less subject to regulation (although it intensified during the Tokugawa period) than the life of the rest of the population. Inside the monasteries, they live according to their own laws that have developed over the centuries or established by the founders of their teachings. For many centuries, priests and monks were a kind of intelligentsia in Japan, there were schools at the temples in which the nobility was trained. Monks were teachers, poets, musicians, artists. The ritual performances in the temples were the beginning of the development of the art of dance and theater.

People who did not belong to any of the 4 estates and who were not priests and monks were considered in Japan to be inferior people, outcasts. Not being members of a rigid social hierarchy, they could not fulfill their duty - to serve their master.

Among the lower strata of society are the Japanese "untouchables" (etb). They settled separately, in "surplus villages" ( amabe, amari-bae), had a scanty piece of land, even smaller than that of ordinary peasants. They were mainly engaged in handicrafts, slaughtering livestock, processing leather, which was prohibited by Buddhism.

The ronins (wandering samurai), which we have already mentioned, also belonged to the lower strata of the population.

Ronin

Samurai without a master, who fell out of the subject hierarchy of the feudal society of Japan. A samurai could become a ronin for various reasons: because of the natural death of his master, because of his death in battle, because of his own misconduct, because of the reduction of the number of troops by his overlord. Although some ronins became peasants and monks, many of them could not get used to their new status and often became outlaws, joining bandits and pirates. The famous case of 47 ronin occurred at the beginning of the 17th century. After one day their master received an unbearable insult and, in an effort to avoid shame, committed seppuku, 47 ronin decided to avenge him, in the course of revenge they all die. As a great example bushido of the samurai code of ethics, the incident has become a favorite topic in Japanese literature and theater performances.

One way or another, the ronins, losing their position in society, gained freedom that they could use for self-improvement, not constrained by the previous class restrictions. As warriors, they represented a period of "renaissance" in classical Japan. They were adventurers, striving for spiritual and physical renewal, were a striking contrast to the rigidly stratified society of medieval Japan.

Ronins, settling in cities, joined the ranks of "free professions" - they became teachers, artists, poets, and petty employees. They often joined the ranks of Japanese ninja spies.

Ninja

Ninja literally translated "scout". The root of the word nin (or, in another reading, shinobu) - "to sneak". There is another shade of meaning - "endure, endure." In the course of internecine wars, ninjas carried out assignments that were beneath the dignity of the samurai: sabotage, espionage, contract killings, penetration into the enemy's rear, etc. The process of separating the ninja into a separate social stratum, into a closed caste, proceeded in parallel with the formation of the samurai class and in almost the same way. The increased power of the samurai subsequently allowed him to take an independent position in the public life of Japan and even come to power, while the scattered groups of ninja never represented and could not represent any significant military and political force.

Ninja united in secret clan organizations. Being excluded from the state system of feudal relations, the ninja developed their own hierarchical class structure that met the needs of such organizations. The community was headed by the military-clerical elite ( jonin). Sometimes jonin monitored the activities of two or three adjacent ryu(clans linked by blood ties). Management was carried out through the middle link - tunin, whose duties included the transmission of orders, preparation and mobilization of rank-and-file lower-level performers ( genin). The work of establishing turnouts, building shelters, recruiting informants, as well as tactical guidance of all operations was in charge of tunin... They also came into contact with employers - agents of large feudal lords. Nevertheless, the contract was concluded between jonin and by ourselves daimyo(prince). Ninja, like samurai, were fluent in martial arts. By the 17th century. there were about seventy ninja clans.

The image of the ninja over time became overgrown with legends, in the XX century. he became one of the heroes of popular action movies, having little in common with his historical prototype.

Yamabushi

Various vagrants and hermits can also be attributed to the declassed element. This is how mountain hermits were popular in Japan in the Middle Ages. yamabushi("Sleeping in the mountains") followers of the tradition shugendo- synthesis of esoteric Buddhism, Taoism, ancient cults (the cult of the mountains). Yamabushi were healers, magicians, sages who brought the teachings of the Buddha to the common people. The influence of yamabushi against the people during the period of tightening of regulations under the Tokugawa shogunate, when the main function of Buddhist priests was the administration of a memorial cult. In the eyes of the peasants, the abbot of the local church increasingly became as alien a figure as the tax collector. They felt incomparably greater intimacy with the wandering yamabushi who still healed, consoled, enlightened people, giving rise to a feeling of relief from their lot with their participation in their daily affairs and worries.

Mentioned yamabushi and as spiritual guides ninja.

Geisha

Geisha are a class of women in Japan who dance and sing professionally. The word is of Chinese origin and denotes a person with developed artistic talents. Sometimes the word "geisha" is mistakenly used by Europeans to refer to a Japanese prostitute. Traditionally, until recently, a geisha began training at the age of 7, and when she achieved sufficient skill, her parents signed a contract with a geisha employer for several years. Geisha attended meetings of men and entertained guests with singing, dancing, reciting poetry and light conversation. On rare occasions, she could terminate the contract by marrying. After World War II, selling daughters became illegal and the practice disappeared. The geisha profession still exists. Nowadays, geisha have more rights and many unite in unions.

Theater actor

Theater actors had different positions depending on which theater they played in. The actors of the Noo theater, which took shape in the XIV century, and developed as a refined aristocratic theater, enjoyed the support and patronage of the highest representatives of the samurai class, in the Edo era received a civil status equivalent to the lower category of samurai (which confirms the thesis that in Japan during the entire period of developed feudalism, the boundaries between the nobility and the common people remained open), and rice ration was the salary paid to them by the shogun and daimyo. There were cases when actor Noo was honored with the highest samurai title - daimyo, but there are also facts when he was forced to do seppuku for his bad acting.

The actors of the Kabuki theater, which enjoyed great popularity among the people, were subject to social restrictions, including the territorial isolation of Kabuki actors as a lower class.

Land tenure in the early Middle Ages developed in two forms: state allotment sitsema and large private feudal land tenure (shoen). The allotment peasantry was transformed into an estate of feudal society. According to the Taihoryo code, it was called a "good people" in contrast to slaves - "low people". Thus, early feudal legislation recognized slavery, furnishing slavery with a number of legal guarantees, and determined the functions of the categories of slaves. The possession of slaves made it possible to obtain additional land: for each state slave, the same allotment was issued as for a free one, for each slave belonging to a private person -

The ruling class strove to increase the number of slaves it had. The main source of obtaining slaves - prisoners from local "foreigners" - at that time could be important only in the outskirts. But this path has exhausted itself with the end of the campaigns of conquest. Moreover, if a slave was accidentally captured, but then freed himself and returned to Japan, he was released and put into the category of free. If foreign slaves voluntarily arrived in Japan, they were freed and enlisted in the category of free. To replenish the number of slaves, they began to resort to forcible withdrawal, kidnapping of peasants, especially children, and to buy their younger children from the heads of families. One could be turned into slavery for a crime, for non-payment of a debt. Self-sale into slavery was also practiced. However, all of these sources of slavery were limited. Government slaves prevailed. And although they were subjected to cruel exploitation (the legislation prescribed not to allow "excessive expenditure of state allowances" during their maintenance), nevertheless, legally, they had the right to a day of rest every ten days, they could marry people of the same social status, and children from the bond of a slave with free were considered free. A slave could apply for transfer to the free class. A slave who reached the age of 76 became free (which is also interesting from the point of view of life expectancy in Japan at that time). A slave who secretly tonsured a monk, if he knew the holy books, was considered free. In other words, the position of the Japanese slave was significantly different from the Roman "instrumental vocal" both in terms of the regime of content and in the field of law.

At the beginning of the VIII century. with a population of about 6 million, the number of slaves was about 10% of the total population, and even less in some villages. Analysis of the Taihoryo shows that out of the entire body of the Code, only 2.86% of the articles concern the situation of slaves, which confirms their relatively small number. Slave labor was used mainly in heavy construction work. The city of Nara was built by the hands of slaves and the corvée labor of the peasants, a colossal statue of Buddha was cast. However, by the middle of the 9th century. slave labor began to be used less and less, and the use of slaves in agriculture completely ceased (subsequently, slaves more often performed the duties of servants).

Medieval Japanese society had a complex structure. Both the ruling class of the samurai and the exploited class consisted of various strata, was divided by virtue of specific medieval features - the presence of consanguineous unions, territorial communal associations at various levels, the presence of numerous class and intra-class gradations, and various ties of subordination of the lower to the higher. The life of each stratum was strictly regulated both "from above" and "from below", although, as already mentioned, the boundaries between the commoners and the nobility remained open.

The principle of communal, corporate self-government was widely spread in Japan. In addition to self-government of rural communities and samurai unions, there were self-governing territorial communities in cities, workshops had a communal organization, even the beggars and outcasts formed community-type organizations. The highest manifestations of a self-governing community were free cities and self-government of entire provinces. These communal traditions, this corporatism have received a new development in Japan today. The developed collectivism of Japanese workers and employees, their diligence and loyalty to duty are widely known.

In general, the most important feature of feudal society is universal connectedness, personal dependence, community.

Personal dependence is the foundation of feudalism. This means that, firstly, feudalism arises from a relationship of universal dependence. Secondly, for the successful functioning of feudalism it is necessary that the form of "reciprocity" of services be preserved. (In a sense, not only the peasant depends on the feudal lord, but also the feudal lord depends on the peasant. The land belongs to the feudal lord. But the feudal lord also belongs to the land). Thirdly, the mysticism surrounding class relations under feudalism (the concepts of "duty", "fidelity", fatherly-filial phraseology).

"Universal dependence" is a specifically feudal form of "community". Feudalism is characterized by a large number and fragmentation of statuses, the absence of sharp edges, breaks in the social fabric, and the blurring of class boundaries, although at the same time the degree of differentiation of the top and bottom of the social ladder is enormous. These features distinguish feudalism from a slave-owning society with its sharp disintegration of society into at least two poles: free and slaves, or citizens and non-citizens. In a slave society, all people are equal, but slaves are not people. In a feudal society, however, all people are people. But they are not all equal.

Based on the foregoing, the society of medieval Japan should be recognized as a feudal society, and some researchers believe that Japan from all countries of the East is the most consistent with the Western model of feudalism.

Despite the limitations in all areas of Japanese medieval society, the most significant achievements of Japanese culture date from this period. It was at this time that classical Japanese poetry and painting, sculpture and architecture, martial arts, Zen Buddhism reached their heyday.

Rigid regulation, poor "external" life, contributed to the concentration on the "internal" life, where there are no boundaries.

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