Shōen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A shōen (荘園 or 庄園 shōen?) was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term zhuangyuan.
After the decay of the ritsuryō system in Japan, a feudal system of manors developed. Landowners or nameholders commended shares of the revenue produced (called shiki) to more powerful leaders often at the court, in order to be spared of taxes and to subvert the Chinese-style "equal fields" system, whereby land was redistributed after certain periods of time. In the Kamakura period a hierarchy of nameholder, manor stewards (jitō), shugo (military provincial governor), and the shogun in Kamakura had evolved. These shoen were completely free from interference from the government and therefore had no say or control of what occurred with in the shoen's boundaries.
By the end of the Heian period virtually all Japanese land had become shōen and continued to be through the Ōnin War until the Sengoku period marked the defeudalization of Japanese society.
