[Article] Production, Landscape and Local Lords’ Clan in Hanfuyu Village during the Kamakura Period : The Case of Ifuku and Okawa Villages in Hizen Province (Part I : The Warrior Lords and Livelihood・Production・Distribution in the Region)

The system called hanfuyu (半不輸) allowed the absentee manorial proprietor to share half of its land revenues with the local administrative provincial office. This article is taking into consideration the case of the hanfuyu system as applied to the villages of Ifuku (伊福) and Okawa (大河) in Hizen Province (肥前国), by looking at their local lords, the Okawa clan (大河氏), and the way in which they managed their village’s agricultural production. The above mentioned villages were subjected to the hanfuyu system, and as such they were under the control of both Usa Shrine (宇佐宮), the largest manorial proprietor in Kyushu, and the Hizen administrative provincial office (肥前国衙). The role of the Okawa clan was the one of mediator between the Shrine, the Administrative office, as absentee landlords, and the local people. Farmers paid taxes in goods such as grains, mulberry leaves, and ramie to Usa Shrine. While they paid taxes in rice to the Administrative office. For this reason Usa Shrine and the Administrative office sought to increase their revenues by controlling diverse agricultural lands like dry tongue-shaped plateaus and wet valleys suitable for cultivation of different plants. Thus, in villages subjected to the hanfuyu system, each absentee landlord’s control was connected to a variety of agricultural crops. However, from the 12th to the 14th century the farming techniques evolved dramatically, for example in areas facing the seashore by using irrigation techniques, waste land was used as paddy fields and in fertile valleys rice came to replace other crops. Therefore, as time went by, although the amount of taxes levied remained the same, from the 12th to the early 13th century, the agricultural rice production in these newly cultivated lands managed by local lords increased, creating a gap between the tax levied on cultivated rice paddies that were known to Usa Shrine and the Administrative office, and unpaid tax on the newly cultivated rice paddies concealed to these offices, used by the farmers under local lords. In addition to this there was also a decrease of other crops such as grains, mulberry leaves, and ramie, cultivated on farmland now used as rice fields, which was hidden from the above−mentioned offices. The changes in crop production and the absconding of farmland by the local lords and farmers allowed a departure from the framework of hanfuyu system, in which the Okawa clan benefited greatly. They played a role in finding beneficial opportunities as local lords for their farmers in the changes that occurred in the agricultural production within the hanfuyu system.