[Article] Kobayakawa Family Who Transferred Their Stronghold from East Japan to West Japan in Kamakura Period and Gakuonji Temple (Part III : The Theory of Moving Warrior Lords to the West)

One of the themes attracting attention in recent study of Japanese medieval history is movement of the bushi. It is typical movement in Kamakura period that gokenin transferred their stronghold from east Japan to west or north Japan. What kind of environment of the place, where they moved to, did they use to settle in there, and what kind of situation did they create there? This paper examines the relation between Gakuonji temple in Nuta-no-sho estate and Kobayakawa family to make this subject clear. Gakuonji temple was the Nuta’s family temple, who was the original ruler of Nuta-no-sho estate. The prime priest of Gakuonji temple, who held an additional post of master scholar of Nuta-no-sho Ichinomiya which was the shrine of the highest status in Nuta-no-sho estate, participated in a religion event which tied Nuta-no-sho estate deeply. Therefore, Gakuonji temple played an important role in dominion of the region. Kobayakawa family, who took place for Nuta family, tried to make Gakuonji temple their family temple in order to rule over Nuta-no-sho estate effectively. In fact, there was a conflict of interest between prime priest and the other priests in Gakuonji temple, and Kobayakawa family were going to intervene in the temple, taking advantage of this conflict. This case provides us an effective viewpoint about how did bushi who transferred their stronghold take power and organization in the place where they moved to. Kobayakawa family eventually could not make Gakuonji temple their family temple. Internal trouble of Kobayakawa family and big presence of Nuta family who succeeded to the position of prime priest of Gakuonji temple prevented it. After Nanboku-chō period, Kobayakawa family built new relations with Gakuonji temple. The concrete state of the relations is an examination subject of the future. Additionally, this paper shows new lights of some subjects about jito of Nashiwa-go in Nuta-no-sho estate.