The Wariba, Ashigaru and Komono of the Kaga Clan

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 加賀藩割場と足軽・小者
  • カガハンワリバ ト アシガル コモノ

Search this article

Abstract

In this paper the author studies the nature of the bukehokonin 武家奉公人 (the servants of a military family), that seems to not have been defined clearly in previous studies. Most of the previous research on the buhehokonin rests upon analysis of military house law. Here, however, the author intends to examine the nature of these servants from a different angle by analyzing their duty within the clan (han) to which they belonged. The object of study is the hokonin under the immediate control of the Kaga Clan. This clan had a public office called wariba 割場, which organized a great number of directly supervised servants that consisted of ashigaru 足軽 (upper servants) and komono 小者 (lower servants). Therefore, if we take notice of what services they chiefly discharged, we realize that they changed from military service at the beginning of the feudal unification age, construction services in the early period, to official services in the middle and the late period. As for military services, the role each servant played in the battlefield and the rank he held according to his specific role became only a formality and in practice gave place to construction and official services. This is shown by the fact that such a formalized system of military roles and ranks could not keep up with the system of military mobilization necessary at the end of the shogunate. To serve in the public offices required the servants to accustom themselves to thd proper duties of each office. As a consequence, from the middle period the organization of the ashigaru and komono began to differentiate so as to provide specialists engaged in each office. Conversely the wariba, whose function it had been to fill much of the demand for the hokonin limited itself to supplying only a casual lack of the hokonin. At the same time the positions held by the ashigaru and the komono, which a class of common servants had sometimes occupied in the early period, came to be held exclusively by the members of a particular family. In the middle and the late period, the ashigaru and the komono began to work steadily in the same office for long periods of time, in order to receive a regular wage and be eligible for promotion to a higher rank. So we must conclude that they had characteristics distinct from those of the common servants and the family servants.

Journal

  • SHIGAKU ZASSHI

    SHIGAKU ZASSHI 99 (3), 345-365,455-45, 1990

    The Historical Society of Japan

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top