<Articles>The Management of Warriors' Residential Lots during the Edo Period : A Case Study of Yonezawa Castle Town

At the beginning of the Edo period, most han, or feudal clans, constructed castle towns to establish centers of regional government. Castle towns generally consisted of merchants' residential areas, temples and shrines, and significantly, warriors' residential areas. Warriors were obliged to reside in assigned lots, which were considered to be official property. Moreover, warriors were not allowed to move their residences without permission. To date, most castle town studies have focused on the geographic location of warriors' residential areas, and researches on the management and actual use of residential lots have escaped attention. The purpose of this study is to examine warriors' occupation of residential lots as well as the administration of them by the authority, taking the case of Yonezawa, a castle town located in present-day Yamagata Prefecture, as an example. In the beginning of the 17th century, when castle town of Yonezawa was constructed, warriors were provided their residential lots and houses according to their social rank. However, after several years, warriors had to restore their houses at their expense. In the beginning of the 18th century, Yonezawa-han codified regulations concerning warriors' house lots. They had not to be left vacant, and warriors were obliged to build their houses by themselves. The succession of usufructry right of the house lots to their heirs was legalized, because they had been renovating their houses by themselves. In addition, procedures concerning the changes of warriors' residential lots simplified. These regulations gradually brought the changes of warriors' occupation of the residential lots. For example, some of them rented the main houses to the other warriors and cultivated some parts of lots. Moreover some warriors built small houses (called kadoya) in their lots in order to rent to day-laborers and low lank warriors (ashigaru). Similar use of the house lots is found in the other castle towns of tozama hans, such as Kanazawa, Tokushima, Fukuoka and Kumamoto. Tozama hans mean those whose lords sworn fealty to Tokugawa family before and after the decisive (286) Battle of Sekigahara (1600). They were assigned fiefs far from capital city, Edo, just like Yonezawa-han. Through the Edo period, most of them had no transference of their fiefs to the other areas. On the other hand, different types of the management of warriors' residential lots are found in the castle towns of fudai hans, such as Himeji, Ueda and Yamatokoriyama. Feudal lords of fudai hans offered continued allegiance to the Tokugawa shogunate, and were assigned their fiefs mainly in the strategical important areas. Tokugawa shogunate frequently transferred their fiefs to the other areas in order to consolidate its rule. At the time of transfer, new residential plots with houses were distributed to warriors. They were not obliged to renovate their houses at their own expense. When warriors changed their residence, officials made a close inspection of the houses and their fittings, and ordered them to restore the former condition. These two types of management of warriors' residential areas reflect the different frequency of the fiefs transfer between tozama hans and fudai hans. The warriors' residential lots became gradually private asset in the former, whereas officials controlled strictly not only the lots but also the houses in the latter.