Irikiin Monjo Documents

...On the other hand, the Shibuya clan was originally an eastern samurai with its base in Shibuya Manor in Sagami Province (present-day Ayase City and part of Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture), but by the end of the 13th century, most of the clan had moved their base to the vast and fertile Irikiin, where they established firm control over the above-mentioned villages through a family alliance based on the sole authority system, and continued to dominate the lord's castle in Kiyoiro Village until the Edo period after the Northern and Southern Courts. The Irikiin area is made up of small plains surrounding two small rivers, Hiwaki and Iriki, and a collection of numerous valleys that flow into them, making it a good example of how local lords in the Middle Ages controlled mountain villages. However, due to the relatively well-preserved geographical environment and the abundant Irikiin documents handed down by the Shibuya clan that continue to this day, it has long been attracting attention as a treasure trove of research on medieval samurai and villages. Asakawa Kan'ichi, who had already become a professor at Yale University in the United States during the Taisho era, made the translation of the document and the results of his research on medieval feudalism based on it public to the world, and since then, Western research on Japanese feudalism has developed mainly on this document. In Japan, with the rise of socio-economic history research after World War II, the institute attracted attention as a treasure trove for elucidating the control and structure of local communities, such as manors, villages, the headship system of local lords, lay families as farming entities, and mon (mon) houses. It produced numerous studies on these themes, and also made efforts to prevent the destruction of the landscape caused by uncontrolled development and to preserve the historical landscape.

*Some of the terminology used in reference to "Irikiin documents" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…一方，渋谷氏は元来相模国渋谷荘(現，神奈川県綾瀬市，藤沢市の一部)に本拠地をもつ東国武士であったが，上述の所領拝領以後13世紀末までに一族の大半が広大，肥沃な入来院に本拠をうつし，惣領制的な同族結合をもって上記の村々に割拠して確固たる支配を築き，南北朝以降は清色村に居城をもつ主家のもとに結束しつつ江戸時代に及んだ。　入来院の一帯は樋脇･入来2筋の小河川をとりまく小平野とそれに流れこむ多数の谷戸の集合から成り立っており，中世在地領主の山村支配のあり方を示すよい典型であるが，地理的環境が比較的よく保存されている上に，現在につづく渋谷氏各家が伝えた豊富な《入来院文書》のために，早くから中世武士と村落研究の宝庫として注目されてきた。すでに大正年間アメリカ合衆国イェール大学教授となった朝河貫一は同文書の翻訳とそれにもとづく中世封建制研究の成果を世界に公にし，いらい欧米の日本封建制研究はこれをおもな拠り所として発達したが，日本においては，第2次大戦後の社会経済史研究の隆盛のなかで，同院は荘園村落，在地領主の惣領制，農民の経営体としての在家，門など地域社会の支配と構造を解明するための宝庫として注目をあび，それらをテーマとする幾多の研究を生むとともに，乱開発による景観破壊をとどめて歴史的景観を維持するための努力も重ねられるようになった。…

※「入来院文書」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報