Yoseguchi - Kiko

In the Nara period family registers and account books, a kind of relationship term was used when the blood relationship with the head of the household could not be expressed by the kinship titles of the time. It is also written as "Yorihito". Since the ancient family register only allowed the term "cousin" (= "same party", "cousin brother/younger cousin", "cousin sister"), more distant relatives and non-blood relatives were either written as "Yoriguchi" or "Yorihito", or listed after close relatives without any relationship. Regarding the hierarchy of Yoriguchi, it is often said that all Yoriguchi are good citizens who have fallen into poverty and are in a slave-like existence, but Yoriguchi includes a considerable number of distant relatives of the head of the household who have a family unity, and it seems better to see such Yoriguchi as people living together in the same household or independent families who have been conveniently added.

[Hirata Koji]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

奈良時代の戸籍・計帳において、戸主との血縁関係が当時の親族称呼では表せない場合につけられた一種の続柄(つづきがら)用語。「寄人」とも書く。古代戸籍の親族称呼は「いとこ」（＝「同党」「従父兄・弟」「従父姉・妹」）までしかないため、これより遠い親族者や非血縁者は「寄口」「寄人」と表示するか、なにも続柄を書かずに近い親族者のあとに列記している。寄口の階層性について、寄口はすべて良民が没落したもので奴隷的存在であるとする見方が行われているが、寄口には戸主の遠い親族で、しかも家族的まとまりをもった者がかなり含まれており、このような寄口は同一戸内の共同生活者か、独立した家族が便宜上編付されたものとみたほうがよいようである。

［平田耿二］

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