Overthrowing the ruling class

This word means that a person of lower rank surpasses or replaces a person of higher rank. It can also be written as "Gekokujo". In times of social change, the phenomenon of gekokujo always occurs with the rise of new powers, but especially from the Northern and Southern Courts period to the Warring States period, it was often used with resentment and contempt by rulers as a movement that disrupted order. In "Nijogawara Graffiti," which satirized the chaos of the Kenmu government, it was written as "a person who has succeeded in gekokujo," and the head priest of Daijoin Temple at Kofukuji lamented the actions of the people of Furugo in Yamato who were defending themselves during the Onin War (1467-77), saying, "It is out of the question that we should lose the basis for gekokujo (the foundation of gekokujo), the divine authority." The basis of the gekokujo movement was when peasants suffering under taxation rebelled against their feudal lords, or when people united beyond the boundaries of their manors and rose up in peasant uprisings. Local samurai grew among the peasants, and as they began to create new local ruling orders such as parties and uprisings in opposition to the ruling system of the Muromachi Shogunate and the shugo, this triggered widespread dramas of succession and replacement of power between old and new among rulers. It began with the Onin War, when the Shiba clan, the shugo of Echizen Province, lost their territory to their vassal, the Asakura clan, and the real power of the shugo families in various regions was returned to the hands of shugodai and powerful kokujin, from which the Sengoku daimyo were born. Notable examples of gekokujo include Isenagauji (Hojo Soun), who began as a guest of the Imagawa clan, and in 1491 (Entoku 3), defeated the Horikoshi Kubo of Nirayama, Izu Province, and then the Omori clan of Odawara, Sagami Province, in 1495 (Meiō 4), thereby rapidly rising to become a Sengoku daimyo; and Saito Dosan, who rose to power by successively inheriting the names of vassals of the Toki clan, the guardian of Mino Province, until he finally usurped his lord's family. However, the gekokujo that rulers feared the most was the Ikko Ikki uprising of Kaga Province, in which the guardian was defeated and a country owned by the peasants was created.

After the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki (Yoshitane) was expelled by the Kanrei (regent) Hosokawa Masamoto in 1493, the Muromachi Shogunate came under the control of the Hosokawa clan, accelerating the trend towards chaos. The Hosokawa clan lost real power to the head of the family, Miyoshi Nagayoshi, in the mid-16th century, and the Miyoshi government was overthrown by his vassal Matsunaga Hisahide. During this time, the Sengoku daimyo strengthened their control over the peasants and the relationship of lord and vassal, so that the local samurai class they organized into their vassals would not become a breeding ground for overthrowing the ruling class. However, as they were forced to quickly increase their military power due to the intense conflicts, they often relied on the old order in the areas, and continued to face the threat of overthrowing the ruling class. The Toyotomi government's unification policy, which put an end to the unrest, and in particular its implementation of the separation of soldiers and farmers, finally cut off the roots of the overthrow of the ruling class.

[Murata Shuzo]

"Japanese History 10: The Age of Rising Power" by Nagahara Keiji (1965, Chuokoron-Shinsha)" ▽ "The Onin War" by Suzuki Ryoichi (Iwanami Shinsho)" ▽ "The History of the Japanese People 2: Peasant Rebellions and Civil War" edited by Inagaki Yasuhiko and Toda Yoshimi (1975, Sanseido)" ▽ "Society and the People in the Medieval Period of Civil War" by Nagahara Keiji (1977, Yoshikawa Kobunkan)" ▽ "The Turmoil of the Warring States Period" (Rekishi Koron no. 17, 1977, Yusankaku Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

地位の下の者が上の者をしのぎ、あるいはとってかわることを意味する語。「下克上」とも書かれる。社会の変革期には、新しい勢力の台頭に伴って下剋上の現象はつねにおこるが、とくに南北朝期から戦国期にかけて、主として支配者の側から、秩序を乱す動きとして反感と侮りを込めて用いられることが多かった。建武(けんむ)政権の混乱を風刺した「二条河原(にじょうがわら)落書」に「下克上する成出(なりで)者」と記されたり、興福寺(こうふくじ)の大乗院(だいじょういん)門跡が、応仁(おうにん)の乱（1467～77）中に自衛する大和(やまと)布留郷(ふるごう)民の動きを「下極（剋）上の基(もとい)、神威を失うべき条、以(もっ)ての外の次第なり」と嘆いたごとくである。課役に苦しむ百姓が領主に抵抗し、あるいは荘(しょう)域を越えて連合した民衆が土一揆(つちいっき)として蜂起(ほうき)する動きなどが、下剋上の運動の基盤であった。百姓のなかから地侍(じざむらい)が成長し、彼らが室町幕府と守護の支配体制に対抗して党や一揆などの新しい在地支配秩序をつくり始めると、これに押されて支配者の間での上下・新旧の勢力の交代劇が広範に引き起こされた。応仁の乱で越前(えちぜん)国守護の斯波(しば)氏が家臣の朝倉氏に領国を奪われたのに始まり、各地の守護家の実権が守護代や有力国人(こくじん)の手中に帰して、そのなかから戦国大名が生まれた。今川氏の食客から身をおこした伊勢長氏(いせながうじ)（北条早雲(ほうじょうそううん)）が1491年（延徳3）伊豆国韮山(にらやま)の堀越公方(ほりこしくぼう)、続いて95年（明応4）相模(さがみ)国小田原の大森氏を滅ぼして戦国大名に急成長した例、あるいは美濃(みの)国守護土岐(とき)氏の家臣の名跡を次々に継いで出世し、ついに主家を纂奪(さんだつ)した斎藤道三(どうさん)などが下剋上の顕著な例として知られるが、支配者をもっとも恐れさせた下剋上は、守護を滅ぼして「百姓ノ持タル国」を実現した加賀(かが)国の一向(いっこう)一揆であった。

　室町幕府は、1493年管領(かんれい)細川政元(まさもと)が将軍足利義材(あしかがよしき)（義稙(よしたね)）を追放して以後、細川氏の政権と化し、乱世の傾向に拍車をかけた。細川氏は16世紀中ごろに家宰の三好長慶(みよしながよし)に実権を奪われ、三好政権は家臣の松永久秀(ひさひで)に崩された。その間に戦国大名は、家臣団に組織した地侍層が下剋上の温床にならないように、農民支配と主従関係を強化した。しかし、激しい抗争に追われて早急な軍事力増強を果たさねばならなかったので、在地の古い秩序に依存することが多く、下剋上の危機にみまわれ続けた。動乱を収束した豊臣(とよとみ)政権の統一政策、とくに兵農分離の断行によって、ようやく下剋上の根が断たれた。

［村田修三］

『永原慶二著『日本の歴史10　下剋上の時代』（1965・中央公論社）』▽『鈴木良一著『応仁の乱』（岩波新書）』▽『稲垣泰彦・戸田芳実編『日本民衆の歴史2　土一揆と内乱』（1975・三省堂）』▽『永原慶二著『中世内乱期の社会と民衆』（1977・吉川弘文館）』▽『『動乱の戦国時代』（『歴史公論』17号・1977・雄山閣出版）』

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